Day 4: Jaisalmer

19 December 2006: We arrived at Jaisalmer train station at 6 am and were literally attacked by people carrying signs promoting hotels and camel safari tour operators. After shaking off some of them we met a man covered in a blanket who introduced himself as Chandra and took us to his jeep. His company is called Backpackers Travels and I really recommend going with him if you ever happen to be in Jaisalmer and want to do a camel safari. Although you might pay more than you would pay with other companies, this company takes you away from the tourist path and goes in the opposite direction of where others go. Ok, we did miss out on some of the touristis things, but I have to say I really appreciated the peace and quiet after all these weeks of chaos and never-ending noise. Fortunately for me, I was also lucky enough to be riding 'The King', the leader of the camel herd. My camel and I got along immediately and left the others behind us, trotting through something I would not dare call a desert. Our group consisted of 3 aussies, 1 israeli, 2 swiss, Aurelie and me myself and I. Ah and of course some 8 camel drivers and some 11 camels. After lunch (and having been trapped in loads and loads of prickles) we got on our camels again. One camel apparently had an amazing lunch because you could not come within a 10 metre radius of the animal. Boy oh boy what a smell!!!! And I thought I had toughened up since my arrival in Bombay!!! That same camel also decided it was time to challenge my camel for the leadership. At first the sounds and big tong coming out of his mouth were funny, but as soon as we saw all the camel drivers jumping of their camels and started throwing sand at the other camel, we knew it was not harmless. After that both camels were kept apart. Another experience was that for the first time we were forced to eat everything with our hands. I am used to eat certain things with my hands in Bombay, but this meant eating rice and sauce with your hands as well. A very new experience. Let's just say we all got an internal scrub with all the sand being in the food and on our hands. We made our camp at something which might have been the only sand dune in what they call their Rajasthani desert. Slightly disappointing as we had all hoped to see a great sunset and sand dunes turning from gold to red. No such thing :(. We had dinner and had our sweet dreams underneath a star filled sky.