Camel Safari

It's Ant here, looks like its my turn to write something!

Early start this morning for the camel safari, but had time to have some chai tea before we left. One of the hotel staff drove us out into the Desert in a Jeep, stopping along the way at Temples, cemetaries and gypsy villages, none of us were bothered about these though...the longer we spend looking at temples the less time we would have on camels.

I imagined being dropped off at a camp where our guide is waiting for us with our camels, ready to greet us. Instead we were dropped off in the desert with a box of food and a big container of water and then left there for maybe around 10 minutes until our guide came into view with our camels 'HOW ARE YOUU?' was our sign that this was our ride. Alex had a camel that looked like the 'camel cigarettes' camel, I had a cute camel called Papu. Toms was probably the most haggered ugly looking camel I have ever seen...its bottom jaw didnt quite fit in his mouth.

We trekked for around 1.5 hours before we stopped for some food. Our guide Ibrahem made us some vegetable curry with chapatis along with some chai tea and a banana which wasn't really that good at all. We then sat there for almost 4 hours whilst the camels grazed on the vegetation that grew from monsoon season. The second leg of the trek was more interesting than the first, we started scaling sand dunes and had some amazing views. We could see a little hut in the distance, this was our accommodation for the night (we thought) we actually were sleeping outside the hut on little beds...the hut was full of beetles and a range of other insects. After some exlploring around the dunes it started to go dark. Ibrahim asked if we wanted some cold beer and other drinks. We obviously said yes but we wondered where he was going to get some from. A quick phone call and an hour wait and an indian man was coming into view across the desert with a sack...with cold coke and beer! Only 150 rupees per beer and 30 rupees per coke, so cheap for the effort that went into bringing it!

The sleep sounds nice...under the stars and in the middle of no where. It actually started raining so Ibrahem got literally body bogged us up head to to in plastic sheeting and shouted 'YOUR WELCOME!' I wasn't that thankful, I could hardly breath, Once the rain stopped we made a campfire and chilled out until we were tired. It was still only about 8.30 so had a long night ahead of us. A friendly desert dog got close to the fire to keep warm, once we fell asleep we woke up to a 3 way dog fight at the foot of our beds. That was a bit scary but our desert dog was keeping the others away.

The next day was an early start and we were given control over our Camels so we made them run for a good amount of time which isn't the most comfertable experience at time, but was a great feel to race camels across the desert. I even managed to get some good communication between myself and Papu, with a little 'chuck chuck' command he was sitting on the floor so I could get off. The Jeep picked us up after maybe 3 hours trekking and we were were taken back to the hotel.

After a much needed shower we organised our next transport to Mumbai...the longest journey yet. It consisted of a 23 hour journey by sleeper coach and a train in a terrible class...little tip. First Class on Indian trains is not what I would consider First Class and I'm certain that Alex agrees (Tom was asleep) It felt like a mobile Jail and couldn't wait to get to Mumbai.

To my great dissapointment Mumbai is horrible. Densely populated, densely polluted and densely disgusting! Our hotel was the worst we had stayed in yet and within a minute of standing in our room our eyes were stinging and we all acquired a wheeze, its a sorry state of affairs when i'm putting my head out of the window for a big deep breath of fresh Mumbai air. The sooner we were out of Mumbai the better, so we booked a coach to Goa and some nice, cheap accommodation and just needed to get through one more day of Mumbai. We got a taxi to Film City where they film Bollywood but as with most things in India, it doesn't go as planned. Our taxi driver obviously didn't know how to get there, took us up a sketchy dirt path to what looked like a back entrance to Film City then continued to tell us that we had to pay a bribe to the security guards to get in. An Indian Minister was visiting that day so we were told it was not possible so the taxi driver took us to the national park instead. Even when we saw what was the right exit off the motorway and told him to take it 'Erm, no...we go natonal park' The park was good but he just wanted more money out of us I think. The park was great actually,lots of dense forest and even a mountain in the middle. If we knew we could have timed it better and done the 7k trail to the caves, but we had already booked our bus ticket.

The coach to Goa was fine, a/c is probably too cold so next time I will put some more layers on for it. The first day in Goa was great, it doesn't feel like India at all. Very relaxed and even cheaper. A bottle of Tuborg is 30 rupees and 700ml of 42% Rum was 125 rupees. I don't think I need to go into detail of what we did on our first night in Goa. We met some nice travellers. Two British guys who are staying in this hotel for as long as we are and a Polish Girl and Guy who have left this morning.

Its 11:30am and we have all just hired mopeds. It seems to be the only way to get around. I'm looking forward to it...will definitely be interesting. Tom wants to apologies to his parents for this.

Lets hope we get to write another blog.

Ant