Jaisalmer - Afternoon of the First Full Day

Saturday, 8 November 2014, Jaisalmer

Pati and BeeBee met with their driver and guide just before 4:30 and started for Sam, where they were to join a camel safari and view the setting sun from sand dunes. Their route to Sam appeared to run north-northwest for about 30 km.  The guide said that they would be about 80 km (48 miles) from the border with Pakistan.

When they arrived in Sam, the guide took them to the camel driver and his assistant (little boy) who would lead their camels.  The camels were already kneeling in the sand. Pati and BeeBee learned how to get on a camel. Throw your right leg over the camel. If  the leg won't go over, have someone grab the ankle and pull it to the other side of the camel. Have that same person push on your - ahem - derrier from the left side until you are squarely seated behind the pommel. Grab the pommel firmly and lean back, because the camel is going to stand up on its hind legs and you don't want to do a header over the pommel. The driver will also be helping you stay in the saddle. Then continue hanging on tightly as the front end of the camel comes up. Then your role is to hang onto the pommel tightly and try not to fall off as the camel rocks along.

With the two camel drivers leading their camels, Pati and BeeBee joined the end of a long line of camels with riders. They rode for about 15 minutes through scrub, coming to the sand dunes as the sun finally broke free of the haze that had hidden it until then. They dismounted at the foot
of a very tall dune and scrambled to the top, where they settled down on the sand to wait for sunset.  Pati got some pictures of the sun about to set, and then the sun disappeared behind the haze again. After a few minutes, they climbed back down the dune and mounted their camels again, a little more efficiently this time. The drivers led their camels to the road where their (automobile) driver and guide waited for them.

After about 30 minutes of driving in the quickly falling darkness, they were back at the hotel.  Pati tipped the guide for his 1 1/2 days of service. BeeBee gave the guide his voucher, so that he could get paid, and wrote a brief review of his work for him. She gave him a good but generic review. He was pleasant, he had followed the itinerary, and his attempts to steer them into unwanted buying opportunities were the result of pressure from his associates, with whom he must remain on good terms. Pati and BeeBee understand this, but do not feel obligated to fall into these traps. Contrary to popular belief, they are not walking ATM machines.

It was agreed with the driver that he and they would have a free day tomorrow. He will pick them up Monday morning at 10 am and they will continue to Manvar to spend the night in a tent. BeeBee does not know where the driver will spend that night.

Pati and BeeBee then went to the hotel's rooftop restaurant to have a delicious dinner. (They would like to try some other restaurants near their hotel, that get good reviews on Trip Advisor, but they are reluctant to walk around outside after dark. The odds of stepping in something unpleasant increase greatly after dark. Maybe tomorrow in the daylight ...)

A welcome delivey to their room: clean laundry! Then internetting and to bed.

Whoa...

From Pushkar to Khimsar

Wednesday, 5 November 2014, Pushkar and Khimsar

Today was Pati and BeeBee's last day in Pushkar. The camel fair continues for two days, but the camels have mostly left and the religious pilgrims are pouring into the town. They said goodbye to the friends they made during their stay and set off before 10 am with their new driver, who will be with them for the next 13 days.

The roads between Pushkar and Khimsar are mostly rough and disintegrating. At the first town beyond Pushkar, traffic stopped completely for 20 to 30 minutes. The driver thought it was grid lock at intersecting roads, but it really seemed to be one spot in town where buses filled with pilgrims heading to Pushkar had a great deal of difficulty getting through. There was a deep ditch on one side, with large rocks in the road on that side (a common indicator of a road blockage, rather than cones as in the US). On the other side was the corner of a building just at the edge of the road. Buses had difficulty getting past the building without hitting it.  Men at street level, bus driver's assistants who normally ride with the driver, would direct each bus just how to move to get past the building. While their car was waiting to get through, Pati and BeeBee observed at least a dozen large buses in line navigate that corner. Each bus was filled beyond capacity with some riders on top and they were all going to the Pushkar Camel Fair for the last days.

They sped along for about half an hour after getting through that town, only to be stopped at railroad tracks. Their driver told them that the bar goes down one half hour before a train is due through. Luckily, they were only stopped for about 10 minutes.

They finally arrived in Khimsar just before 2 pm and checked into Khimsar Fort hotel, where they will stay the night before continuing tomorrow. They had a quick lunch of sandwiches before setting off on a jeep safari at 4 pm. The jeep had 4 rows of seats, theatre style: the last seat is the highest, and the front seat is the lowest. Passengers in each row of seats could see over the heads of those in the next seat toward the front. There were 9 passengers. The safari lasted 2.5 hours. The driver, in a neat military-style uniform, drove for about a half hour away from the fort, looking from side to side for interesting animals. Then he went off-road for about a half hour, driving through the scrub. Animals seen included black-tailed deer (similar to white-tailed deer at home), some larger deer species, gazelle-like animals, peacock, quail, cows, goats, sheep, and a shepherd. Going back onto paved road, the group also saw a large family in the field picking cotton; the driver stopped, and the cotton pickers and jeep passengers exchanged waves. After another half-hour, the driver stopped at a tall sand dune similar to Kill Devil Hill in the Outer Banks. Ten years ago, the entire area was just sand. Government projects have converted the desert to agricultural land. To show the tourists what the area had looked like, all vegetation is carefully scraped from a few acres.

Two camels with carts were at the roadside of the sand dunes. The group was loaded onto the carts and driven to the base of the sand dune. Then everyone struggled to the top of the sand dune to stools placed at the top to observe a gorgeous sunset. They were served water, coffee and cookies and enjoyed the quiet and beautiful scenery. As it got dark, they went back down the sand dune to the camel carts, then to the jeep, and finally back to the hotel.

Pati and BeeBee sat observing the beautiful pool and lights (which are very near their room) until calling it a night.