September 15, 2008
It was on the way to Jaisalmer that I first saw desert sand. We were on a train and the car began to get all dusty. In a few minutes there were layers and layers of dust on the seats. People were closing the windows of the non-a/c sleeper coach we were in, so we had it to do it too. However some of us curious students made our way to the door and stood there for a while in order to feel the sand on our faces as the train zipped through the desert area.
I could not wait for the desert safari we had planned to go on, once we got to Jaisalmer. We had heard from our seniors, of their trip to this interesting place and could not wait to go into the desert on camel back and stay in tents and all of that. Our bubble kind-of burst when we learnt how much the rates seemed to have gone up since the time our senior friends were there. Unfortunately we had not gone through travel agents and so could not negotiate beyond a certain point. So we settled for a safari sans the night in tents.
It was one afternoon that the safari began. We had jeeps to take us from our hotel in the town to the desert and from there it was a camel-back ride.
It was my first ride on a camel and I must say I had a frightening moment when the camel began to get up; one side went up first and thought I was going to fall. Once it was on all fours it was fine.
It was exciting to finally be in the desert and it was fun to be in the caravan going up the dunes and down.
The camel keepers were friendly people who named their camels Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan (I’m not kidding), names of popular Bollywood stars.
A while later we drew to a stop got down from the camels and onto the desert sand. It felt good to be there; only that there were more people than I expected. It was New Years day and there were a lot of tourists doing the desert safari.
After taking a whole lot of pictures, watching some dancers do their thing and watching the sun go down in the desert, we made our way to the desert camp that awaited us. There we had some chai (tea) and settled down for some very Rajasthani entertainment of song and dance around a campfire. This stretched way into the night and culminated in more dance, where we all took turns and joined the dancers around the fire.
Later that night we had a Rajasthani dinner and had the jeeps take us back to our hotel. We might have missed out on the night in the tents but when we left Jaisalmer, I felt that the desert safari was the best part of the trip; an experience of a lifetime.
Note: If you are going on a desert safari, I suggest you go through a good travel agent to avoid being fleeced.
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India
I envy you, you got a lot of travel experience around south India and the rest of India, and you are able to click a lot, I will be always in the driving seat while going past through many scenic locations, and therefore cannot click any nice photographs then.
There's still a lot more travelling to do, Deepu. When u love travelling, you keep feeling that you haven't done enough travelling, alle? Even I think about all the places I haven't been to and envy people who've been there.
Keep travelling.
It's just recently that I started taking pictures during drives and I must say I've been lucky to have got some shots I would have never got otherwise. You should try to do it some time.
Sometimes, I feel bad that hubby's doing all the driving when I get to take in the surroundings to my heart's content. But he tells me, you take the pictures, I'll have a look at them later :D.
Dubai Desert Safari night at desert safari is awesome. Food, dancing. Love it.
Dubai Desert Safari is awesome place.Food ,shisha and bell dance are more attractive activities.I like it so much.
Desert safari
Really so nice blog. This blog everybody help us for travel advice.
Great information and useful for any traveler around the globe.
http://www.overlanderindia.com/desert-safari-in-india.html