After
Jaisalmer we went on Camel Safari! We headed of into the Thar desert near the border with Pakistan, in the late afternoon so that the temperature was almost bearable. We were to stay the night in a little hut thing in the desert village. We mounted our camels, whose necks came with a covering of flies. Each was led by a camel boy, who would later jump on the back of the camel behind us. We were also each joined by an auxiliary camel boy who carried a bag of crisps and juice to sell to us once we got into the desert.
Well, as some of you may know, the camel is not a comfortable beast, and a ride on one is not smooth. When we broke into a run it was pure murder on my bum/legs! We set off into the desert near the village, were deposited on some dunes where we could
frolic and watch the sunset, where Sarah kindly bought the boys all a drink, then we got back on the camels and headed back. The camel boys were cute, especially Sarah's one who seemed a few camels short of a caravan. His life's ambition was to be a camel man, "he likes his camel too much" said one of the other kids. The juice selling boys were of a higher caste and better schooled, with greater ambitions than camel husbandry. Sarah's camels name was
bubalu, mine was more unpronounceable.
After we returned to the camp to be entertained by our driver. By this time we were finding him tiresome and untrustworthy (especially Sarah). He was very friendly in a desperate for a tip and someone to drink with kind of way, but his protestations of undying friendship seemed weird considering he never asked anything about us. Sarah on the other hand had extracted lots of information about him, his wife and his girlfriend. At the start of the trip Sarah had thought of booking more trips with him in the future, but that goodwill was lost. His bizarre sexist
punchlineless anti-
muslim jokes didn't help him much. (Having seen cartoons in the Indian newspapers, I don't think the standard of Indian jokes is up to much. Maybe I'll ask someone here at the institute for some.)
After Jaisalmer we went on Camel Safari! We headed of into the Thar desert near the border with Pakistan, in the late afternoon so that the temperature was almost bearable. We were to stay the night in a little hut thing in the desert village. We mounted our camels, whose necks came with a covering of flies. Each was led by a camel boy, who would later jump on the back of the camel behind us. We were also each joined by an auxiliary camel boy who carried a bag of crisps and juice to sell to us once we got into the desert.
Well, as some of you may know, the camel is not a comfortable beast, and a ride on one is not smooth. When we broke into a run it was pure murder on my bum/legs! We set off into the desert near the village, were deposited on some dunes where we could frolic and watch the sunset, where Sarah kindly bought the boys all a drink, then we got back on the camels and headed back. The camel boys were cute, especially Sarah's one who seemed a few camels short of a caravan. His life's ambition was to be a camel man, "he likes his camel too much" said one of the other kids. The juice selling boys were of a higher caste and better schooled, with greater ambitions than camel husbandry. Sarah's camels name was bubalu, mine was more unpronounceable.
After we returned to the camp to be entertained by our driver. By this time we were finding him tiresome and untrustworthy (especially Sarah). He was very friendly in a desperate for a tip and someone to drink with kind of way, but his protestations of undying friendship seemed weird considering he never asked anything about us. Sarah on the other hand had extracted lots of information about him, his wife and his girlfriend. At the start of the trip Sarah had thought of booking more trips with him in the future, but that goodwill was lost. His bizarre sexist punchlineless anti-muslim jokes didn't help him much. (Having seen cartoons in the Indian newspapers, I don't think the standard of Indian jokes is up to much. Maybe I'll ask someone here at the institute for some.)
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