I’ve been reminded twice that I didn’t comment on the meal we had with Ashok the other night.
In summary: Nice outdoor restaurant with music and dancers, one obviously for the tourists as there were a bus load of yanks and another group of Brit’s, so clearly one where the guides/drivers take the Ts and they get a free meal.
Food was good however trying to engage with Ashok was a struggle. He enjoyed his phone more than our company!! It is not a situation he was comfortable in.
Staying with things Ashok his young girls FaceTime’d yesterday when we were travelling from Jaipur as they wanted to say hello to us.
He is a smarter man than just a tourist driver as currently he is having a new house built.
All in it will cost him 15 lakh rupees ($300,000) and is being built in bricks (6 rupees each). He has 3 walas working on it, a senior 1000 rupees/day and 2 others at 600 rupees/day. It will be finished in April.
The staggering thing, given he says he is a poor man, is he has already saved the money necessary to fund the building but as we talked further it transpires that he has 3 water supplies that collect rain during the wet season and sufficient water is collected that allows him to sell to others in the dry season for a return of 4.5 lakh rupees ($90,000).
As I said he is a smarter man than just a driver and in his words – new house, daughters married then relax!
Something we have noticed is if I say good morning to an Indian man we have met he will respond appropriately but if Sherry says it she is disregarded.
Today we drove into Bikaner (35kms “that way”) for a day of sightseeing with an English speaking guide – another Minesh.
This Minesh is 28 years old and has been guiding for 2 years. He has taught himself English from watching YouTube and to extend his “catchment” is self learning Italian as a lot of French and Italians visit the area.
He has chosen Italian rather than French as his father has been a guide for 32 years and he can speak English and French so between them they have both languages covered.
Bikaner has 4 main tourist attractions & we visited 3 of them today, a fort, the old town and a camel research institute.
Junagarh Fort – This fort is relatively unique in that it is built on flat ground unlike most others in Rajasthan which are hilltop forts. It was built in the period 1589-1594 in the time of the 6th ruler of Bikaner.
The “Royal family” of Bikaner seems to be well respected with Ganga Singh, who was a favourite of the British Raj, perhaps the most well regarded as he was responsible for bringing electricity, water (Bikaner is a desert city) and trains to Bikaner.
Old Town – from where we had lunch we took a tuk tuk into the old town, an area containing part of the Old Silk Rd. Along that route were traditional haveli buildings. Though they have long since been unused the local authorities have maintained them in very good order.
Through the old town there were “retailers” displaying their wares and Minesh explained what some of the items were.
The Temple is not much from the outside but incredible on the inner, full of colour and ornate carved marble surrounding the central statue of the God
The Camel Institute contained around 280 camels from the 4 different breeds (Bikaneri, Kachchhi, Jaisalmeri, Mewari) which are used in research as they are attempting to breed a clone of the 4 to take advantage of the best of each.
Camels are also breed for sale to the Indian Army.
The last of the 4 attractions we will visit tomorrow is The Temple of the Rats and we have been advised to walk by scraping our feet across the ground for fear of standing on one (of the 35,000)!
It hasn’t rained in Bikaner for 8 months…..before today! It was a little wet riding in the air conditioned Tuk Tuk.
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