Around the World with Hardy(T)Around the World with Hardy(T)
After fighting our way through the
hurly burly surrounding Delhi railway station, we got the overnight train
down to Bikaner. Having never travelled by Indian railways before, this
was quite an experience and, even though we travelled first class, the standards
of comfort and cleanliness still left a lot to be desired.
On arrival in the
colourful city of Bikaner, we were greeted by the now customary hoardes
of curious onlookers and also by our cameleers. A few of the camel drivers
were older Muslim men from the local area, but most of them were young boys,
probably in their teens. We also took along a couple of Rajasthani musicians
to provide entertainment and to keep the camels plodding along at a reasonable
pace.
As for the camels, you have never
come across a more disgusting creature in your life. The smell of them is
quite overpowering, they would need a team of stonemasons to complete the
required dental work and when they belch- well, it's just lucky that nobody
has invented a VirtualAroma plug-in for web browsers yet. But worse is to
come. Not only do they drink each others' urine, but they throw their heads
back and gargle it. Woebetide anyone who gets caught in the spray from that.
And if your camel has a cold, just make sure you ride in a raincoat.
Enough of the unpleasantries.
Once you get on the damned beast, the camel provides a most comfortable
ride across the desert. It's slow pace and gently undulating rhythm makes
for a pretty cruisy trip and allows the passenger to take in the many fascinating
sights of this part of India. By day we came across busy watering holes
with trains of camels filling up. We saw villages where brightly dressed
women made bread, washed clothes and repaired walls. In between such sights,
the sand dunes stretched for miles before us.
As the nights drew in, we built camp
fires to keep us warm, listened to the mesmerising sounds of our travelling
musicians and watched as the village folk put on songs and dance for us.
The cloudless nights revealed beautiful skies full of stars - just staring
up at these and realising just how far from so-called civilisation we really
were provided a fitting end to the desert nights.
After three days and two nights in the desert, we eventually arrived in Jamba, the home of most of the cameleers, and got on the bus to head south to Jaisalmer.