We arrived in Jaisalmer early in the morning, and went to drop off our bags and grab breakfast inside the Jaisalmer fort before our camel safari with Ganesh Travels. Jaisalmer is called the Golden City, and the golden colored fort towered majesticly as the sun rose. Almost all the buildings were built from the same honey colored stone. From the top of the guest house we stopped at, we can see the impressive, sprawling complex of the Jain temple that Jaisalmer is known for.
I met my camel in the Thar desert after an hour-long jeep ride with my group, which included me, Jia, another American named Andrew (the only male in the group), a girl from Australia named Natasha, a girl from London named Fiona and a couple of Polish girls who were really quiet, as well as our 5 camel drivers (which included 2 kids just 12 and 13). My camel was a 9-year old named Mr. Simon with a crooked nose, caused by a punch in the nose by a crazy Israeli a few years ago. He was not super friendly and would not allow me to pet him, and mostly just chomped and chewed away with me astride it. We were told that it was camel "love season" and Mr. Simon was extremely mellow since he was given a female camel the day before and worked "very hard for an hour." He's not a daddy yet, but a baby camel might be forthcoming next year.
We visited a couple of villages in the desert - isolated, desolate places where the people mainly raised goats and sheep to survive. The women and children were surprisingly aggressive. They asked for the jewelry we wore and when I said no, one of the woman literally tried to ripe my ring off my finger. Needless to say, I was ticked off. The ring was worth more than these people make a year, but rings do not feed people. It is one thing if they asked for contributions to their school, or for food, but stealing people's jewelry is just wrong any way you look at it. Poverty in India is extremely high and prevalent throughout, but out in the desert with only tourism to feed them if they are lucky, the poverty is omnipotent, holding these people firmly in its grip.
We camped out in the desert that night. We played in the sand dunes until dinner - a simple, but tasty meals of chapati and vegetable that our camel drivers cooked in the desert. After dinner, they sang and danced for us. With nothing else to do, it was an early night for everyone. As I layed awake most of the night (sleeping on sand is not exactly comfortable), waiting impatiently for sunrise as the camels chomped and chewed throughout the night, the stars that blanketed us twinkled brightly. I think I would have still preferred it if we had slept in Jaisalmer as opposed to in the desert, but the stars were really amazing and made the experience (my first outdoor camping experience) almost worthwhile. The weather had also warmed up a bit, so I did not even need all of the 10 or so layers that I had packed, worried that we might freeze to death in the desert.
The next morning, we took an hour long camel ride back to our jeep and headed back to the fort. We walked around, ate lunch and showered before heading to the train station for my long ride back to Delhi. On the train, Jia and I met a group of Chinese tourists, including an amazing photographer from Shanghai. His pictures are available on www.xfilm.com.cn. At the last minute, I decided to get off at Jaipur and spend the day there instead of back in Delhi. We visited the City Palace there (not that impressive after the City Palace in Udaipur!) and grabbed lunch before I hopped on a bus to Delhi.
International flights into and out of Delhi all seem to take place in the middle of the night. Mine was at 3:45am. The airport was the definition of chaos. It was managed and run with about as much efficiency as a Communist Commune - none of the airport workers seemed to care much about getting anything done. People everywhere pushed and shoved. It took over 30 minutes to get into the airport, where I was then faced with lines to get my bags screened (another 30+ minutes), check in, go through immigration (took more than an hour!) and finally, security screening (another 20 or so minutes). When I finally made it to customs, the customs officer asked me for my ticket several times. I had an e-ticket and no paper ticket. He was unsatisfied with my itinerary (which clearly indicated electronic ticket). You think that after processing thousands of people, he would have understood the concept of an e-ticket. Anyway, if you have been doing the math, yes - the whole process took over 3 hours. Most flights left late because none of their passengers had made it through all of the lines by the time the planes were supposed to leave. Mine unfortunately, was really delayed on top of that. By the time it was 5am and my flight finally boarded, I was exhausted.
I arrived back in Beijing yesterday afternoon. Beijing was as gray and colorless as usual but it was a welcomed sight. The airport there ran with military efficiency. The customs line took less than 10 minutes as usual. Back in my apartment with indoor heating, it felt good to finally feel warm again. I almost could not pull myself out of bed this morning... It's bratty of me to say this, but it felt good to be back in a developed city.
Ultimately, I think India has a lot of potential as a major tourist destination. The architecture, palaces, and temples are amazing, they have an amazing culture to share, but the sanitation and hygiene left a lot to be desired. Men urinated all over the place, treating India like one big public toilet. Cows and stray dogs deficated everywhere. Public health plays a huge impact on development and India has a long way to go. Delhi was much more under developed than I had expected, not at all what I had imagined the capital of a country going through rapid growth and nothing like the capitals of other developing countries I have visited.
Although I hate to praise China's Communist government, China has done a lot more in terms of poverty alleviation and mandatory education. According to Jia's friend in India, only about 50% of the population is literate. There is no compulsory education system. In many ways, the Indian government is failing its people and assuming that the NGO world will step in and fill the gaps. The population is booming and the country really cannot support the growing masses. One of the camel drivers even commented - people in the villages are like animals. They have huge families of more than 10 people but no way to support, feed and educate everyone. It was sad to see. India's rapid development needs to spread to the masses and not only be concentrated among the wealthy, adding to the already huge wealth gap.
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