30th March 1985: Camel Riding Back to Jaiselmer

 Taken from Back to the East, India, Nepal, Kashmir  

March 30th 1985

That morning we started out at 7.30; it was already hot. We stopped at a deserted desert village called Culdrah which had quite a large temple. There were few images here, just some mutilated statues and a few poor ones of monkeys. Salima said, or rather agreed to what I had said, that people left due to lack of water. But later a Canadian guy we met on his own Safari trek said it was because there had been a lot of conflict driven my Moslem invaders from Pakistan against the Hindus about eleven years earlier (1974) .

By 10.30, it was so hot that I was falling asleep on the camel.

We spotted another couple of camels coming towards us and they waved us closer. One had a Japanese girl on top, red faced looking exhausted. Her camel-driver guide said she would not drink the water. I gave her some purifying tablets and told he she must drink – it was even sometimes better to drink dirty water than not to drink at all, but the water from the well was OK, which was why they call it well water. She left happier. Now I thought, maybe I saved her life.

 

Almost suddenly we were on our way back to Jaiselmer. We stopped at a small village called Amar Sagar where a Jain Temple was being restored.

Suddenly we spotted Jaiselmer in the distance.

JAISELMER

(Rajasthan, 1985)

by

Alun Buffry

Jaiselmer, oh Jaiselmer

Not a lot of hassle here.

Just cows walking in the streets,

Adding smells to earthly heat,

Makes us want to drink more chai,

But "No milk!" the people cry.

All those cows yet still no milk,

All those shops that just sell silk,

Desert life's just not the same,

Camels struggling, what a shame,

To let us climb upon their backs

And if they moan they know the crack.

Driver up there perched on top

Passing songs until we stop

At water hole or shady tree

To eat a precious chapati

Made by the men, full of pride,

Over fires with veggies fried,

In spices which do not have names,

But we don't care 'cos we have pains,

In legs and arms and even feet

From riding camels in this heat.

Three days the desert journeyed on,

We listened to the Rajputs' songs,

Passing temples, villages

Passed to us through ages.

Suddenly, the words we hear:

"See over there, sweet Salmeterol!"

 

 

Back in the Hotel Fort View. All in all it was sometimes a bit too hot but it was an incredible experience. Lesley said that her coccyx was struggling and she still says she never recovered (now in 2021). She was also upset because she’d lost a bead from her hair.

The hotel manager asked me to write a comment in his guest book, which I did. I read through some of the other comments which were all positive. One read: “The best thing about riding the camels is that one could fart loudly and blame it on the camels.”