3 Months...

It has now been more than 3 months since I left the states. Much has happened and there is so much left to do, but I have spent a quarter of a year away from America. In the past week or two I have met many people including a bus operator who is also a computer programmer as well as a teacher, a store owner younger than myself down the street from my apartment who wants an arranged marriage and who I discuss politics and cultural misconceptions with, who also calls me by name and appreciates my loyalty as a customer, and a gentleman by the name of Mr. Desert. I have also experienced the cravings of beef return once again in a strong way, been to the doctor and watched Fahrenheit 9/11 with local students in a dorm on Delhi University campus. My health is well now and I have been watching a lot of movies, so life has been very enjoyable as of late. Last Thursday was the day we were to set off to Rajasthan to trek into the desert on camels. It began as an extremely busy day. The previous night I had not gone to sleep until one or two o’clock because of errands to take care of and incredible tandoori chicken that required my consumption. I awoke Thursday morning at six in the morning. I did some last minute packing and set off to school for my morning Hindi class. After Hindi my friend and I journeyed down to the travel agencies. We had to make some amendments to our travel plans in October. We are given a two week break in October and other friends had made arrangements for flights, trains and whatnot, but we wished to make a few changes. So we spent the first few hours at one travel agency and the next few at another. It was a struggle and a serious exercise in patience, but in the end all we had left to do was to book one more ticket. We were running short on time because our train for Rajasthan was leaving that evening and we still had work to do. We hopped in an auto and made our way to the New Delhi Rail Station to try and purchase our last ticket for the October break. When we arrived the place was swamped and we were unable to complete the purchase. We then had to get in another auto and get to a different train station from which our evening train was set to depart. We made it on time to take in the aroma and buy some water and snacks for the train. We met up with others and our group totaled 8 people in all. We had booked our tickets for 3 tier A/C sleeper. What this means is that on the train there are three beds on one wall and that the car has air conditioning blasting and is a sleeper train. It’s a good idea to book the A/C train because it’s much cooler and generally it’s safer. After what we experienced before, this was a welcomed change. The train was scheduled to leave at six and only departed half and hour late. So we secured our spots and sat and talked. It felt really nice to know that the seats we were in were legitimately ours and that at no point would we have to move. By about ten or eleven we were ready to sleep so we decided to make our beds. I slept on the bottom tier and made a little cozy spot for myself with a sleeping bag and the sheets and blanket they provide you with. Sleep did not come easy, but at least it came. I woke up literally fifteen to twenty times during the night because of people coming in and out of the cabin and whatnot. The temperature also changes pretty rapidly because the A/C slows down or turns off when the train stops. So at times I would wake up sweating and at others shivering. If you aren’t familiar with bathrooms on the trains in India, they are basically a tiny room with a hole in the floor that leads to the train tracks. It’s not a pleasant experience, but you do what you have to do and hope that your aim is sharp. I awoke the next morning first at around eight in the morning. I had a cup of chai and talked to the guy sitting across from me. He works for the Indian government and fixes and operates radars. The conversation was mostly in Hindi, so that was nice, but a technical conversation in Hindi can be a little hard to follow. We had an interesting conversation about the Stealth Bomber and I would tell you more, but it’s classified. I went back to sleep for a while and the train finally ended up arriving around two-thirty or so in the afternoon. The total time we were on the train was 20 hours. It was supposed to be an 18 hour ride, but again things just take longer here. Although 20 hours on a train may seem like a lot, it is. We arrived in Jaisalmer; a tiny city mostly centered around a beautiful fort, and were greeted by a man named Mr. Desert. We were transported to his office in a jeep in the scorching temperature. At his office, Mr. Desert gave us a brief synopsis of what our trek would consist of as well as a piece of his life’s story. Mr. Desert won four consecutive Mr. Desert awards in the late eighties and was then given the lifetime title of Mr. Desert as well as a permanent spot on the judges table in the annual Mr. Desert competition. He has done an incredible amount in his life and been on television commercials including a coke commercial with Hrithik Roshan, a huge Bollywood star in these parts. Mr. Desert was a pleasant man with piercing eyes and weathered skin. He possessed a certain charm and wit that can only be acquired through years of trekking through the desert in the close proximity of camels. Before we set off for the desert, we had lunch in the fort overlooking the city. Then it was back into the jeep to get us into the desert. We pulled up to our embarking point and were amazed at our camels sitting on the ground lined up waiting for us. We were each given a camel and the name of my camel just happened to be Laloo. The previous sentence is not a joke; my camel’s name was Laloo. I wanted to have a pleasant time with Laloo, so I tried to set up some ground rules like no spitting, keeping the obscenities to a minimum and no heavy petting. Laloo just sat there chewing, staring at me. I figured since he didn’t object, the rules were fine by him. So we began our trek through the desert high on our camels and trekked for about two hours the first day. It was an amazing experience and the dunes in the Rajasthani desert were remarkable. The gentle ripples looked as though they had been laid down one at a time and the golden sand was softer than any sand I’ve ever felt. We watched the sun set over the dunes that night and our guides cooked a tasty Indian dinner for us and we sat in the dark and ate dinner together. That evening we slept in the open air under the stars on cots. The stars were amazing and we could see the Milky Way clearly from our position. It was a warm night that only required the use of a blanket every now and then. We were comforted by a gentle breeze and the only sounds were an occasional animal in the distance. We slept late and woke up early to watch the sunrise. Watching the sun rise above the dunes was beautiful. We had an early breakfast and were off on our camels again. Laloo was surprisingly well behaved. He would constantly stop and eat some branches or stretch his long neck and get some food to go without breaking stride. In a lot of ways he reminded me of myself. The sun was blistering hot that day and we rode through a village in the middle of the desert. Kids came running out asking us for our water bottles. They make good use of them when they get water from the well. It was amazing how happy the kids were to get the bottles. We trekked a few kilometers more until it got so hot that even the camels refused to go on. We stopped to give the camels a break and to have lunch. We laid around in the shade while the camels ate and rested. At one point we were surrounded by goats and I proceeded to put one of them in a fake headlock. It’s amazing how close you can interact with animals when you don’t want to harm them and just want to engage in some light Wrestlemania. After the heat subsided enough, we took off once again on our camels. We trekked for another few hours until early evening. We came to massive dunes and this is where we were to stay that evening. We sat and watched the sun set again. Then, out of nowhere, it became a little breezy. The breeze became stronger until all of a sudden we were caught in the middle of a sandstorm. The winds were howling and whipping the sand everywhere. If you did not stand with the wind at your back, your face and eyes would be instantly pelted and filled with sand. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. We were getting completely sandblasted. I walked backwards up the dune and stood at the top of it while the sand blasted my back. I stood there with my eyes closed and a smile made its way across my face. I stood there thinking about where I was and what I was experiencing and how in an instant life can change. I thought about how the government in India marginalized Jaisalmer because of its Muslim population and how the kids didn’t have schools to go to. I thought about how different life was in the desert in Rajasthan and about how I was experiencing what so many have experienced while trekking through the desert. It was truly a spiritual experience. As the winds whipped, rain began to make its presence felt and our sandstorm quickly turned into a rain storm. With our backpacks getting soaked and the rain and wind making things chilly, our guides quickly threw together a little shelter for us on the dune. They used a tarp and the saddles from the camels to create a tiny shelter for us. We huddled under the shelter and sat in complete darkness for about two hours as the weather wreaked havoc outside. The tarp whipped in the wind as we sat inside talking about food, movies, family and friends. Eventually the storm passed and the weather again became pleasant. We were completely covered in sand and it was pitch black outside because the clouds covered the stars and moon. We ate dinner in the dark and even though there was a lot of sand in our food, we were happy to eat as our appetites were fierce. After dinner we sat and talked and eventually fell asleep in the sand dune. We slept on sheets on the ground in the middle of the dune. In the middle of the night we all seemed to wake up one by one as the stars began to shine. I put my glasses on and stared up at the stars from the sand dune. It was truly majestic and eventually we fell back asleep. The next morning I woke up in time to see the sun rise again. I grabbed my camera and my music and made my way up to the top of the dune. I sat on the top of the dune and watched the sun rise alone while listening to U2. The sunrise was beautiful because some clouds remained from the night before. Eventually nature was calling me in a big way, so I made my way over a couple of other dunes and did what I had to do out in the open while looking at the vast desert. Like the animal that I am, I buried my business and was on my way. By this point we were completely torn up and tired, but so happy. We had some breakfast and got back on our camels for the final stretch to our jeep. At this point the guides got the camels to run and it was quite the ride. I found myself saying things like, “Come on Laloo” and “That’s a good Laloo.” We eventually made it back to the jeep and just like that, our Camel Safari was over. Honestly, I was a little sad to be leaving the desert and to think that I might never see my Laloo ever again. We shared a moment together, both sitting there chewing and staring at each other. It was time to go and we got back into the jeep and made our way back into town. We had some lunch and then drove the four hours from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur. In Jodhpur we caught our train and were on our way back to Delhi. I didn’t sleep that much on the train and this ride was much shorter, only about eleven hours. It is now Monday morning and the last shower I took was Thursday morning at 6. The camel adventure in the Rajasthani desert was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Like many things that happen here, it’s hard to truly take all of it in. I don’t think it will be until after I return to the states that I can even fathom what I am experiencing. Next week I am leaving to travel for 18 days straight, the majority of which will be spent on India’s west coast. I’m looking forward to the beaches and the seafood. As I continue to make my way around this amazing country, I am constantly learning and experiencing new things. India’s diversity is staggering and there is simply no adequate way of describing life here. In a week or so there will be less of the trip left than that which has already past and the countdown in my mind begins. More and more I find myself missing things about home like the people and the food, but I know I am not ready to come home yet. I constantly think about the people in my life and wonder how life is back home. I will keep the updates coming and I hope to hear from all of you and that you are well…