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Published: February 13th 2008
Bikaner
Fort and city at sunset from HotelThe bus journey to Bikaner was certainly an experience! We left little Diamond Hotel and its nice people with regret and went to wait for the bus. It rolled up looking pretty modern and nice - which it was. There were seats on the bottom and bunks on the top. The bunk was really nice and comfy, only problem was that we were at the back of the bus and the roads were far from smooth! We spent maybe half an hour in hysterics trying to arrange our things whilst being flung at the ceiling by every bump! It was going to be a long night! Needing the toilet wasnt great either with no toilet on board. I went to the front and asked the conducter what to do and he said wait 5 minutes. The bus then pulled over and he said "go" opening the door. I ran out into the desert sand and had to go right there! Although when I looked up I saw the clearest sky I'd ever seen - it was amazing. Maybe three times as many stars were visible than at home as there was no light pollution at all! I wouldve stayed to watch
but I was quite aware I was in the middle of nowhere at god knows what time holding the whole bus up! Although not conciously aware I'd gotten any sleep I think I mustve (which I'm holding as a great achievement) as next thing I knew we were in Bikaner - 3 hours early! Great you might think, not when you arrive at 5.30am and need to check in to a hotel and pay for a night you thought you were avoiding by travelling overnight!
The hotel was however quite nice new and modern. We haggled hard and got the room for 300R a night which is a bargain especially seeing as it is a really nice hotel and we had a really nice modern bathroom! Sure it wasnt big but probably the best value so far. The bed wasnt great but the pillow was sooo comfortable and I'm going to miss it. We slept till maybe 11am before having breakfast on the roof and walking into the town center. The walk was quite low hassle again which was nice especially seeing as its pretty big with plenty of Indian hustle and bustle! We walked past a beautiful fort
- Junagarh on the right and at the same time a stinking rubbish and human waste filled lake on the left. Just another of India's strikingly huge contrasts! We found our way to Bikaner station which was quite small and clean. It had many people asleep on the platforms in the sunshine which was surprisingly hot considering we'd travelled north! There was no tourist booking office here like in Delhi so we went to the main windows with the Indian men and the chaos! The nice British Queuing etiquette is non existent and I had to poke numerous men on the shoulder and say (sounding very British) erm excuse me but we were here first. I got strange looks but hey at least we didnt have to wait any longer! At the window we secured our tickets for the next evening on an overnight train to Jaisalmer although there was no 2AC or 3AC so we're down in sleeper.. very cheap but hopefully bearable, we did get top bunks which is good. We also enquired about booking our trains to and from Goa for us and Rob on the 29th as we noticed we didnt need to show our passports
to book here unlike in Delhi and hence what had been holding us back - not having Robs passport - was now not an issue. Unfortunately after this nice realisation we were told the train was already full up and got wait listed. Great.
As we were pretty tired from the hot sun we got a quick rickshaw back to the fort to look around - discussing our Goa options. Junagarh, the fort and palace of Bikaner's maharaja was beautiful and lavish. It had big sandstone desert coloured walls, golden ceilings and beautiful paintings. He and his companions obviously lived the life of luxury! There were many interesting things to be seen such as some pretty lethal looking weaponry and a WW1 fighter bi-plane which the note said had been donated by the British to the Maharaja of Bikaner as a thankyou and trophy to him and his men for their efforts during the war. It looked very out of place in a big hall in an Indian Fort but interesting all the same! We spent the remainder of the evening on the roof of the hotel reading, updating our travel journals and watching what proved to beat Jaipur as the most amazing sunset yet! We had dinner at the hotel, I'm back on the Indian food and just kicked back. We went to the internet cafe and did some research about Goa and travel and decided to fly domestically on budget carrier 'Spice Jet'... It's only 70 quid return each and takes an hour as opposed to the 10 quid but 15 hour bus journey! So we're flying on the 29th at 3pm and back on the 5th march at 2pm which leaves us a 12 hour gap between arriving back in Mumbai and leaving for Hong Kong... should be ok but we will be praying theyre reliable! (Although I'm not sure how much trust to put in an airline called spice jet... but hey theres always travel insurance to fall back on!)
Today we had breakfast on the roof again before heading down to the bus stand to catch a local Indian bus to Deshnok - about 30Km South. Deshnoks significance was its temple - the Karni Mata temple (or rat temple). Basically one God fell out with another and decided to reincarnate loads of souls as rats to deprive the other God of human souls. The rats (or kabas as theyre known here) are worshipped and live the life of luxury in this temple! Couldn't make it up really and we had to see it, even katie was keen! We were getting the bus as it would cost 450 return by taxi but only 30 return each on the bus (literally less than 50p) plus it was only a half hour ride and a chance to get another really indian experience travelling how they do! The bus station was quite confusing with nothing in English but we managed to get tickets and got people to point us to the right bus. It was pretty shabby and had clearly been worked very very hard over the long years but the seats we'd managed to get were pretty comfy! We were the only foreigners and got a lot of curious looks! As the bus progressed it got fuller and fuller until all standing space was occupied, this seats felt even better now! The man shouted Deshnok after 30 mins of desert and we hopped down. Deshnok was very small and felt a bit deserted wild western. It had a tiny station and I was expecting tumble weed to blow along the sand at any moment. We followed signs to the temple and it was only about a 5-10 minute walk. The temple was a small marble compound and quite nice from the outside. We took our shoes off and left them with the minder and headed inside. There werent quite as many rats as I was expecting but there was still loads scurrying all around - it was so weird! Big bowls of seeds and milk had been put out and they all gathered eating and drinking and competing for space! It was obviously very important to Hindu people, reading from their actions. Many had brought gifts of food for the rats and scattered it all over the temple floor to feed them. They all looked fairly plump. Think it would be a good place to be a rat - fed, watered and worshipped! We kept our eyes peeled for the lucky white one but no luck although they did go running over my feet which is also apparently good luck... Hinduism, altho I think we have the basics down now, never fails to surprise us! It's amazing how many different temples, gods, practices they have yet it does seem to be a really nice peaceful religion. Katie handled it surprisingly well! You wouldve been a mess mum! It has to be one of the weirdest places I'd ever been! There were many just married couples - the men in glittering turbans, wearing saches of money notes and a golden sword and the women in amazingly bright gold and red saris. A boy I got talking too who I asked to tell me about the place told me that the couples had come here after their wedding to pray for good luck in their marriage. The couples were all linked by a pinky/blue sheet of material - supposedly showing their unbreakable bond!
After leaving the rat temple we bought some walkers crisps indian style (spicey treat) which werent great and headed to the same patch of sand where we'd been dropped off assuming this was where we'd get the bus back. It turned up after maybe 10 mins and was rammed full. We managed to get one seat which katie used, I got squashed up at the back between one dudes legs and right up against the back of another... just a little uncomfortable. I was clearly an interesting spectacle to the men at the back who tried to talk to me in broken English and pointed and laughed at my skin colour! It was a little bit intimidating, the first time I'd felt like that in India, but I took it all in stride and gave as good as I got bantering with them! I got a 'youre ok' and a handshake when the main instigator left the bus! I guess theyre not used to foreigners on their busses!
Afterwards we sat and watched another amazing sunset on the roof, had a nice indian dinner and now we're just filling time in the Internet cafe. 2 hours till the sleeper to Jaisalmer, we're looking forward to getting there. It's an amazing sand castle of a town in the desert. We're going to go out for a camel safari for like 2 days into the desert. We'll ride camels and sleep under the stars! Jaisalmer is the nearest I'll be to home until back in Dubai airport for a change on the way to Jo'burg in May! Can't put any pics up cos its old old windows but will do when I can. Miss everyone!
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Mikeyboy
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You lucky buggers!
Awesome, did you manage to bring any rats back with you? That would've been good luck on the bus, you could've thrown them at people to get some space! Anyway, have fun on your camel safari! Hope it's as wicked as it sounds! LOVE FROM MIKE!!!!!!!! PS. Are you enjoying your new experiences? Learning lots of new things? Maybe something to put in that...uhhh....that novel you've been working on? You know? Been working on that novel for about three years now?