We visited Karni Mata - the rat temple I've been rambling on about. It's about 30km from Bikaner. At all temples, you have to take off your shoes as a sign of respect - something that filled me with the utmost dread. There are literally hundreds of rats swarming around the temple, they are seen as being holy - and huge silver bowls of milk are brought out for them to drink. People throw food at them. It's supposed to be good luck for one of them to run over your feet - but I certainly wasn't going to allow that to happen! Lydia spotted the white rat, some people apparently spend hours crawling around on their hands and knees trying to find it. She'll have good luck for life or something, I didn't see it - so I'm doomed. Needless to say, we gave our feet a good wash upon departure. Well worth a visit if you're not the squeamish type!
Other places on our itinerary included Lallgarh Palace (home to the Bikaner Royal family - and chock-a-block with photos and memorabilia charting the history of their family - quite cool really), Junagahr Fort (beautiful, but the views were ruined by the abundance of water tanks on the horizon, not to mention the miles upon miles of telegraph poles that litter the countryside), and last, but certainly not least, a camel breeding farm - which was excellent - if rather smelly! We decided to pass on sampling the camel milk - the notion just doesn't appeal!
Dinner was at a lovely, lovely, lovely rooftop restaurant - we can easily get dinner for two (rice, naan and two different curries) for about 4 pounds. We met a guy from Korea called Cameron who is travelling on his own. Got talking, and ended up sitting in the restaurant drinking beer for four hours!! Driver wasn't too impressed - but we don't really care what he thinks anymore as he's really starting to get on our nerves! Cameron was lovely, he's going back to Korea in the next week - he's joining the armed forces as Korean law dictates that all boys must serve two years. Good luck Cameron!
Lydia has been a bit poorly the past few days - she's developing a chest infection - probably due to the high level of pollution here, that and all the sand she ingested on the camel trek! No need for a doctors visit here, a simple visit to the pharmacy will leave you laden with all the drugs you may ever need in this lifetime. She was given 5 days worth of Amoxyllin. I might go back later and ask for a six pack morphine drip.
Bikaner is lovely, very charming - the only thing I didn't like was the OPEN SEWERS!! Disgusting.
Headed back to Delhi today - monsoon season has started with a vengeance - at one point I thought we were going to have to ROW back!! On top of that, the driver managed to rupture the water tank, so every 5 miles he was stopping to refill it. Oh, and did I mention that it was pouring with rain, but our driver's car has no windscreen wipers (nor side mirrors!), to warn people he drove all the way from Bikaner to Delhi with his hazard lights flashing! For the duration of the trip I was stamping on my imaginary brake. Still, it's all part of the experience and we still have all our limbs.
After two weeks of being vegetarian we decided to brave a chicken korma today. It was the worst thing I've ever eaten in my life - all gristle and stringy meat. We're bitterly regretting the decision and I may never eat meat again!!!
We're hoping to head to Amritsar either tomorrow or the day after - I'll update again when I have some worthwhile news!
Love, hugs and curry powder,
Caroline xx
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