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Published: August 18th 2008
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Yum, tastes good
Rats crowding around the milk pan at the famous Rat Temple It’s has been awhile since the last update. Looking back…
Waiting at Falma train station, we got our first taste of ‘India late train frustration.’ To be on the safe side, we arrived at the station an hour early. How naive! Of course the train was delayed for over two hours so we sat sweating on a concert slab for over three hours. Our only entertainment was watching a pack of railway dogs ‘get busy’ creating the next generation of railway dogs. Pretty sad really.
After a night in Jodphur, we caught a morning train to Bikaner and checked into our crappy hotel. Because of the heat, we decided to check into ‘the only hotel in Bikaner with a pool’ The pool was grimy and full of bugs. Unfortunately it was so hot that we had to use it - our only other option was sitting inside our smelly A.C room and waiting for the monsoons to come!
Bikaner is famous(ish) for two reasons. 1. Camels and 2. Rats. The town itself certainly didn’t offer anything interesting or perhaps it was the heat, dust or general ‘India filth Fatigue’ that took the shine off.
Following a morning
dip in the Cess Pit Pool we set off to visit the City Palace.
Thankfully by 11am, the sky clouded over and the monsoon rains hit. The rain managed to cool the air down a little. We hired a car and driver (600 rupees) and set off to visit the ‘8th wonder of the world’ the Rat Temple of Deshnok, 30km away from Bikaner.
Now of course, most people have not heard of the ‘world famous’ rat temple of Deshnok so I will try to explain.
The people believe that the rats at the temple are not rats at all, but actually humans who are ‘temporary inhabiting the rat’s body.’ When a plague broke out in the 1990’s the residents of the area came to drink the same milk out of bowls used by the rats. Apparently this kept them safe from the plague. Now they love and respect the rats, visiting to give them offerings of sweets and milk.
It all sounded interesting enough to warrant a visit, after all you don’t get to see holy rats who are ‘temporarily hosting’ the souls of humans everyday now do you?
This had to have been
our weirdest India experience yet. Being a temple, we had to remove our shoes. Walking over rat pooh and wee is bad enough but it had also just rained, so the rat pooh had turned into a sort of rat pooh slush which oozed between our toes.
The rats where absolutely everywhere. THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of them. Running and sleeping in massive packs, eating, gnawing and generally just being ratty. Some were healthy looking, heaps of them looked repulsive (and I apologize in advance for insulting the souls who are temporarily inhabiting the above mentioned rats) and others just looked dead… or maybe they were just playing dead in order to get a bit of ‘alone time’
They had no fear of humans and ran all around us, Chris had one run over his foot which is lucky apparently. We couldn’t wait to get back and wash our feet. Preferably with disinfectant.
Our next stop was the Government run Camel Farm where we saw a stampede of 150 camels running into the farm to get their lunch. We also saw pregnant camels, baby camels, a stuffed camel fetus, a picture of two camels mating and some very
stylish vests made out of - you guessed it: camel wool. As if all this excitement wasn’t enough, we were lucky enough to meet Mr Bikaner, winner of the recent ‘Camel Beauty Pagent.’ Apparently it was his lovely curly eye lashes that secured him this honor. Before leaving, we were talked into sampling an ice cream made from, yes, camel milk. One lick and an enthusiastic “oh lovely” was uttered in front of our guide before the ice cream was discretely thrown into the bushes. What a day.
Due to bad train connections, we were forced to spend another day in Bikaner. As if we hadn’t had enough of bloody camels the previous day, we were left with no more entertainment options except for camel trekking. Thankfully the weather had been cooled by the monsoon rains and we were able to camel trek through the desert without dying from heat exhaustion.
Once we got to the departure point, I made a request for the smallest camel. Chris was given a large lady camel called ‘Aiasha’ while I had the honor of riding ‘Boss.’
After a few minutes it became apparent why my camel was called ‘Boss’. He
was the lead camel. My guide lead me along by foot for awhile before asking if I wanted to hold the reins. I assured him that I didn’t, so then he flung the reins over the camels neck and left me. As the minutes passed, Boss’s stride lengthened until I was about fifty metres out in front of the rest of the group. With no way of reaching the reins, I was stranded. There was nothing I could do except pray that Boss didn’t bolt, roll or stray off the dusty path. Meanwhile my ‘guide’ was back with the rest of the group having a good old natter to his mate and playing with his cell phone.
Lunch at least was a relief, I was able to dismount Boss, and explain to the guide that I didn’t want the lead camel anymore. We spent a few hours lying on a blanket under the trees and playing in the dunes while our porters cooked our lunch. After some negotiations, Chris and I swapped camels for awhile. He got the raw deal as Boss’s saddle was far too small for him while I felt like I was riding in an armchair.
After a day trekking we had a smelly shower (where does this water come from?) at a guesthouse and then set off to the train station.
This began our longest case of ‘Late India train’ as yet. We reached our platform and waited.
Beggers approached us and begged for money.
We waited…
Dogs mated in front of us.
We waited…
Children played on the railway tracks.
We waited…
Some dodgy looking character tried to sell us drugs.
We waited…
Someone tried to sell us chains for our luggage.
We waited…
People on passing trains waved at us. Boys blew kisses out the train windows.
We waited…
More beggers approached us asking for money.
We waited…
Some nice young students practiced their English on us and asked if we had any coins from New Zealand or England. We gave them 20 pence. They were happy. They asked if we had our plane tickets from London. We gave them our old boarding passes and they nearly fainted with gratitude.
We waited…
By this time 3 hours had passed. We moved further down the platform and teamed up with the only other westerner at the station. For the rest
of the evening the three of us sat on a concrete slab surrounded by a crowd of 30 young guys. They were turned out to be a really decent bunch and were as curious about us as we were of them. Funnily enough, none of the Indian people seemed the least bit put out about the late train. They just accepted it and sat about watching us get frustrated! Finally the train did arrive, five and a half hours later than expected. We were so glad when it arrived, only to find that we had landed ourselves on India’s slowest train. 18 hours later, yes
18 hours later we found ourselves at Haridwar.
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princy
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lol very interesting & funny blog..
hi...im a muslim indian currently living in Uae ....lol and i know how does it feels travelling in india ..ive lived there till i was 14 , now im 22 ...illiteracy and poor ppl are around every corner in india ..but india also has the most billionaire's in the world ,wtf? ..corrupted govt doesn't help in india's progress much , also most india is very unclean & smelly too ..its still a poor country ..i liked the camel ice cream part ..ive tried it in uae . poor indian ppl stare when your rich or a white person in there lol ...i get that too & i hate stares. and i cracked up at the dog mating thing! eww.. well, i love haridwar and himalyalas...cant wait to go to dehradun (which is in the corner of haridwar' the biggest holy place in india of the hindu religion, while jodhpur, jaipur, jaisalmer, ajmer are in 'rajasthan' part of india ..which is also known for its ancient castles etc. ...famous as the 'land of the warriors'..ive also been to 'taj mahal' in agra ..Thanks for the read lmao..