Golden sanddunes and green desert

The camel moves in regular movements. My body is pushed slightly forward, then slight backwards and I concentrate on keeping my back straight. I hold the rope, which is tightened to one of the nostrils of the tall animal, loosely in my hand. My head is about two meters from the ground and my feet are hanging freely from each side of the camel’s back about a meter and a half above the green earth. Yes, green. I am riding through the great Thar desert in north-west India, only 60 km from the Pakistani boarder and everywhere around me the nature is coloured in green. Dry, but green grass is bending under the weight of my sleepy-eyed friend and the desert is covered with smaller trees and bushes in pale green, light brown, grey and other earth colours. For the first time in 6 years, the desert received massive amounts of rainfall during the monsoon and that has turned an otherwise completely dry and drought-suffering desert into a green wonder for the eye. I enjoy the beautiful view from the top of the camel back, listen to the bells of the herds of sheep that pass us and wave at the lonely shepard. Once in a while I turn my head around to smile at Airiin or Sanna who smile back at me from the back of their own camels. At times I laugh at them if their camel has decided to take a little lunch break and stops by the nearest tree to enjoy the tasty leaves with no seemingly interest in following the rest of the camels.
Last week, the three of us went to Jaisalmer in the far east of our state Rajasthan, a 10 hours bus drive from Bali. Jaisalmer is famous for its massive fort and city build in golden sandstones many centuries ago. It lies on the top of a hill in the middle of the desert like a giant throne watching over nature. We were bedazzled by the city with the huge fort gate and old buildings, many exciting things to buy and the whisper of old greater times that seems to roam the fort. Then we decided to do what most people come to Jaisalmer to do: Go on a camel safari. We did not have much time, because our Diwali break was soon coming to a (sad) halt, so we bought a 2-day, 1-night safari.
It was one of the most incredible and fascinating experiences I have had in India until now. Camels are very friendly, and although I have been afraid of just approaching a horse most of my life, not to mention riding on one, it was much easier to control a camel and ride it, than I thought. We went with a group of altogether eight people. The three of us, a British guy named Tom, a Japanese guy named Tzaki (I think), and three camel drivers from whom two of them were boys around 16 years old and the other was a man in his forties. The camel drivers soon turned out to be very inspiring people, extremely friendly and hospital towards us, open-minded and funny. One of the boys, named Ali and the man, named Ramdan spoke English, which they had learned solemnly from talking to tourists. They had been living in the desert in a small village all their lives, and Ramdan had been a camel driver for twenty years. He did not own his own camel, but worked for the ‘village boss’, who owned the camels we were riding on. A camel, he explained, costs around 10,000 rupees (app. 1400 Dkr or 200€) and with their monthly salary of 1500 rp (214 Dkr or 30€) when the season is low and 3000 (428 Dkr or 60€) in the high season, buying a camel remained an unreachable dream for him. I got quite upset when he told me about this, because each of us had paid 1500 rp for the two-days safari. That meant that a considerable amount of the money in fact by far the majority went to the camel owner and the men at our hotel, who had sold us the safari. Bastards. We did ours to try to change this by giving them a very good tip by the end of the safari. Ali had already been working as a camel driver for 6 years, despite his young age. He spoke well English, but was illiterate, because he did not attend school. He was a bright and lively boy, but would probably be bound to be a camel driver the rest of his life. He told me his dream was to own his own camel and he was trying to safe money.
So merely meeting these people was an extraordinary experience, but on top of this, the actual riding of my camel, Sanderi and being in the desert was absolutely amazing. We had lunch in the desert, prepared and served by our guides, who put up a fire in less than five minutes and cooked excellent food in the middle of nowhere. When the evening approached, we reached the actual sand dunes. Wow, what a sight. Like a big sea of golden sand waves. We camped in the dunes and while the camels were freed from their loads and allowed to walk around to find food, our diner was prepared and the sun was setting. I need not tell that the sunset was incredible, giving everything a shade of gold, red and pink. When the darkness fell, the starts started peeking out, one by one, until the whole sky above us was covered with more stars than I have ever seen. I lay awake for hours, just staring at the Milky way and millions of other stars, and thought about the wonder of our heaven. I woke up just before dawn with the first grey light and saw that our guides woke up to start the breakfast fire. I took my blanket, sat on the top of a dune to enjoy the sunset with my eyes, and watched the sky as it changed from pale pink to red and finally bright sunlight. At eight we continued our safari through the sand dunes until it was time to walk back to the green desert and head back.
It was sad to say goodbye to our camel drivers when the safari finally came to a halt in the afternoon of the second day. We stayed in Jaisalmer an extra day to let the last of the dazzling atmosphere of the city and desert sink into our senses. Saturday night we arrived late in Bali after an amazing Diwali break.

It was actually good to come back to the school, mainly because of the lovely children and their priceless smiles and hugs, but getting started with work wasn’t that bad after all. We are now back to our routine and I enjoy the days with work and fooling around with the kids.