An Optimist Abroad: Camels in Rajasthan

In my last post I commented on how most people think of visiting the Taj Mahal as a sweaty experience. You'd think the same thing about the desert, right? Not in January. Perched 10 feet off the ground on top of my camel, enjoying the sun and a light breeze, I was very comfortable. But at night, in a tent on the sand, it was rather flippin' cold.

Desiring to do a camel trek in the desert before it got too hot, and disinclined to go all the way to Jaisalmer, the hotbed of camel-trekking in Rajasthan, R. and I made our way to Bikaner during the last week of January. Our demands to the outfitter simple; 1) we wanted stirrups to prevent bum-burn (some low-budget camel-saddles we'd seen didn't have any, 2) we wanted to be able to drive our own camels, sans handler, and 3) we didn't want to be in a massive group of tourists. We mostly got our way, although our guides were a surly bunch who either didn't speak Hindi (which is possible, a dialect called Marwari is widely spoken in Rajasthan), didn't find our Hindi to be intelligible, or simply couldn't be bothered to communicate. Our camels were stubborn beasts, but I managed to exert my will on mine, and by the 3rd day, could get it to do (almost) everything I wanted.

Rajasthan is quoted by tourist guides as being one of the most beautiful states in India. I usually object to such subjective statements, but Bikaner, the city in northwestern India near the Pakistani border, was indeed beautiful in its own way. Most of Rajasthan is desert (the Thar Desert, or Great Indian Desert) - a flat, scrubby landscape of acacia trees with the occasional sand dune. It's surprisingly rich in animal life, however, and we saw birds aplenty, foxes, little hole-dwelling mammals of several sorts, and nilgai, or blue bull.