Dunes of Hazard

India’s sleeper buses are different than I’ve ever seen; usually you just get a wider cushion and more space to recline, but here they have seats as well as beds above the seats. My reservation was one of these beds, just enough space for me to lie down stretched out on my back alongside windows; kinda like a coffin but with a good view, a bit nerve racking when the bus takes tight corners, which is often. In the morning, after arriving in Jaisalmer "The Golden City," I signed up for a desert camel trek for two days and one night through my guesthouse and then wondered around the small desert town for the day. There is a big sone golden fort on a hill that is the main draw; there are a few Jain temples and havelis (decorative houses for important people, basically) but the majority of the complex is sadly overrun with shops, guesthouses, and restaurants. I was hit by an intense cold on the bus, so my energy level was pretty low; I headed in early to rest for the next days trek.

I was in a group with four Canadians; Christi and Dave (a couple) and Joanne and Brett. We all got along very well. First, a jeep drove us to a few villages, which was odd because all the kids kept yelling for rupees; not so much of a cultural experience but more of an aggressive, uneccessary coin drive.. After that, we each got our own camel, mine was the leader, Papu,. At first, it’s not too bad, like riding a horse, but it lies down for you to mount it. We had lunch cooked for us over a campfire in the middle of the desert under some trees. I should add here that most of this desert consists of small bushes and tress, dirt and sand, not so much the rolling dunes that you’d see in pictures. We rode a few more hours after a lunch of chapatti, curry and chai to get to some real sand dunes where we would be sleeping. The view of the stars was stunning; we slept on blankets right in the sand where we should see constellations down to the horizon; you forget just how many stars there are when you live in a city or rather anywhere with any type of light pollution. It was hard to get on the camels the next day first, because the dunes were so peaceful yet entertaining and also because my thighs and bum were incredibaly sore. We rode a couple of hours in the scorching dry heat and then sat under some trees, napping and playing cards along with sing-a-longs until the jeep came to bring us back to our rooms. I wandered around the city seeing market stalls, the fort’s Jain temples, and basically getting lost in the city streets for the next day and a half, then off to Amritsar.