Camel Trek

Feb 22, 2009

A few friends showed up in town and I had a choice. A large
group of mainly Swedes for a 3 day 2 night trek or 3 young women for an
afternoon trek with sunset and dinner in the desert returning after
nightfall.
I chose the shorter trip!
We had a young American (States) family join us as well. They were
staying overnight with their 3 young children as part of a long
weekend before heading back to their volunteering/linnguistic research
base in Jodhpur.
One of the young women, Diana is from London and I had first crossed
paths with her in Bundi. The other two had been on her bus and were
Australian circus performers who are part of a small troupe who travel
to busking type events around the world. I had actually run into them
earlier when I came across them practising their hula hoops on the
guesthouse rooftops... I learned that the hula girls were actualy
Gracie and Sanya. We're all on the bus to Pushkar too ( as I write and
upload this ) along with a young Canadian woman from Vancouver.

Jaisalmer Camel Trek Ripoff - Police!

One of the people I met is a
widowed nurse from Britain named Debbie. She had succumbed to the infamous tired
arrival sales pressure of her guesthouse and put down a deposit to
join "some Canadians" on a 10,000 rupee each 2-day camel trek. I
suggested she was paying much too much and she said she had realised
that but had been so tired and hadn't been her best. I facilitated a
renegotiation with the guesthouse by half and although still too much
all seemed happy. She went on the trek the next day but the ghost
"Canadians" were sick and couldn't come.. they had another longterm
guest go for company. I discovered afterwards that they had required
her to pay almost the full price after all! She felt bad, took full
responsibility for letting them walk all over her but agreed with me
to go to the police station to at least lodge a complaint. Without a
receipt there wasn't too much hope of anything else.. except receipts
can be rare so i had my suspicions. I was interested to see how this
would turn out! The first renegotiation had made me think the
special tourist police were related in some way to the guesthouse so
we went directly to the main station.
The police almost suggested we go to the tourist branch but
then instead became interested. They informed us in a serious way that
a camel costs 10,000 rupees and immediately dispatched a constable to
go collect the guesthouse manager; a 20-something
gigalo named 'Lucky'. He arrived thinking incorrectly that the police
didn't know the guesthouse bill hadn't been settled. The police chief
grabbed a pad of paper and facilitated settling of the outstanding
bill ... with the added change that Debbie be reimbursed for all but
2,000 rupees of the camel trek! When we left the station Lucky and 8
of his friends were collected outside ( good thing too.. as one had to
lend him some more cash ;). Instead of sheepishly avoiding them I
walked up and told Lucky he shouldn't have been so greedy. I watched
my back the rest of my time in Jaisalmer...

note: I'm writing this from the sleeper
compartment of my bus well away from Jaisalmer. I love having the
internet on long bus/train rides.

Jaisalmer

Feb 16 - ?
People come to Jaisalmer to go camel treking. I'm not sure
I'll get on a smelly farting camel yet or not... maybe if some friends
heading this way arrive before I go... or I make new friends who
haven't gone yet. Not many tourists though. Yes.. I'm once more
travelling solo. It was nice to meet some people going the same
direction for a while though.

Jaisalmer has a nice fort. Smaller than
others lately it neatly fits in the picture from a nearby hilltop.

Pic2: I had to wait for another 'customer' to leave the other day!

Jodhpur

Jodhpur has a very nice large palace in a fort on the hilltop. I
arrived on a 5am morning bus and headed over to a guesthouse to meet
two young women I first met in Udaipur. One is an actress and I was able to
introduce her to an British acting troupe performing Shakespeare in the
palace there. Reminded me why I'm not a fan
of Shakespeare. Great location though! ;) I had met one of the
Shakespearean actors in Udaipor when he overheard a friend discussing
his screenplay with me ( apparantly now I've provided some character
faults for the protagonist ).
Next morning I was off to Jodhpur sans girls... oh well ;)

Oh, the guesthouse tried to kick us out early... he saw us at lunch at
a competitors guesthouse rooftop ( I waved ) and got upset despite our
use of his restaurant for the other two meals of the day! He felt the
favour of an early morning checkin made us his property? One of the
girls ( a lawyer actually ) had been referred to the guesthouse by the
area 'don' of guesthouses and the threat of a report back made our guy
back down. Funny.. but what a bad businessman!

Bundi

Feb 11 - 14
Arrived in Bundi off a 3hr train ride in general seating - meaning I had the edge of a bench to sit on. Steve sat on his backpack
and Australian Joe had another seat edge. Made the 3+ hour hop seem a
bit longer. Found a very nice 400 year old Havali ( 4 story
stone mansion ) 'paying guest house' to stay in. I like how they add
the 'paying' part as everywhere else I've been it's just 'Guest
House' . It was such a good deal I had to forgo some cheaper options.
Hot showers were delivered via the same pipes as cold ones by request.
Only way to control temp is to jump out when it gets too hot! 250
rupees a night - see pic. My first night was a disaster though and lack
of sleep helped make me sick for the next day. Bundi has a nice palace
and a great abandoned fort on the hilltop.
Steve resumed his southward travel and I headed up north on an
overnight bus meet up with yet some other travelers.

Chittaurgarh

from Feb 11 2009, Udaipur to Bundi
Fellow traveler Scott and I made a 3 hour stop in Chittaurgarh
to see the impressive fort on the hilltop.

Udaipur

Udaipur ... think Octopussy... her castle on the water
is here. Watched the Bond movie my second night here. Not much has
changed it would seem!
Still hanging out with my American friend Scott - nice to have a
'wing-man' for a bit. We spend
much of our time at first and second breakfast then first and second
lunch etc. Can't seem to find a good
restaurant!
We witness the smooth Indian guys perfect their western women
approaches... a few laughs but they get forgiven for pretty much
anything... and get better along the way. Sad part is... these guys
all have wives and maybe even kids already!

Pics:
'Ghetto' Cows of Udaipur
North shore of lake - Octapussy Palace in distance and drying cowpies
for cooking fuel in the foreground.