Safari through the Thar Desert

Nov. 17, 2008

While in Jaisalmer, the boys and I decided to check off Lonely Planet's #3 "must-do" thing in India: "watching a bright moon out in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan during an overnight camel safari."

We booked the one night/two day tour through our hotel and took off in the jeep about 40 km outside the town to meet up with our guide, Tiger. The first thing he did when we met was tie bright orange turbans around each of our heads. The turbans served the functional purpose of keeping the sun directly off our heads and necks. They also were meant perhaps to authenticate the whole experience. I just think those bright orange scarves were mainly made to mark us as tourists, easily seen from miles away in the desert.

After getting turbanized, we mounted up. Jamie's camel was named Sonya. Ben rode Mr. Magoo. My camel was called Victoria. Vickie and I got along just fine.

Tiger, a Muslim from a small village 200 km north of Jaisalmer, explained to us that he had to leave his home and his wife and five children to search for work in the city after his home region experienced a massive drought. The Thar Desert hasn't seen rain in years and the drought has devastated the region's farming industry. The desert skyline is now lined with thousands of windmills the government built to pump water to all the small villages in the area. The water supplies them with enough for drinking and washing and to sustain some livestock, but not enough to continue farming. Instead, the villagers now make most of their money by cutting stones, Tiger said.

He took us to some of these villages where we were met by crowds of small children all a chatter, excited at the sight of a handful of goras (white people). As I pulled out my camera, dozens of hands grabbed at my arms as the children wanted to see the digital images I had just snapped of them.

During the hottest parts of the day, Tiger led us into the shade of a tree. He unsaddled the camels and let them loose to wander and graze. Then he made us lunch. Just watching him prepare the food and cook and clean the dishes and utensils using a splash of water and handfuls of sand made the safari worth the money.

He built up a small fire from tumbleweed kindling and boiled water and powdered milk together and dumped in almost a cup of sugar to make some super sweet chai.

"No sugar, no power. Full chai, full power. 24 hour," Tiger chanted. "Camel college, full knowledge."

Then he whipped up some spicy and delicious curries, some of the best tasting food I've had since I arrived in India. After lunch we all took a siesta in the shade.

It wasn't too long before the boys and I agreed that Tiger might have been out in the desert for too long. That evening as Tiger cooked, Jamie busted out his guitar and I took out my small drum from Jaipur and the three of us started singing Radiohead and Oasis songs. Tiger suddenly burst in banging on my drum and started screeching every English word he knew in rhyming couplets. Actually, Tiger only seemed to speak in rhymes. Beside the little history he gave us about his life and the drought, Tiger's English was limited to "camel college, full knowledge, full chai, no power, 24 hour." As we tried to sing through his screeching and banging, Tiger then launched into a crazed rendition of Aqua's Barbie Girl.

The boys and I looked at each other like who is this madman we're left with in the middle of the Indian desert. But thankfully he eventually wore himself out.

After dinner, the boys and I passed around a bottle of whiskey and then nestled under heavy blankets to fall asleep on the sand dunes underneath the bright, waxing moon.

Rough Guides #3 best thing do: Check.