Have you been on a camel?
Sometimes you just have to be a tourist. Now most of the popular travel articles are about how to get out of where everyone goes. As much as I enjoy off the beaten path, sometimes it’s fun to walk on the very well beaten path (like what I did in Vietnam).
Camel trekking in Thar Desert of Rajasthan is what most visitors do, and I’m so glad I was one of them. A half day trekking includes dinner on the sand dunes for about 800Rs (12 USD). A lot of tour operators offer an overnight trip as well.
We hopped on the jeep at about 3pm. They drove about an hour to the meeting point with the camels. It was my first time seeing camels this close. They looked so comical! Each of us got on a camel, and headed to the desert. It was a funny feeling, sitting on a camel. We started the journey by letting them drinking water from the lake nearby.
It was quite peaceful. There was no other sound than their footsteps. I had to concentrate on meeting the rhythm of my camel, but other than that, I enjoyed watching the endless desert, and feeling the sun. Desert and glaciers are two of my favourite places in the entire world. Nature is quite phenomenal in so many different ways, but desert and glaciers make me feel like I’m in another world, like Mars or Uranus. The trip got better at the end. While our local guides were cooking dinner for us (with a real fire and everything), the Sun set behind the sand dunes afar. A short while after, the sky started to fill up with countless bright gems. Have you seen the Milky Way? I really we brought a tent, so I could enjoy the view all night.
