Another Camel Safari in Rajasthan, Two Times a Charm

-

When a person has a bad experience doing something normally they will say to themselves…”Never Again.”

When Dave and I have a bad experience, we say to ourselves…”We need to find way to give this another shot.”

Bikaner Camel Safari

Our safari didn’t go quite as planned in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.  We had a sly guide and a disappointing experience that you can read all about in our post….Desert Safari Adventure, Not So Mystical in Rajasthan.
When we learned that we could go on a camel safari in Bikaner, a town 300 km north of Jaisalmer we just had to give it another try.
We made the mistake of not going with our instincts in Jaisalmer, and booked with a company that we had never heard of.
This time in Bikaner, we went straight to the guide book recommended expert on Camel Safaris.

The Camelman

The Camel man is an eccentric man that drives around in a Range Rover wearing a wide brimmed hat and impeccable suits.
Vijay is his name and he has been running camel safari’s since 1983.
We booked our one day one night safari to the desert and we were told that we were in luck. A group of 20 doctors would be meeting us there for dinner.
We would get better food and entertainment and have some company at the same time.
It sounded like a good idea to us.

The Safari

We had a rough couple of days before Bikaner, so our expectations were quite low. We weren’t too disappointed when we saw that even at the Camel Man the safari wasn’t going to be very good.
I guess camel safari’s in India just are not very fulfilling even for the average adventure traveler.
We were jeeped out about 10 km where we met our two camels, 3 guides and camel cart.  Two men walked in front of our camels leading them along the path as one man drove the cart.  Since we had a cart carrying supplies, we were stuck to the well trodden trail and we never left it.
Soon our two guides hopped on the cart and tethered our camels to it.  We were now on a pony ride type excursion following the cart in a slow and boring fashion.

Army Guys from India

Luckily a troop from the Indian Army was practicing their navigation with their GPS.  We had them to talk to for awhile and it was cool watching them run by, stop for a chat and then run off again.   We kept catching up to them so it passed the time a bit.

Thar Desert in Bikaner

Thar Desert in Jaisalmer

The desert isn’t nearly as nice in Bikaner as it is in Jaisalmer and as the day went on, we actually started to think that our Jaisalmer Safari might not have been so bad.
We had only rode for about an hour and a half when we stopped for lunch.
Our guides brought a precooked meal with them and we ate on a tarp and table cloth.

Different Experience

The camel man safari is far more comfortable than our other safari, but it is also far less interesting. We sat for 3 hours at lunch.
We had wished that we had taken our travel scrabble or a deck of cards with us.  Our last safari was so busy and exhausting that we didn’t need any luxury items with us to entertain.  This safari however was so mellow that we wished that we brought everything along.

Our Camel stretching out getting Comfortable for its nap

After lunch we rode for about an hour and made it to camp quite early.
Unlike the safari in Jaisalmer, we had tents, tables chairs and even a dining area.  The Camel Man has a permanent camp that all safaris go to for the night and it certainly isn’t rustic.
We had a long time to go until sundown and since we were waiting for the doctors, they didn’t start a fire. The entire staff was preparing for the VIP’s that were about to arrive, and we seemed to be forgotten.

Our Desert Camp in Bikaner

We hiked up a dune for some privacy.
It was a hazy day and the sunset was nonexistent, so we pulled our our IPhone and played games of Tap Tap Revenge. It is the IPhone version of guitar hero. Yep, we were bored.

The Doctors Arrival

Things got better once the sun went down, the doctors came and the food started flowing.
Everyone spoke excellent English and we had great conversations.
Waiters came around to serve us like we were at a dinner party as we huddled around the warm fire.
The musicians began and it was awesome to watch with people who actually knew what was going on.
They told us that these men were descendants of the courtesans that used to sing for the Kings adoration.  They are self taught and it is an inherited tradition.

Musicians of the Maharaja's of Rajasthan

Desert Movie

Just as we were starting to have enough of the entertainment, the Doctors pulled out a movie projector.
The generator fired up and bright lights came on in the middle of the desert.  We thought that we might be watching some sort of slide show, but instead, they put on The Three Idiots.  India’s number one movie at the moment.
We had wanted to see this movie while we were in Mumbai and here we were watching it in the middle of the desert of Rajasthan.
It was a surreal moment.
Bollywood movies have a strange mix of English and Hindi, so we had an easy time following the story, especially with explanations coming in from all directions from the doctors.

The 3 Idiots Movie in the Thar Desert

One Cold Night

The party lasted well into the night and the temperature dropped dramatically.  Once everyone left, it was just Dave and I alone in the camp with our guides and camels.
We settled into our tents and wrapped ourselves in 4 thick blankets to protect us from the cold.
Thank God for the tents, it would have been impossible to sleep outside here.  The desert is much colder than in Jaisalmer.

While the Camel Safari was lacking and we can now say that we will never do one again, we certainly enjoyed our unique experience hanging out with the orthopedic surgeons of Rajasthan having our first and possibly only movie night in the desert.

Notes:
Make sure to ask for all prices up front.  We thought that Vijay was doing us a favor by having the doctors join us.  We ended up paying for the hospitality.
While he made it out that we would be getting extra food and entertainment because of the doctors, he ended up charging us for the luxury tour.
It cost us 1600 Rs. each for 1 day 1 night safari. – In Jasailmer we paid 800Rs per day
We should have asked, but normally if someone says that “you are lucky tonight, a group of doctors booked a dinner in the desert, so you can just join them and get extra food and entertainment.” We tend to think that he is giving us some extra stuff for free since the doctors were going to be there anyway and we didn’t have another choice on where we would camp.

As one person put it at the guesthouse,” Vijay has a sneaky way of making your think he is giving you hospitality, but in the end it is just extra charges with a smile.”

The morning ended quickly with a quick breakfast and a short ride back to town with us sitting on the camel cart not even on the camels.
If we hadn’t already spent 3 days in the desert, we would have been very disappointed.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed for latest posts via email or on your homepage!

Camel Safari Adventure, Not so Mystical in Rajasthan

=

Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.  Things are looking up!

We awoke bright and early to catch our tour to the desert.  We were excited to be on our way.  A camel safari was a big item on our list of adventures that we wanted to do in India.
Our driver was on time and we set out for the great Thar Desert of India.
The day was bright and sunny and we drove out 30 km towards the Pakistan Border.
We met our guides on the side of the road.  After loading up the camels with food and water, we placed our packs on the horn of the saddle and hopped on.

Deb on her Camel

Lucky we had been on camels before, because our guides didn’t give us any instructions on what to do.
When a camel is about to stand, lean back and hold on. You will be tossed forward as he straightens his hind legs first.
We were happy to see that we had 4 camels and two guides.

It looked like we made the right decision booking with the Hotel Shiva Guys.

That is until our jeep left.  We started walking with one of our guides whose name is Bilal.  He didn’t hop on a camel, he walked in front of us holding the reigns. It was just us, two of our four camels and Bilal.

We asked him why our other guide Allep wasn’t coming along with the other camels.  Bilal said that he would be along shortly.  So we walked for a while being led by Bilal wondering what was going on.

Bilal and our Camels

After a while, we told him that we didn’t want to be led by a man walking us through the desert. We specifically asked our tour operator if we would be riding our own camels, we didn’t want someone walking in front of us, we did that in Egypt and we didn’t like it. Bilal said that once the other camels come, we would be able to ride and that he needed to stretch his legs anyway because he had traveled for 5 hours from the camel camp this morning.

We walked on, but were not happy.

Finally, when we stopped for a break we spoke our minds.
We told him that we want to know where the other guide was and that we wanted to drive our own camels.
He said that he was on his way.  He got on his cell phone and called someone and said that he was coming, he just couldn’t find our tracks in the sand.
He started weaving stories together making excuses as to why Allep hadn’t arrived and we finally lost it.
We stopped by the side of the road and we told him that we were calling the company and ending the tour. This is not what we signed up for.  He was clearly not telling the truth.

-

He had changed his story about Alleps absence 6 times.

1. He was waiting for a friend
2. He was waiting for an Indian Tourist – whatever that means
3. He was on his way but couldn’t find us
4. He had a sick friend and had to take him to the village that we were coming up to in the distance
5. He had a sick brother
6. And Finally…
7. His brother was so sick that he would not let Allep leave.

Allep was not coming back.

Now I know better than to call someone a liar in Asia.

They have this concept of “saving face.”  Even though they are telling a lie, you are not allowed to call them on it. However, at this point, I didn’t care.  I called him an outright liar and told him that we were calling our tour company and leaving the tour.
He said that would be very bad for him.  He would be in big trouble.
At this point we didn’t care. We had lost all patience. Incompetence is one thing but outright lying is another.
We tried calling our tour company which of course didn’t answer.
We tried calling our driver that we paid so much money for, who of course didn’t answer.
Bilal didn’t know this though, and he promised that he was going to go to the village to get our camel.
He said “If I come back with a camel after lunch, will you be happy?”
We wouldn’t be happy, but we didn’t have much of a choice.  We were stuck in the middle of the desert!! So we said, OK.
Sure enough, he came back after an hour and a half with a camel.

Dave Texting While We Wait

We thought about the absurdity of it all.
Here we are a couple of tourists left alone in the desert with two camels and a goat. (The goat just happened to be there, but it seemed to like us.)
We have spent a lot of time in the desert so we are pretty comfortable hanging out, but I wonder how other people would have reacted to being left all alone by their guide? It is not exactly a comforting experience.
Anyway he came back with a 3rd camel.  Where he got it, we have no idea. We loaded up our saddles and went on our way towards the sand dunes with the little goat crying and following us for as long as it could.

It had been a long day.

It started off with excitement only to be ruined with lies. We had fought, we had waited, we had gotten our way and then we finally had to put all of our energy into making the rest of the trip pleasant.
After all that fighting, how were we supposed to spend two more days with this guy?
Of Course he came back like nothing had ever happened.  He smiled, he sang, he talked about how good of a guide he was and how happy he was now that we were happy.
We smiled, but unlike Bilal, we had a harder time letting go of the bad feelings. It was a long cold night.

Our Camp

-
To his credit, he was an excellent cook!
He made great meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We had fresh vegetables, rice and chipatis and for breakfast we had boiled eggs with toast and jam.
He worked hard. He took care of the camels, he set up our camp, he loaded our packs and gear and he made our fires.
Other tours that we saw had two guides to share the workload.

Bilal was alone.

We will never know what really happened to Allep, but we are assuming that they had a little scam on the side.
4 camels could easily be split into two tours.  Many tourists were being led by a guy walking in front of their camels.  Maybe one of them had our other two camels that we had paid for.  They probably sold another tour on the side and pocketed the money. Whatever they did, they didn’t have to split the tip with anyone.

Info
Camel safaris range from 600-1000 Rs depending on comfort level.
It is cold at night, bring a hat and warm clothes.
You will get a blanket, but you will still be cold.
Bring a headlamp, it will be your saviour.
Make sure to get a tour that jeeps you out of Jaisalmer and away from the tourist trail.
Do your homework, I don’t think that it was our tour companies fault, I think it was our guides.  But we could be wrong.
Bring sunscreen, a hat and a scarf to protect you from the sun, it is hot in the desert during the day.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed for latest posts via email or on your homepage!

Our Top Adventures in Asia

-

In Six Days we will be in India.

This past week has been a whirlwind. While we thought that we were very well prepared, there is still so much to do to get ready for an extended trip.  Many things cannot be done until the last few days and we have been scrambling and out of control busy.  While it is drawing closer with every minute, it doesn’t even feel like in less than we week we will be on the other side of the world.  We are too worried about checking everything off of our long to do list.

So instead of complaining we want to share with all of you the adventures that we are most looking forward to in our upcoming travels.  To daydream about what we will be doing over the next few months is exciting and overwhelming.  We may be starting in India, but we have a lot of countries on our itinerary and we can’t wait to visit all of these destinations.

1. Mongolia

Riding a horse through the steps of Genghis Khan

Following the trail of Genghis Khan, we are so excited to ride a horse through his old stomping grounds.  To live as an nomad, riding from Yurt to Yurt is a long time dream of ours.  It is the number 1 adventure on our list, but you are going to have to wait until the end of the trip to hear all about it.

-

2. China

Trekking the Great Wall

Trekking the Great Wall of China is on everyone’s bucket list and we are no exception.  We are hoping to visit and trek along some more remote portions of the wall and really explore the walls great history.

-

-

3. India

Yoga Instructors Training Course

India is renowned for its yoga and we plan on taking a month long intensive to study and get ourselves back into shape.  What better way to kick off the trip than to put ourselves through an extreme physical workout.  Not only that, by the end of the month of 10 hour days, we will be certified instructors and be centred, at peace and ready to take on the next leg of our Asian Adventure.

-

4. Nepal

Trek to Everest Base Camp

In 1996, we read Into Thin Air Into Thin Air by John Krakauer for the first time and we have wanted to visit Mount Everest Ever since.  There is one adventure that we want to make sure that we do while we are in Nepal and that is to trek to it’s Base Camp.  We just love climbing and trekking through mountain ranges.  There is something about pushing ourselves to our limits that makes us feel alive and to witness the beauty of the Annapurna Range is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

5. Mongolia

Safari in the Gobi Desert

There is something about a desert.  In the most barren of places is where we feel the most alive and find true beauty.  The Gobi Desert in Mongolia is a place of legend and an important stop on the Silk Road.

Can you imagine finding a herd of the rare camels that were featured on Planet Earth with your own two eyes.  We hope that we have that chance.

6. India

Camel Trek – Rajasthan

My friend Angie was in India a couple of years ago and fell in love with the poor misunderstood camel.  One thing that we are looking forward to is trekking through Rajastan on a camel ourselves.  We love camels too and we are looking forward to stepping back in time and living the life of a true Desert Nomad (for a couple of days anyway)

-

-

7. India

White Water Rafting the Ganges

I know what you are thinking.  The Ganges? Why would you want to white water raft that dirty river?  Well up north in the Himalayas the Ganges is pristine and wild.  There is nothing more thrilling than riding rapids down an untamed river and to do it on this legendary body of water is a must for us!

-

-

8. M

8. Sri Lanka

Mountain Biking in Sri Lanka

We love to cycle, but we really love to mountain bike.  It is one of our favorite hobbies and when we found out that Sri Lanka has excellent mountain biking, we added it to our list of adventures.  Ride through tea plantations, rubber trees, jungles and mountainous terrains.  This is going to be a blast checking out their trails.

-

I know what else you are thinking, there are many other great things to see, like the Taj Mahal, Varanasi, The Three Gorges… the list can go on and on.  These are the adventures that we are looking forward to the most, but I am sure that we will change our list on a regular basis as we explore more, find out about other great things to do and meet other travelers that have experienced awesome travels.

For now, with the limited research and preparations that we have done for our trip, these are our favorite upcoming activities. We love to wing it and I am sure that we will end up off the beaten path traveling to a remote destination taking part in an obscure adventure that we hadn’t even thought of.  Will Dave be wrestling in Mongolia or will we find ourselves taking part in a Pilgrimage?…Most Likely. We just can’t wait to get this adventure started!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed for latest posts via email or on your homepage!