Bikaner, Rajasthan

I'm smack in the desert now, in Bikaner, Rajasthan, after surviving the 17 hour train ride getting here. It was cold and boring, but having a bunk I managed to sleep through a pretty good chunk of it, then the last few hours in the morning was pretty interesting scenery through the desert. Today I went to a camel festival that was held in the sand dunes a little ways outside of Bikaner. It was actually fairly mellow by Indian standards, only a few thousand people there. That's because the fair is only about 15 years old, whereas the big camel fair is the one in Pushkar, also in Rajasthan, where I went the first time I was in India and had the photo taken of me sitting on the grinning camel (which my brother Christo then photo-shopped Santa hats on me and the camel for an X-mas card). Anyway camels are pretty darn cool, they look like some kind of weird creature out of Star Wars, and they're really big around here, seem almost as tall as elephants. Watching them race was pretty funny as they aren't the most graceful of creatures, although they definitely have a certain appeal. There were also horse races there but the camels were much more interesting.

So, Bikaner is a nice little city, it's about 600,000 people apparently, but doesn't feel like it at all. By Indian standards it's quite relaxed and easygoing and the pollution isn't nearly as bad as most other cities. But it has tons of character, the people are extremely friendly and it certainly feels a long ways from the mountains, by comparison I feel as if I'm in the Middle East, except for the lack of many Muslims. I was actually expecting to see more Muslims in this area, being so close to Pakistan. But it seems that isn't the major factor, there are towns and cities in south India, a long ways from here, that still have major Muslim populations. I'm assuming that's simply a matter of those who decided to stay whereever they were during the time of India's partition in 1947, when Pakistan and Bangladesh were created.

But the other nice thing about being here is that it's warmer and I think the desert air is a good thing for my cold, which I'm mostly over, other than a lingering cough. I'll probably stay here a few more days to see the sights, then I'll be headed to Jaiselmer. It's supposed to be really touristy, but for good reason, it's apparently a very romantic and beautiful small town way out in the desert, with an awesome fort and mystically scenic desert surroundings. It sounds like another good place to stay for a while, so I'll likely hang out there for a week or two, and enjoy the tourist amenities, after being out in the boondocks there for a while. Omelettes for breakfast, yum! A man can only live on peanut butter and bananas for so long...