Jodhpur & Jaisalmer

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From Mount Abu we headed northwest to Jodhpur - also known as the ‘blue city’. It’s called the blue city because many of the houses are painted blue to identify them as a part of the Brahmin caste (and they also apparently repel bugs!) Unfortunately by the time we reached Jodhpur, Laura had suffered almost a week of the Delhi belly and it was getting worse. She spent most of the time in the room & toilet while I toured the fort and walked around. My first experience being out on my own was annoying - I was hassled non-stop by children asking for ‘school pens’ (Lord only knows why… it’s not like they were attending school or something - were they trading it for drugs?? I still don’t know…), being followed by various people and getting hit by in every direction by something (on the road by a car/cow/bike/motorcycle, from the sky by bird shit or people dumping stuff out their windows, or on the ground by fresh cow dung or dogs relieving themselves). Needless to say, it wasn’t my favorite place in India. The coolest part of Jodhpur though was the cultural performance put on by our hotel on their rooftop patio. The Rajasthani dancing and music was fantastic and was a better end to my day. The next day we took Laura to the hospital for some drugs and then took off for Jailsamer in the far western desert of Rajasthan

Mr. Desert (crowned champion in 1989, 1990 & 1991)
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Jailsamer (the ‘golden city’) was one of my favorite places. 80km from the Pakistani border (I felt so proud to say this until I read about the increased tension between these two countries due to the Bombay bombings) and way quieter than the rest of tourist-crazy Rajasthan, it was a joy to be there. This was where Laura & I were going to partake in what I imagined was going to be the highlight of my trip - the camel safari in the desert. We wanted to do something special for Christmas and a night under the stars in the desert was going to be the second best option if I couldn’t be at home with my family.

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After a bit of research, we decided on the only man who didn’t seem interested in our business. After being in Asia for the past 1.5 years, it’s odd not to be hassled and for this reason alone, we decided to go with MR. DESERT. This guy is not only famous through the lonely planet books, but is a national and international celebrity! After being voted Mr. Desert three years in a row (imagine a beauty pageant for men which takes place in the desert. Requirements were: tall, straight nose, nice dhoti (outfit), and slim. There was no bathing suit contest though), he decided to resign the crown and open up a travel agency offering camel safaris for tourists. But more fame was to come. In the years following, Mr. Desert became the poster boy for Jailsamer cigarettes. Years after that it was Coca-Cola (on a side note, Coke is often misspelled in most menus as ‘Cock’). He even had a small part in a Bollywood film… he was an Indian star and he was taking us on a camel safari! Since we were going over Christmas, it was even more perfect that he looks like an Indian version of Santa ClausJ

Rocket and I relaxing
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So the next day we wake up to a white Christmas (ha ha, we wish… in fact we both sort of forgot it was Christmas until mid-day), and meet up with the rest of our group - 2 Spanish guys and 4 Argentinian girls… guess we were going to have to brush up on our Spanish! They were pretty good at first, speaking English so that everyone could be a part of the conversation, but this quickly dwindled until it was all Spanish, all the time (travelers etiquette is that you try to speak the common language of all people in the group so that everyone can be involved… it’s not only common sense, but it was rude to exclude us, Mr. Desert and the guides who also could not understand Spanish! No worries, this did not ruin the trip though!) We got to the desert, hopped on our camels (they are massive creatures!) and spent 2 agonizing hours galloping through the deserts towards the sand dunes. Once there we caught a beautiful sunset over the smooth dunes and then settled by the campfire waiting for the stars to come out. It was a truly magnificent sight to see so many stars and to be outside among them. Mr. Desert arrived bringing some Christmas ‘bhang’ that the group devoured (I was not taking any chances after my bag experience in Varanasi with that awful Bhang lassi!) and stories for the campfire. Before going to sleep, I managed to get reception in order to call my family back home in Canada to wish them a Merry Christmas. Two Christmases away from everyone and I’m happy to know that my next one will be at homeJ

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After a cold night and morning, we packed up and heading off on our camels once more. I am glad that we decided to do only a 2 day trip instead of the 4-5 day that I had proposed - those camel humps really hurt your back & butt! All-in-all, the camel safari lived up to my expectations and has been my most favorite part of the trip thus far. Tomorrow off to Pushkar!