le moustache

The week before last, we had our semester break (4 days off + a weekend) so some of us took a trip to the desert. Rajasthan is the western desert part of the country and I think it may be my favorite part of India that I have visited so far. The history and culture there is really unique, and I found the people very friendly and interesting. Not to mention the guys have a really awesome look. They often have huge ridiculous moustaches, super slick hair, earrings, and some snappy clothes. I made sure to grow out my moustache real big before we went, which needless to say got me some strange looks and many comments.

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His name was "dinner". I miss him

Anyway, after a longgggg night train sitting next to a loudly snoring Indian man, we arrived in Jaisalmer. Its way out in the west, pretty close to Pakistan. There is an old beautiful fort there and what makes it special is that people still live in it. We walked around a bit, but really didn’t have too much time, since we spent the day trying to arrange a trip to the desert. The popular thing to do in Jaisalmer is to go on a “camel safari”. Basically some Indian guys lead you around on camels for a couple days and you sleep in the dunes. Im sure there is a wide range of options available, but obviously we were going for the cheaper end of things. So for $10/day they take you out, and cook your meals and provide your bed (a mat and a blanket in the sand). Its a bit awkward to be led through the desert by some poor Indian guys wearing flip flops while youre riding a camel, wearing your “desert” clothes and taking pictures, but it’s pretty fun. They also take you to villages which is also awkward, since you don’t know if the people there are happy to have you come and talk with them and take pictures or if theyre just tired of these dumb white tourists on camels bothering them. Either way, they were friendly, and you end up buying some sodas, beer, or a goat from them. We bought all 3… About the goat, apparently a small goat should cost about 1000 rs, we payed double, and a nice guy in the village accidentally told us, but we had to keep quiet or we would cause trouble for his family (he was visiting from the city). Our guides butchered and cooked the goat for us that night. It was tasty, but in the dark you didn’t really know what you were eating… Riding camels gets old pretty fast, but the reason to go (and the reason we stayed 2 nights) was to sleep out in the sand dunes. Theres almost no light pollution and few clouds so you can see the stars extremely well.

The aftermath

So now for the exciting part of the trip. The first night, we were finished dinner and going to sit around the fire. We had already seen a few scorpions and made jokes about them (after killing them), and of course I put my hand down to clear some wood away and I got stung by a huge one on my finger. I started jumping around and screaming. Everyone thought I was joking. I wasn’t. That shit hurts! The guides held my finger really tight, and applied their Indian remedy: cover the bite with toothpaste and sugar. Also don’t drink water. It hurt but was bearable and I was fairly calm. They tied my kafia (scarf) around my finger real tight, and around my wrist to stop the blood from coming up to my torso and I was instructed to just go to sleep. Now luckily I happened to have some heavy duty painkillers left over from my wisdom teeth in my toiletry bag, so at least I had something, but it really didn’t help much. As the night went on, the pain grew worse and worse, and spread up my arm to my shoulder. The guides told me to wake them up if I had any problem, and twice it was bad enough that I did. But they insisted that it wasn’t a big deal and by the time we made it to a hospital I would be better, although they had already told me a few times throughout the night that it would be better in an hour or so. I was just rolling around moaning in pain until I somehow managed to pass out around 6am. It was by far the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced and I really wouldn’t recommend being stung by a scorpion to anyone… The next morning my hand was HUGE and totally numb. Whenever I touched my finger I had a strong  pins and needles sensation in my whole hand. It started getting a bit better throughout the day and I could bend it a bit more by night.

That night some of us ate some bhang cookies that we had bought in Jaisalmer. Of course I couldn’t resist buying one of the “extra super duper strong” ones (those were his exact words) to try and so I spent the entire night in my sleeping bag, flying through the cosmos and being extra afraid of scorpions… I even once thought I felt something on my legs and magically hopped out of my sleeping bag into a standing position in record time. So despite the scorpion incident, the trip was amazing. If you’re in that area, definitely go on a camel safari, and try to go for 2 nights, but see if you can get a discount for leaving early the 3rd day. We payed for 3 days but left in the morning of the last day.