India

Bikaner

14 Dec
15 Dec
16 Dec

Introduction and things to do

Bikaner will be the entry point to the longest stage in our stay in India, which will bring us around Rajasthan during two weeks. The charms of Rajasthan are, at this stage, pretty well known and that's why the state is a focal point in the vast majority of the touristic routes. Even though, Bikaner, the fourth bigger rajasthani city, with about 500.000 inhabitants, is still mainly a local commercial hub, and it has been hidden beside other more well known neighbouring cities.

It is probably true that it won't have the charm of others, nor either that many concrete obvious interesting points, but this city right in the middle of the Thar desert, will become a perfect entry to the Rajasthani ambience and lifestyle.

The city itself hosts some palaces and a remarkable fort, but the bigger attractions are in the outskirts. Just to begin, is a perfect place for one of the main activities that we will do in India: a camel excursion in the desert, with overnight under the stars included. Around Bikaner there are a good number of camel breeding farms that will provide us the strongest and most virible animals for our trip.

Also in the sirroundings we can find what it is probably one of the most strange attractions that one can find: the hindu temple of Karni Mata. We will see if I can convince the family to go there, not because it is far away, or difficult to access it, but because the object of reveration here is no more no less than thousands of rats, which are believed to contain the souls of the first devotees to the hindu goddess which gives name to the temple.

Accomodation

If there is somebody with a good reputation in Bikaner, this is mister Vijay Singh, also known with the not necesserily beautiful name of Camel Man. It seems that he organises the best and most reliable camel safaris to the desert and, at the same time, he runs a guest house in the outskirts of Bikaner with shockingly low prices (10 NOK per nit, a room for the 3 of us) and more than interesting extra services. So we will put ourselves in his hands during our stay here, sleeping at his guest house, and going to the desert under his guidance.

Getting there and away

I said yesterday that we will arrive in Bikaner at 00.45. Probably a little bit later, since the indian trains are not specially known for its punctuality. To move around Bikaner, mister Singh offers us a scooter to drive freely around, paying only for the petrol, so we will use it to visit the surrouning graces. We will leave 3 days later, in another overnight train destinantion Jaisalmer

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