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indiagain » Journals » The Tale of Simon E and The Lonesome Desert Cowboys, Part 2
The Tale of Simon E and The Lonesome Desert Cowboys, Part 2
Wow, hope you've had a rest... There's still quite a lot of diary left to be read, so brew a cuppa and get ready! ;o)
DAY 4 of Camel Safari Pushkar-Jodhpur, 17.11.2008
Holy shit, this trip (both the safari but also the whole India trip) is just getting better and better. The last hour or so I've been half-sleeping to the sound of Rajasthani wedding soungs + drumming. I've slept on a roof tonight - woke up at about 3am; the moon was so beautiful and I am/was so happy.
Yesterday, I wrote down about two pages of weird and wonderful notes. In Pushkar I bought a new notebook (camel leather inbound, bien sur) + two other relatively small boos for whatever + a gi-normous photoalbum. It could hardly fit into my large rucksack!
Anyway, I noted yesterday that Babu does not know the word 'soil'. He simply didn't know what I was talking about. The same with the sweet Rajput family. But yesterday, Babu told me something funny: camels could fall if rocks were too big or if there was too much water OR(!) if they were walking in 'black sand'. Black sand - I find it so fantastic that the desert people of Rajasthan do not call it soul, but black sand...
Oh, and notes on camels:
- (more about the pains of camel spines!)
- Camels are relatively intelligent as I've noted before. But only in some aspects and to some extent. Camels shit when they eat and piss while they're drinking. They will gladly lie in their own feces. They have control over their penis and can direct their piss pretty much anywhere they want. They choose their legs! - for some disgusting reason, they always piss down their own legs..!
...........................................................
That was notes on camels. Yesterday, we arrived in a small village in the middle of nowhere. Jitu has an auntie here, so we dropped in for a visit. God, suddenly twenty people were stacked into the 5*5m. rrom that I was in. Everyone wanted a look at the gora log (= white man). The people are fantastical! Happy, welcoming. Indian with a gigantic I! While Babu and Jitu unsaddled the camels, several of them began babbgling on in Hindi, indifferent to the fact that I could not understand them. We took loads of pics; all of them (the people in the village) were vert fascinated by the camera. After a while Babu told me that they'd never had a gora log visiting their village! They've probably had gora logs passing thorugh, but never stopping in. Amazing...
With Babu as my interpreter I found out that the village people don't use kilometers/the metric system. They have another measurement pronounced 'cause'; one cause equals about 3 kilometers. Apparently, we've done about 16 cause today (48km). A camel does between 5-6 kms/hour so... yeah well, it being 60-65 kms to Jodhpur from here, we should actually be able to arrive tonight. But Babu has plans for doing something else. Tomorrow evening we'll arrive there though - that's been the plan all along.
NEWS! On arriving in Johdpur I won't need a hotel. Babu and Jitu have family there, so we'll stay with them. The next day Jitu (who isn't actually a camel driver but a rickshaw-wallah and 'gangleader'(!)/member instead) will fit us with a rickshaw for the day and we'll see all the sights, go the the cinema, etc. AND! Everything incl. my bus/train ticket will be the Indian price! ;o) Fantastic!
This is what I noted yesterday:
"Oh my God, I'm in a village where they've never seen/had white people visiting! I just went for a piss. They don't even have a hole in the fucking ground! - just a slope down to a small hole in the wall; and the piss then flows out into the street in open gutters!"
Tjese were my thoughts yesterday. Going to sleep helped me digest the impressions though, and I've now realized that the dear people let me have a wee in their bathroom/shower room. They didn't want to tell me to go out into the street and piss directly in the gutters. I desperately need a shit now though, and I've got no clue whatsoever where to have a dump in the light of day. I've already attracted two little boys from downstairs / they've now been looking at me writing for the best of 10 minutes! If I go down to the street level, I'll never get peace. The townis still blissfully unaware of my presence here in town (I think) but... I bet if I went down to the street to defacate, I'd have a large crowd entertained by my bowel movements.
Enough of that. I'll wait until Babu gets up, then have him show me a 'safe haven'! :)
.........................................................................
Haha, just been to the local public toilet. 'Tis a deserted area of town where everyone goes in the morning time for a crap. They all carry 1L. bottles of water and then get down to business while talking about bowel movements and World politics! :)) I luckily escaped most spectators, but it did take some convincing looks before my host pissed off and did his own thing, rather than keeping an eye on me! :))
I came to the desert to have a peaceful time; I wanted the silence of the desert + the pain of the riding to be a form of meditation for me. Instead, we're drinking daily. Whenever visiting Indian families here in Rajasthan, you'll be invited (read, forced) to drink with them. If you say yes it won't just be one small shot! - it'll be 5 great big glasses full of "whisky" - whisky being brown acid piss directly from the penis of Beelsebub!
Jitu's aunt downed a great big jug of the stuff without the slightest flich - she drank it like it was bloody paani (water). I tried to imitate her; my throat nearly melted! ;o) We all ended up drinking/sharing a bottle and Jitu got embarrasingly drunk. We all had great fun taking pictures of him and clapping him on the back and top of his head. :) Today, we'll surely show him the pics with much mirth!
Apparently, the tradition is to drink then eat here in Rajasthan. I told Babu that we reverse it in DK (I believe in all of Europe). It's mad to drink that much, dance around, and party - then! you get your dinner at about 10-11pm. - soon after that you go to bed, full of fatty food.
DAY 5 of Camel Safari Pushkar-Jodhpur, 18.11.2008
I've got loads of notes and remarks on the last five days. Right now though, I'm just looking forward to a last day of riding. I'm planning on doing an all-day ride today. Could be painful, but hell - I've got plenty of time to heal afterwards! :)
Something that's worrying me a bit is my bowels. The last few days my stools have had a last small 'blob' of bloody slime/goo. Bad business for sure.. :(
.........................................................................................
The day has gone/ We're now at Jitu's uncle's place, I think. He's a policeman here in Jopdhpur - a medium-sized man with a proud paunch! His house is in a special police district - I think there are only police families living here. SOO (!) strange to come here. The last 15 kms were citylike, the last 3-5 big style city. Camels and heavy traffic don't fit well, but the camels did well - no panic.
The family is of course very nice - again they are so-so honoured that I've chosen to visit them. I in turn am also honoured. It's excactly this travelling is all about. Mingling with locals, nnot white people - Israelis fx are terrible at coming to India and then only talking to other Israelis; they don't even speak to other tourists most of the time.
My stomach has given me a load of trouble today. Last day of safari wasn't as good as I'd wished - stomach cramps and flatulence en masse! ;-) Aaah! Just went to the toilet. - I blasted it everywhere including up the back wall! Ooh... :( AND! I've had really good experience with washing the Indian way (they don't use toilet paper over here, just water and a left hand), but now my fingers stink of diarrhoea. OMG!
.........................................................................................
Writing on eventhough it's been a couple of days. (wrote this the 20th)
On the night of my arrival in Jodhpur I bought beer and whisky for everyone. 610Rs worth of booze! We then started drinking. An irritating custom in Indian is that young men aren't allowed to drink in front of their elders. I was allowed (of course, 'cause I'm the tourist gora log guest), but Babu and Jitu had to go outside and sit by themselves.
Jitu's father who was also visiting drank 30cl. of whisky in about 20 minutes and soon passed out. Oh, and I made a mistake: in India everyone pours their drink, then the oldest guy starts, then everyone else can start. I poured the beers, then straight away took a much needed swig! - but no worries, everyone was happy anyway. :)
We kept on drinking until about 11pm. Tradition in India is that you must drink before eating - preferably emptying every bottle in the house! :) Eating then begins, a tedious affair where the guest is served first - the host the sits and stares and forces more food on you constantly. After eating you go straight to bed. Strange way of doing things. No wonder the men all have little beer bellies - everything they eat in the evenings goes straight to the paunch! :)
Sleeping there was quite terrible. It was boling hot in the room and mosquitos swarmed around my face all night long.
.......................................................................................
NEXT DAY! ;-)
Woke up at about 5.30 with my host shouting at his son to get up. Fell asleep again. Woke up at 6.30 with the wife fidgeting around in our room. Fell asleep again. Finally got up at about 7am when the noise was too much. The children who'd been so unceremoniously woken at 6am hadn't left yet. God knows what they been doing all morning.
Babu, Jitu and I escaped at about 8am. I booked a ticket to Varanasiu and we went for breakfast.
Strange India. Babu casually dropped the message that he and Jitu would not be joining me in Jodhpur sight-seeing as we'd planned and agreed upon. Instead, they wanted to head off as fasst as possible. After asking a few times I found out a friend of Babu's had called him - two German girls were waiting to go from Pushkar to Jodhpur! So Babu and Jitu would race back, only to take the more than 200kms trip back to Jodhpur again-again. Poor bastards, but major money (and chance of chut!) :o)
Babu also told me that it'd probably be a good idea to flee Jitu's policeman uncle's home. Breakfast that day was supposed to be mutton at their place, but Babu told me that they'd expect me to buy the meat! :) I'd spent a bloody fortune of booze but a gora log is a gora log, rich and giving, non?! ;)
So, Babu helped me to lie about my trains' departure time, and I escaped another hair raising night in that home. Oh, the kids were cute, but one of the girls constantly nicked my camera and started taking nonsense pics of anything and everything. My troup of Lonesome Desert Cowboys joined me a last time in finding my hotel. Goodbye was very strange. We all, especially Babu and I, had grown to appreciate each others company, so it was with a heavy heart that I paid them their money + a tip and we split up. "Take care, Gora Log", "Hope you score some German chut, Gara Log." :o)
So ends The Tales of Simon E and The Desert Cowboys. Or almost, cause before getting on the train to Varanassi I had half a day of adventures in Jodhpur.
But that's a later blog I think...
All the best everybody. Hope you enjoyed (and hope Mum and Grandma survived),
Simon E ;)
DAY 4 of Camel Safari Pushkar-Jodhpur, 17.11.2008
Holy shit, this trip (both the safari but also the whole India trip) is just getting better and better. The last hour or so I've been half-sleeping to the sound of Rajasthani wedding soungs + drumming. I've slept on a roof tonight - woke up at about 3am; the moon was so beautiful and I am/was so happy.
Yesterday, I wrote down about two pages of weird and wonderful notes. In Pushkar I bought a new notebook (camel leather inbound, bien sur) + two other relatively small boos for whatever + a gi-normous photoalbum. It could hardly fit into my large rucksack!
Anyway, I noted yesterday that Babu does not know the word 'soil'. He simply didn't know what I was talking about. The same with the sweet Rajput family. But yesterday, Babu told me something funny: camels could fall if rocks were too big or if there was too much water OR(!) if they were walking in 'black sand'. Black sand - I find it so fantastic that the desert people of Rajasthan do not call it soul, but black sand...
Oh, and notes on camels:
- (more about the pains of camel spines!)
- Camels are relatively intelligent as I've noted before. But only in some aspects and to some extent. Camels shit when they eat and piss while they're drinking. They will gladly lie in their own feces. They have control over their penis and can direct their piss pretty much anywhere they want. They choose their legs! - for some disgusting reason, they always piss down their own legs..!
...........................................................
That was notes on camels. Yesterday, we arrived in a small village in the middle of nowhere. Jitu has an auntie here, so we dropped in for a visit. God, suddenly twenty people were stacked into the 5*5m. rrom that I was in. Everyone wanted a look at the gora log (= white man). The people are fantastical! Happy, welcoming. Indian with a gigantic I! While Babu and Jitu unsaddled the camels, several of them began babbgling on in Hindi, indifferent to the fact that I could not understand them. We took loads of pics; all of them (the people in the village) were vert fascinated by the camera. After a while Babu told me that they'd never had a gora log visiting their village! They've probably had gora logs passing thorugh, but never stopping in. Amazing...
With Babu as my interpreter I found out that the village people don't use kilometers/the metric system. They have another measurement pronounced 'cause'; one cause equals about 3 kilometers. Apparently, we've done about 16 cause today (48km). A camel does between 5-6 kms/hour so... yeah well, it being 60-65 kms to Jodhpur from here, we should actually be able to arrive tonight. But Babu has plans for doing something else. Tomorrow evening we'll arrive there though - that's been the plan all along.
NEWS! On arriving in Johdpur I won't need a hotel. Babu and Jitu have family there, so we'll stay with them. The next day Jitu (who isn't actually a camel driver but a rickshaw-wallah and 'gangleader'(!)/member instead) will fit us with a rickshaw for the day and we'll see all the sights, go the the cinema, etc. AND! Everything incl. my bus/train ticket will be the Indian price! ;o) Fantastic!
This is what I noted yesterday:
"Oh my God, I'm in a village where they've never seen/had white people visiting! I just went for a piss. They don't even have a hole in the fucking ground! - just a slope down to a small hole in the wall; and the piss then flows out into the street in open gutters!"
Tjese were my thoughts yesterday. Going to sleep helped me digest the impressions though, and I've now realized that the dear people let me have a wee in their bathroom/shower room. They didn't want to tell me to go out into the street and piss directly in the gutters. I desperately need a shit now though, and I've got no clue whatsoever where to have a dump in the light of day. I've already attracted two little boys from downstairs / they've now been looking at me writing for the best of 10 minutes! If I go down to the street level, I'll never get peace. The townis still blissfully unaware of my presence here in town (I think) but... I bet if I went down to the street to defacate, I'd have a large crowd entertained by my bowel movements.
Enough of that. I'll wait until Babu gets up, then have him show me a 'safe haven'! :)
.........................................................................
Haha, just been to the local public toilet. 'Tis a deserted area of town where everyone goes in the morning time for a crap. They all carry 1L. bottles of water and then get down to business while talking about bowel movements and World politics! :)) I luckily escaped most spectators, but it did take some convincing looks before my host pissed off and did his own thing, rather than keeping an eye on me! :))
I came to the desert to have a peaceful time; I wanted the silence of the desert + the pain of the riding to be a form of meditation for me. Instead, we're drinking daily. Whenever visiting Indian families here in Rajasthan, you'll be invited (read, forced) to drink with them. If you say yes it won't just be one small shot! - it'll be 5 great big glasses full of "whisky" - whisky being brown acid piss directly from the penis of Beelsebub!
Jitu's aunt downed a great big jug of the stuff without the slightest flich - she drank it like it was bloody paani (water). I tried to imitate her; my throat nearly melted! ;o) We all ended up drinking/sharing a bottle and Jitu got embarrasingly drunk. We all had great fun taking pictures of him and clapping him on the back and top of his head. :) Today, we'll surely show him the pics with much mirth!
Apparently, the tradition is to drink then eat here in Rajasthan. I told Babu that we reverse it in DK (I believe in all of Europe). It's mad to drink that much, dance around, and party - then! you get your dinner at about 10-11pm. - soon after that you go to bed, full of fatty food.
DAY 5 of Camel Safari Pushkar-Jodhpur, 18.11.2008
I've got loads of notes and remarks on the last five days. Right now though, I'm just looking forward to a last day of riding. I'm planning on doing an all-day ride today. Could be painful, but hell - I've got plenty of time to heal afterwards! :)
Something that's worrying me a bit is my bowels. The last few days my stools have had a last small 'blob' of bloody slime/goo. Bad business for sure.. :(
.........................................................................................
The day has gone/ We're now at Jitu's uncle's place, I think. He's a policeman here in Jopdhpur - a medium-sized man with a proud paunch! His house is in a special police district - I think there are only police families living here. SOO (!) strange to come here. The last 15 kms were citylike, the last 3-5 big style city. Camels and heavy traffic don't fit well, but the camels did well - no panic.
The family is of course very nice - again they are so-so honoured that I've chosen to visit them. I in turn am also honoured. It's excactly this travelling is all about. Mingling with locals, nnot white people - Israelis fx are terrible at coming to India and then only talking to other Israelis; they don't even speak to other tourists most of the time.
My stomach has given me a load of trouble today. Last day of safari wasn't as good as I'd wished - stomach cramps and flatulence en masse! ;-) Aaah! Just went to the toilet. - I blasted it everywhere including up the back wall! Ooh... :( AND! I've had really good experience with washing the Indian way (they don't use toilet paper over here, just water and a left hand), but now my fingers stink of diarrhoea. OMG!
.........................................................................................
Writing on eventhough it's been a couple of days. (wrote this the 20th)
On the night of my arrival in Jodhpur I bought beer and whisky for everyone. 610Rs worth of booze! We then started drinking. An irritating custom in Indian is that young men aren't allowed to drink in front of their elders. I was allowed (of course, 'cause I'm the tourist gora log guest), but Babu and Jitu had to go outside and sit by themselves.
Jitu's father who was also visiting drank 30cl. of whisky in about 20 minutes and soon passed out. Oh, and I made a mistake: in India everyone pours their drink, then the oldest guy starts, then everyone else can start. I poured the beers, then straight away took a much needed swig! - but no worries, everyone was happy anyway. :)
We kept on drinking until about 11pm. Tradition in India is that you must drink before eating - preferably emptying every bottle in the house! :) Eating then begins, a tedious affair where the guest is served first - the host the sits and stares and forces more food on you constantly. After eating you go straight to bed. Strange way of doing things. No wonder the men all have little beer bellies - everything they eat in the evenings goes straight to the paunch! :)
Sleeping there was quite terrible. It was boling hot in the room and mosquitos swarmed around my face all night long.
.......................................................................................
NEXT DAY! ;-)
Woke up at about 5.30 with my host shouting at his son to get up. Fell asleep again. Woke up at 6.30 with the wife fidgeting around in our room. Fell asleep again. Finally got up at about 7am when the noise was too much. The children who'd been so unceremoniously woken at 6am hadn't left yet. God knows what they been doing all morning.
Babu, Jitu and I escaped at about 8am. I booked a ticket to Varanasiu and we went for breakfast.
Strange India. Babu casually dropped the message that he and Jitu would not be joining me in Jodhpur sight-seeing as we'd planned and agreed upon. Instead, they wanted to head off as fasst as possible. After asking a few times I found out a friend of Babu's had called him - two German girls were waiting to go from Pushkar to Jodhpur! So Babu and Jitu would race back, only to take the more than 200kms trip back to Jodhpur again-again. Poor bastards, but major money (and chance of chut!) :o)
Babu also told me that it'd probably be a good idea to flee Jitu's policeman uncle's home. Breakfast that day was supposed to be mutton at their place, but Babu told me that they'd expect me to buy the meat! :) I'd spent a bloody fortune of booze but a gora log is a gora log, rich and giving, non?! ;)
So, Babu helped me to lie about my trains' departure time, and I escaped another hair raising night in that home. Oh, the kids were cute, but one of the girls constantly nicked my camera and started taking nonsense pics of anything and everything. My troup of Lonesome Desert Cowboys joined me a last time in finding my hotel. Goodbye was very strange. We all, especially Babu and I, had grown to appreciate each others company, so it was with a heavy heart that I paid them their money + a tip and we split up. "Take care, Gora Log", "Hope you score some German chut, Gara Log." :o)
So ends The Tales of Simon E and The Desert Cowboys. Or almost, cause before getting on the train to Varanassi I had half a day of adventures in Jodhpur.
But that's a later blog I think...
All the best everybody. Hope you enjoyed (and hope Mum and Grandma survived),
Simon E ;)
Journal info
India- simonsaysnamaste
- Comments: 0
Photos
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Lonesome Cowboy Jitu looking cool with Indian RayBans. :)
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Lonesome Cowboy Babu having a great (read hazardous) time on Krishna The Camel.
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This is how real bicycle posters should look like. Hot babes in tight latex biking around India. Yehaa! :)
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Krishna The Camel looking very charming on a hot Rajasthani day.
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Jitu's family + all the neighbors children + a few extra that I never found out who was.
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A ridiculous spicy dish mad entirely with green chilies and spinach. The chapatti connaiseur will notice the big brownish chapatti on the plate; this is a typically Rajasthani 'brown chapatti' - heavy as lead, dry as a dead dingoes donglers, but very filling and tasty nonetheless! :)
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Drunk Lonesome Cowboy - Indian men are pathetic drinkers, really. Their size of course doesn't help, but... Shit, Jitu was completely sloshed after only a few swigs of the, admittedly, very strong evil whisky.
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Did I write about this in the blog? - can't remember. Well, I've now got a sister in India. This gal. It's Jitu's aunt, and through a series of strange ceremonies, she is now my sister! :) What that means? - no idea, other than that I've now got a golden ribbon tied around my wrist.
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My sister's daughter. Oh, my sister's name is Seema by the way! ;) I don't remember whether this one's also my sister... it all got a bit strange, I must admit. The next day Babu handed me 100Rs. that I had to give Seema. Seema then tried to make me give her daughter some money too, so.. maybe that was the point with the whole brother-sister thing (bhai-bhen thing in Hindi!)... Hmm.. Sly bi-atch! :o)
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Lonesome Cowboys feeling very cheery in the company of women, booze, and good food. From the left: Jitu-bhai, Gora Log, Babu-bhai. :)
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The dancing started and I tried playing a bit of jazz on the strange little instrument on the pic. It's basically an accordion, but I can't remember what they call it.
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NEW! Simon E dancing, and for once enjoying himself. Everyone was having a great time and I've got about 20 photos of Jitu and I giving it everything we had to give on the 2 square-meter dancefloor! ;)
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Naughty move, Simon E, naughty move, indeed! :))
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Brilliant evening...
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By chance, I spotted this prey mantis on Krishna's nose. Isn't the best pic ever, but I can tell you that this little fellow wasn't much bigger than a medium-sized fly. Aha! :)
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Hmmm....
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Group of fans outside the protecting wall of my 20-minute asylum. We stopped in for a cuppa, and the whole village gathered outside and on top of the surrounding wall. Children were even lying flat on the ground, trying to spot me under the metal gate. Crazy what a gora log can make people do.
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The Lonesome Cowboys being chased out of town by a mob of excited children! :)
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Krishna having himself a well-earned sand-bath while some Indian brats intrude on the photo!
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The Gora Log finally making himself useful! Camel fodder en masse, dearly bought of some nearby farmers.
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Lonesome Hillbilly Babu-bhai! :)
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Amazing old guy. In his young days he was in the Indian army, fighting on the border to Pakistan. In one of the battles, both his brothers were killed - he and two others were the only survivers out of a force of 1000 men. Pretty nasty.
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Nice pic. This is our last stop before heading into Jodhpur, 20 kms away. I look relaxed but I was dying of bad stomach cramps and didn't have lunch. Poor ol' Babu didn't eat any either, too worried about me! :-/ :)
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Camels and Cowboys in the big city. Oohh.. We did feel very misplaced though. The noises and the smells were quite too much after so many days of complete silence in the desert. Much can be said about camel farts, but they are a lot better than the smelly smog of tuctuc-filled cities!
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Our last host's beautiful little princess of a daughter. She was literally forced to perform for us - unwilling at first, but after a few seconds, she was dancing like a champ. :)
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So long, Lonesome Cowboys. The last pic before heading off to The Cozy Guest House in the old part of Jodhpur.
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