Jaisalmer Camel Safari

Getty-Up! Self-portrait from the top of a camel.

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We reluctantly left Pushkar and headed further west to Jaisalmer, an ancient city which marks the traditional camel-train routes between India and Central Asia. A giant "sandcastle," Jaisalmer Fort, was built in 1156 along with outlaying Havelis, amazing mansions intricately carved from wood and sandstone.

The view from the rooftop of the 300+ year old Haveli where we stayed. You can see why the its called the Golden City. A portion of the fort is vi sable in the upper background.

Amaya poses from a lofty window inside the fort

Puppy Love--Amaya discovers a litter of nine pups outside of the fort...

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We were driven by jeep approximately 60 kilometers outside of Jaisalmer where we met Janu and Rosan along with three camels ready to carry us further out into the Thar desert. The remote nature of our position immediately kicked in--a very quiet and peaceful landscape bordering Pakistan.

Our Loyal Crew

Amaya and I shared a camel named "Rocket"whom already knew the way to all of the good camps.

One of our Desert Camps

We slept in the sand dunes under an open, star studded sky. We could see satellites and falling stars through the clean quiet atmosphere. After the moon set, I tried to count the stars just within Orion but was soon lost in the milky way...

Wheres the snowboard? Amaya lands another huge aerial off of the dunes.

Thanksgiving: Dhal Bat and Chapati

Janu and Rosan cooked all of our meals over an open fire for six days. For dinner and lunch we were served the staple of Indian and Nepalese dishes: Dhal (lentils or pulses) with variations for different veggies and spices along with rice. Each meal, they kneaded flour dough and cooked the Chapatis on a hot plate over the fire. We were also provided with really sweet Chai Tea for every meal. You wouldn't believe it but we did not realize that it was Thanksgiving back home until we ran into an American Tourist on a separate camel trek. He surprised us by exclaiming, "Hello Amaya" and something to the effect of "Happy Thanksgiving!" We then realized that we had met him earlier in Nepal and that it was in fact a holiday. Our guide then explained that it was also an important Muslim holiday. So we accordingly enjoyed a very special dahl bat that evening ...so far away from everything.

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During our six days in the saddle travelling from dune to dune, it was difficult to imagine that we were in a country of over a billion people. While most of the time we were just a single group, we did encounter local villagers apparently making their living from small crops and the trade of goats and sheep.

The Plastic Bottle Collectors

One night when we made camp near a village, we were invaded by very curious boys who walked a long way to watch us. They were competing for our empty water bottles; an asset in that very dry desert.

Goat Herder; you can hear the goat's bells from miles away.

Traditional Village Hut and Family

Currious Girl

Dunes overtaking farm land; the obvious affect of historical drought

The Thousand Mile Stare

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We are now back in Delhi ...trying to determine what to do next. We do not have dates to fly out yet, but plan on getting back to Thailand sometime after the holiday madness subsides. The train system here is a terrific way to criss-cross the country; its friendly, affordable and relatively comfortable. We took a 20 hour train with a sleeper car from Jaisalmer back to Delhi; so we were just lounging around talking with people, or laying down reading or sleeping while we bumped along through the desert. Hollidaze: We are really going to miss everybody back home during the season of holly jollies... but somehow we have managed to really "get away from it all" for once. Thanks for tuning into our blog; we wish the best for you and yours! Much love from Mick, Tierra and Amaya.

More from Pushkar

Holy Smokes!

This holy man tokes a chillum to kick off the morning festivities; hundreds of these guys wearing saffron robes, following a life of renunciation, walk out of the mountains and into Pushkar for the festival. And yes, I was able to confirm that they know how to party!

Even the camels were smiling...

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Amaya hitches a ride through the crowded market of Pushkar

Monica

A local girl adopted Tierra one day while she was hiking. Her entire family insisted on providing us with seemingly endless traditional lunches, dinners and very warm loving hospitality in their humble home. She lives with her four sisters, brother and parents in a single room apartment. Something like 40% of Indian families live this way.

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Cobra Man

The snake struck him right after this photo; he swears that it is not poisonous...

Like others, this sadhu walks around with a sacred cow. Note that the cow sports an inexplicable fifth leg out of his spine???

Gypsies!

These ladies will greet you with a wicked smile and a warm handshake. Before you know it they will then begin drawing henna on your hand or force some jewelry upon you--which can prove a tricky marketing strategy by entrapment.

camels, camels, camels everywhere

The desert sun sets over the fair

A few more of Pushkar from our hotel at dusk

Pushkar Camel Fair

Amaya and Mick prepare for the upcoming Camel Fair

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We traveled West of Delhi (about 6 hours by train) into the desert dunes of Rajasthan. We are staying in Pushkar which has a lake at its center, ringed by five hundred beautiful whitewashed temples connected to the water by 52 ghats. This week, two major events coincide: thousands of Hindus visit Pushkar to bathe in the lake to relieve themselves of their sins; also camel herders from all over gather in the dunes west of town to race, parade, and trade over 25,000 animals.

Sunset from our hotel above Pushkar Lake

Pushkar Lake from Gayitri temple

We were told that these camels go for a month or more without eating or drinking...

Amaya can go for an hour or more without eating and drinking...

Monkeys the size of Amaya roam all over the town, checking out the action

Stay tuned, More to come!

Delhi in Diwali

"Like brown and black dunes, the acres of slums rolled away from the roadside, and met the horizon with dirty heat-haze mirages. The miserable shelters were patched together from rags, scraps of plastic and paper, reed mats, and bamboo sticks...

"It seemed impossible that a modern airport, full of prosperous and purposeful travellers, was only kilometers away from those crushed and cindered dreams. My first impression was that some catastrophe had taken place, and that the slums were refugee camps for the shambling survivors...

"As the kilometers wound past, as the hundreds of people in those slums became thousands, and tens of thousands, my spirit writhed. I felt defiled by my own health and the money in my pockets. If you feel it at all, it's a lacerating guilt, that first confrontation with the wretched of the earth. I'd robbed banks, and dealt drugs, and I'd been beaten by prison wardens until my bones broke. I'd been stabbed, and I'd stabbed men in return. I'd escaped from a hard prison full of hard men, the hard way -- over the front wall. Still, that first encounter with the ragged misery of the slum, heartbreak all the way to the horizon, cut into my eyes. For a time, I ran onto the knives."

--Gregory David Roberts (describing his first impressions of Bombay, India in his amazing book, SHANTARAM).

Holy Cow: We're in India!

As we made our way into a very congested airport, our fellow travellers told us that most of India was celebrating the eve before "Diwali." We did not realize then that it was India's biggest festival; to celebrate Rama and Sita's homecoming in the Ramayana. So the usually chaotic infrastructure was crammed to unbelievable overcapacity with family members and shoppers returning home to exchange gifts and blow up huge firework displays everywhere. The guidebooks all prepare against the culture shock and overwhelming of the senses that is India; however, we simply were stuck in traffic or pin-balled around as we tried to get a hotel room; let alone our bearings.

Tierra in the Paharganj area of Delhi; strings of flowers adorn the storefronts

The rooftop cafe of our hotel offered great views of a constant barrage of fireworks overhead; some too close for comfort with blasts rocking the city all night. Did I mention that it was our wedding anniversary to boot?

"Hold Yer Fire!!!"

A few from Kathmandu

While we waited for a flight to Delhi to begin another phase of the adventure, we stayed in Kathmandu for a few days. Besides getting constantly heckled by the tourist touts, we shopped and dined ...and basically hug out. But for our viewers at home... the following provides some classic images from a couple tourist stops in the city of Kathmandu.

Holy Man in Dubar Square

Snake Charmers

Yea, it was a real cobra dancing around

This lad hiked up numerous steps to try to sell us some cotton candy of dubious origin (we passed, to Amaya's chagrin)Dubar market in background

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Amaya jumps around the Swayambunath Stupa aka the monkey temple; as they re-paint the buddha eyes

Who's contemplating?

Nepal's Terai

After our trek, we spent some time in Pokhara, Nepal; a tourist destination famous for its lake view of and proximity to the Annapurnas. You won't see those classic views here, as we experienced very hazy weather. The cynical bunch might have suggested a false advertising scam given all the other tourist touts going on; but we enjoyed our time there even with just brief foggy glimpses of the peaks---after all we'd personally inspected the range (see previous posts).

A Baba asking for alms, spare change in Pokhara.

Mayla and Amaya Dance Party in the Nirvana Guest House

Row Your Boat on Lake Phew, the center of Pokhara

I swear this was not our idea! Our friends convinced us to take Amaya rafting down the Seti River. We were informed that it was a simple "float"; however, as we hit the first phases of white water which totally soaked us, Amaya gave the WTF? look as in "just what are my Mom and Dad gonna do to me this time???" Luckily her soul sis was there to hold her hand. To their credit, the rafting company, Paddle Nepal, added a lifeguard to ride with our guide in the raft in addition to a separate kayaker who picked out the rafting course and a pontoon raft serving as our gear boat. The excitement of the river took over---and we had a blast!

Our Sweet River Camp

The rafting Co did an amazing job taking care of us; we had tons of food. At breakfast they over did themselves... above you'll witness the largest bowl of porridge ever provided to a kid amongst many other items---Amaya was stuffed to the gills.

Yet it was not difficult to forget, there were kids coming into camp from their villages that had very very little by way of food. We were like space aliens, especially our girls. We learned that this was the first year that children were allowed to raft the Seti; the looks on the faces of the villager kids and how they stood back and stared at Amaya and Mayla made us think: perhaps this is their first encounter with little blondies?

We weren't the only aliens in camp that seemed to come from a different planet--above a Praying Mantis.

We then left the river and headed further into southern Nepal, into the plains know as the Terai, boarding India. We then visited Chitwan National Park, which is a zoo of tour-ons more than anything else. Our first visit was to the river for some Elephant Washing.

Amaya swims with the elephants in lieu of allowing them to hose her down.

The the traditional elephant safari had to be checked off the list. This 34 year old elephant took us into the jungle to view some wildlife. Unfortunately, they beat the old guys into submission... and a lot of the 'wildlife' was basically in an area frequented by 1000s of tourists like ourselves... but Amaya did not appear to mind. We were way up there!

Baby Rhino and her Mum. Her central horn was gone! We wondered if it had been brutally poached off of her; or removed in order to save her life? Hmmm... life in a park. And we will post some pics of the wild tigers after we visit a zoo; we did see a number of crocs, peacocks, large deer, wild boars and many hoards of tourists dressed in the latest safari fashions...

So it is said, Nepal is a country of great diversity. My last visit in 2000 took me on a fast forward trip into the Himalayas where I trekked in the Makalu and Everest regions and flew right back out. I never got the chance to visit with the amazing people and see wildlife that live not so far from those huge famous mountains in environments so disimilar as to keep the traveler wondering: just where am I?

note: I'm updating this from Delhi, India... where computers move just a little faster. I will try to update more later, but we will be on the move quite a bit... Hope that all is well with everyone back home! Please email us at tbusby1@yahoo.com; mickeyfrey@yahoo.com; we'd love to hear what's up.