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Published: January 12th 2012
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At 2:30pm, we departed for our camel safari which included a 2 hour camel ride, dinner in the sand dunes and a night of camping under the stars. After an hour ride in a jeep to the desert we arrived at our camels: 5 for us to ride and 1 pulling a cart with our bags and tour guide.
Getting on the camel was easy but when the camel stood up it was quite daunting. One must lean back as far as possible in the saddle so you don't fall forward onto the neck of the camel. I thought I would be more scared but I must have gotten past my little fear as I never have even gone horse back riding (Aaron & Amanda would be ashamed of me).
The camel ride was very peaceful as we moved across the desert and listened to our guides speak in Hindi. I think Pete and I have an advantage to listening to a foreign language being spoken all around us without exactly knowing what is going on, it weirdly seems normal not to understand the conversation around you. We also have become great body language readers or story creators as
I guess to what is going on in their conversations.
Pete had drank a great deal of water along the ride and now needed a break to relieve himself. The camel leader who was walking/leading 3 of the camels pointed to the sand dunes ahead and said " 5 to 10 minutes" We both knew it was well off in the distance and it was going to be an Indian 5 to 10 minutes.
Running joke about IST (India Standard Time) minimum double the time you are given and show up with your patience and a smile. Life is much easier that way while being in Asia.
Once we arrived at the dunes it was amazing and kind of reminded me of Mui Ne, Vietnam but with camels and men in turbans. We set our things down by our campsite and then had a happy hour with snacks and drinks to enjoy the sunset. I was shocked there wasn't a bunch of other tourist around which was exicting. But we did get to witness a filming of a music video for about 30 minutes on the sand dunes as the sun was setting.
Our dinner was
served around 8pm and it was fantastic as all the food and tea has been since arriving in India. Masala tea is my new favorite and need to check if I can bring it back to China as I am getting sick of green tea in China.
The rest of the evening was unforgettable in many ways: We knew that we would have no tent and it was going to be cold, but how cold we wouldn't even begin to understand until we felt it during the night
The stars were AMAZING
The moon was so bright during the night as it was the day after the Full Moon
Lastly, Pete got sick from cheap homemade/Indian made whiskey (same symptons as food poisening) no fun at 1am in the desert
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Mom
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Camel Safari
What a neat experience!!!! Too bad Pete got sick from the homemade stuff! Hope he is feeling better....Really neat pictures!!!! Love that your scarves are coming in handy for both you and Pete!!!!!