On the road to Bikaner.

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We've finally made it to the desert. The terrain is changing rapidly now, far fewer crops and cows. Now it's all scrub, goats and camels. All of the houses are made of mud with straw roofs and have cute little outbuildings, made of dung. Nice.

On the way to Bikaner we had a chance to see the rural life in the desert. A way of life that probably hasn't changed much in 500 years. Crops are still gathered by hand, mud huts are homes, camels are the beast of burden and irrigation is done by waiting for the monsoon. Of course there is some electricity and most of the goods taken to market are trucked, but the bulk of the work is done manually. Truely backbreaking work.

The next stop was a true piece of luck. During a random conversation with our driver Raj he mentioned that he goes to a unique temple near where we were. A temple filled with rats. Well, I'd heard of this place (Amazing Race) and wouldn't have missed it for the world. Lesley.....not so enthused.

It was great, quite small and not as dark and dank as I thought it would be but there were rats. Lots of rats. No really, vast numbers of them. All well fed by the temple goers and given free reign over the whole temple. By the end Lesley was OK with them and was actually letting them sit on her shoulder......NOT.

Deeper into the desert we go.

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Photos

Face of Bikaner.
She seemed really lonely sitting there.

Keep on trucking.
The trucks seemed to be loaded up to the point where they were just able to move.

Spoke too soon.
About 5 minutes after I took the first photo, we came across this truck. Just that one sack of grain too much.

Rat Temple in Bikaner.
According to legend the rats are reincarnated storytellers. They were everywhere.

Leslie and his rodent friends.
Just a corner of the temple.

You promised us food.
This shot was taken in the kichen area of the temple.

Rats in the kitchen.
Lesley, after some serious coaxing, finally got down to some rat catching.

Comments

[David Bailey]

Fantastic
Amazing. I'm only one degree of separation from that rat temple! Cool!!!!! db

[CONNIE]

ratsass..................
Too many Leslies, not enough rats! That was a big one towering over the little rats...........the temple looked pretty clean though. Can't wait for the next entry!