Part 6
A View from my guest house in Jaisalmer
09. 09. 2005, Jaisalmer day 1.
Nothing much has been done during day one. My brother and I went to Gadi Sagar. It is a tank, south of the city walls, once held the town water supply, and befitting its importance in providing precious water to the inhabitants of this arid city, it is surrounded by small temples and shrines. The beautiful yellow sandstone gateway arching across the road down to the tank is the Tilon-ki-Pol, and is said to have been built by a famous prostitute, Tilon . When she offered to pay to have this gateway constructed, the Maharaja refused permission under it to go down to the tank and he felt that this would be beneath his dignity. While he was away, she built the gate , adding a Krishna temple on top so that king could not tear it down. After Gadi Sagar, we took a long walk to Jaisalmer fort. One thing funny about India or while traveling was you kept meeting the same people you met along the way, people that you thought you will never meet again- and suddenly, boom, out of the blues, you bum into him or her. Sometime India seems to be so small for you keep bumming into people. While I was at the foothill of Jaisalmer fort, wandering around the bazaar, I bum into the handsome looking Austrian guy, Hannes, my neighbor in Udaipur. That night, we had a dinner at our guest house and I started reading Kassim Ahmad’s Hikayat Hang Tuah.
10.09.2005, Jaisalmer day 2.
Day 2 in Jaisalmer is the most highlighted event in Jaisalmer for we were about to do the thing we never do in our life, which is riding on the camel, deep into the desert, and spent a night there. We woke up 6.30 in the morning. The morning was glory as most of the inhabitant in the villages were already awaken. Even the boars, the cows and the goats were starting to get busy with their own business, whatever that may be. We were group of 7 people. The other 4 was a French couple and Juergen and Hannah, from Germany. While on the way to the starting point of the desert, the jeep took us to two of the famous monument. It was there that I got to know Juergen and Hannah better. My brother though that Hannah look like Wynona Ryder.
Outside one of the monument, there was a small hut, with an old man boiling up a tea. We just sat there enjoying our morning tea. I lighted up two bidi, with the play of matches, one for me and one I offered to Juergen. Bidi my friend, is a thin, often flavored, Indian cigarette made of tobacco wrapped in a tendu or temburini leaf and secured with colored thread at one end. They are smaller than regular cigarettes, but more potent. Because they do not have a filter and are wrapped in nonporous leaves, a smoker needs to inhale more often and more deeply to keep them lit. One bidi produces three times more carbon monoxide and nicotine, and five times more tar than a regular cigarette. It is a road to hell as we know it and your lungs is on the frying pan before you realize it.
We reached the surface of the desert at around 8.55 am and the weather was still chilling. Few camel man and theirs camels were already waiting for us to embark a remarkable journey to the deep sahara. I was being given a young and inexperience camel. How I do I tell? The camel was constantly protesting and just when he was at the blink of going berserk, the chief camel man, Gomu, decided to change the young camel with his own personal camel, name Tiger. So, Gomu and his entire team of camel man, namely, Bazu, prem, fakir and Amir, lead our expedition. The sun gradually showing up in the sky, hitting the sky so gloriously, and blazing down on our flesh and skin. It was that kind of typical sunshine or sun blaze in the middle of the desert. After about 4 hours into the desert, we finally saw a big tree, surrounded by an empty land of desert. We decided to take a rest there and the band of camel man, which is also our friend, prepared us a lunch. It was not a fancy lunch. In fact, it was only a meal with too much simplicity in it. They cooked us Bajee, Chapatti and maggi noodle. It was simple yet delicious. I think what make it so delicious was the atmosphere. I mean it was a desert and we were eating a freshly cook food. What else could we ask? It is almost the same with having grill marinated shark or king fishes in Goa. Juergen, Hannah and I took a walk around the huge and hot and bother desert, picking up some very nice desert stone. In the middle of that desert, one guy approached us to sell us cold soft drinks and cold beers. Ha, that was really funny. Though I didn’t buy any beer, only soft drink, the seller was kind enough to lent me his small bike to me, to ride around the desert. Wow, I was wandering, yes, some might had ride a camel in the desert, but what about Motor bike in the desert?
It was a almost 3 hours rest. The camels were hanging around while most of us either talking, taking a short nap or doing our own thing. Me, I was hanging around with my brother’s MP3 player, blasting some classic Malay songs namely Kain cinta putih, Dalam Gerimis and Masih Aku Terasa. The experience of riding into the desert is like straight out of Arabian night fable. The desert citadel is truly a golden fantasy in Thar Desert.
The best thing about the camel ride was when we reached the sand dunes. It has a truly glorious stretch of sweeping sand dunes. We were all amazed by the sand dunes. It seems like all the sweat and burn out finally paid off. We were completely forgotten about all the hardship through the desert, and the ache in between our thigh, thanks to the camels.
Juergen and I quickly befriended with the desert and the sand dunes. We jumped from high above and blanketing ourselves with the sands. It was really nice. After that, I joint my brother to witness the sunset. It was beautiful. When the darkness ushered in and the stars starting to appear on sight, the camel man started to cook us dinner. After dinner, we adjourned to some get-together moment, where Gomu and his band of camel man, gathered around and singing us some folk and desert songs. The wind of desert stared to blow lazily but striking softly onto our skin into our bones, making us chill and shivering as the time moves on to the early morning. With a beautiful place like that, I put on Lionel Ritchie’s love songs- and begun to cherish the time spent with Hannah.
And that’s all- I fall asleep soon after. The magical night of the desert happen to me when I woke up in the middle of the night. We were just sleeping like that, without any tent (weather was clear). So when I open my eyes, looking up the open sky, I couldn’t believe myself what I seen and what I felt. For a brief moment, I thought I was floating in a paradise, and the gravity were pushing me not to its direction but nearer and closer to the swimming pool of bright and shiny starts. That was what I felt. It was the most beautiful view on the midnight sky I ever see in my life, the desert night. I didn’t close my eyes for a long while, enjoying the view and occasional shooting stars.
After breakfast, and after shitting behind some bush, we left the sand dunes, around 8.30 in the morning. This time I didn’t get to ride Tiger but were given Rocket instead. Rocket was ride by one of the French, who left us just before the night roll its curtain in night before.
Just about 2 hours before we reached the surface of the desert again, we separated with Juergen and Hannah. They did longer days for the camel safari while we did only one and the half day. Juergen and Hannah were great and interesting people. Juergen especially, was very talkative and funny too.
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