A Monkey biting a Camel
I understand that many fans out there are waiting for more photo's and I would love nothing more than to stop ranting on and load them up for you but they take an awfully long time, so for the moment I am not able to, I promise to bore you to death with them when I get home.
But for now I am going to keep rabbiting on with my stories....
One of the best things we have done on our trip in India was a Camel trek through the desert in Jaisalmere, we decided to brave the experience and chose to do a full 2 nights and 3 days in the desert, and didn't regret it for a moment.
Not ever having travelled by moving animal before well, besides being carried home in a drunken stupor by Greg it was really something of an experience and Greg assures me that he has never been one a camel before either.
We started our trip off by choosing our camels, a little difficult when you don't know much about them, but one things for sure don't choose a male during camel love season as the camel men refer to it. Camels for all their appearance of calm poise are quite awkward about the mating game. The male camels in a frenzied and horny attempt the get the females attention stick their rather large and inflated slimy tongues out the side of their mouths and bubble and froth, pretty much like their have rabies, the sound is sickening and the smell very bad, this is really saying something in the land of bad and even worse smells.
Our first day included a visit to a village, and slow and steady ambling on the camels ending with setting up camp on a sand dune, on which the afternoon sun is magic the smooth curves of the dunes glow in a golden honey hue and although the Indian desert is not like the African deserts which are all dunes, little pockets of dunes dot the desert and are stunning in comparison to the sparse vegetation of the rest of the landscape. However far from being an isolated and dead landscape there is lot of activity, with many little villages, watering holes, hardy vegetation and beautiful goats with slick jet black coats and innocent white faces roaming around.
Camel riding is not as easy as it looks, the height off the ground is a little daunting to begin with and they do move in rather a lumbering fashion especially when they run. My camel Monkey was a bit of wild child and loved to run down hills, very scary as it basically feels like the camel is going to fall over and you are going to be squashed under it. You control the camel visa a rein which is actually attached to a rod that is pierced through their nose and sad little Monkey's piercing was infected, but these kids will insist on putting holes where god didn't intend them...he also had a bit of a biting habit and had to have his mouth clamped shut so he wouldn't bite the other camels...as I said choosing your camel is tricky and although I did feel like I had chosen badly I got to love Monkey in the end anyway, he was proud despite his biting and pussy nose and had the loveliest long eyelashes fluttering over his soft brown eyes.
Greg on the other hand choose well and his camel went like the clappers and he even managed to ride a camel that the team were breaking in, much to the detriment of his child producing capabilities, you could say he became at one with the camel, farting and burping at times even more than they did and then there's that thing he does with sticking his tongue out..and bubbling.
However the main thing that made the trip fabulous was the camel men, they were so kind and gentle and treated us and their camels with such respect and humour, and a great sense of humour they had. They love to sing and make up little rhymes, one of their favourites is "desert - full power 24 hour no toilet no shower" and they love to take off the aqua song Barbie girl however their version goes..I'm a camel man, in the bloody sand, like fantastic if there's no plastic, you can brush my hair take me anywhere.....
They are also fantastic cooks and on our second night we were treated to desert cake made with flour, sugar cane, cardamom and spices followed by goat that was bought from a near by village and killed and cooked fresh. Despite my resolve to be vegetarian for my time in India even I could not resist and I have to say it was the best meat I have ever had, truly organic and pasture fed, cooked and eaten around a camp fire, it melted in your mouth and more than filled the hole after a long day on a camel.
After this we crawled under our blankets to enjoy the stars and bask in the quiet as we dropped off into a contented sleep.....
But for now I am going to keep rabbiting on with my stories....
One of the best things we have done on our trip in India was a Camel trek through the desert in Jaisalmere, we decided to brave the experience and chose to do a full 2 nights and 3 days in the desert, and didn't regret it for a moment.
Not ever having travelled by moving animal before well, besides being carried home in a drunken stupor by Greg it was really something of an experience and Greg assures me that he has never been one a camel before either.
We started our trip off by choosing our camels, a little difficult when you don't know much about them, but one things for sure don't choose a male during camel love season as the camel men refer to it. Camels for all their appearance of calm poise are quite awkward about the mating game. The male camels in a frenzied and horny attempt the get the females attention stick their rather large and inflated slimy tongues out the side of their mouths and bubble and froth, pretty much like their have rabies, the sound is sickening and the smell very bad, this is really saying something in the land of bad and even worse smells.
Our first day included a visit to a village, and slow and steady ambling on the camels ending with setting up camp on a sand dune, on which the afternoon sun is magic the smooth curves of the dunes glow in a golden honey hue and although the Indian desert is not like the African deserts which are all dunes, little pockets of dunes dot the desert and are stunning in comparison to the sparse vegetation of the rest of the landscape. However far from being an isolated and dead landscape there is lot of activity, with many little villages, watering holes, hardy vegetation and beautiful goats with slick jet black coats and innocent white faces roaming around.
Camel riding is not as easy as it looks, the height off the ground is a little daunting to begin with and they do move in rather a lumbering fashion especially when they run. My camel Monkey was a bit of wild child and loved to run down hills, very scary as it basically feels like the camel is going to fall over and you are going to be squashed under it. You control the camel visa a rein which is actually attached to a rod that is pierced through their nose and sad little Monkey's piercing was infected, but these kids will insist on putting holes where god didn't intend them...he also had a bit of a biting habit and had to have his mouth clamped shut so he wouldn't bite the other camels...as I said choosing your camel is tricky and although I did feel like I had chosen badly I got to love Monkey in the end anyway, he was proud despite his biting and pussy nose and had the loveliest long eyelashes fluttering over his soft brown eyes.
Greg on the other hand choose well and his camel went like the clappers and he even managed to ride a camel that the team were breaking in, much to the detriment of his child producing capabilities, you could say he became at one with the camel, farting and burping at times even more than they did and then there's that thing he does with sticking his tongue out..and bubbling.
However the main thing that made the trip fabulous was the camel men, they were so kind and gentle and treated us and their camels with such respect and humour, and a great sense of humour they had. They love to sing and make up little rhymes, one of their favourites is "desert - full power 24 hour no toilet no shower" and they love to take off the aqua song Barbie girl however their version goes..I'm a camel man, in the bloody sand, like fantastic if there's no plastic, you can brush my hair take me anywhere.....
They are also fantastic cooks and on our second night we were treated to desert cake made with flour, sugar cane, cardamom and spices followed by goat that was bought from a near by village and killed and cooked fresh. Despite my resolve to be vegetarian for my time in India even I could not resist and I have to say it was the best meat I have ever had, truly organic and pasture fed, cooked and eaten around a camp fire, it melted in your mouth and more than filled the hole after a long day on a camel.
After this we crawled under our blankets to enjoy the stars and bask in the quiet as we dropped off into a contented sleep.....
posted by My Little Life at 1:02 AM
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