Western India is mostly desert and in Rajasthan, camels are very important beasts of burden. So, Froody and I had to take a camel safari in the Thar desert. Actually, we only spent one day and one night in the desert, but after 5 hours of camel riding, it was plenty.
While in Bikaner (former capital of Rajasthan), we stayed here at Vijay's Guesthouse. We had a good time and Vijay was a jovial host, sharing drinks with us on the veranda in the evenings. He was our guide of a day and took us to the neighboring sights, including the Karni Mata temple. It's also known as the rat temple and it's someplace I've been wanting to see for ages. It isn't as big as I thought it would be, but it was crawling with rats! We went in the late afternoon when the crowds were less and the rats were more active. Vijay said he's seen the white rat, but that was 17 years ago. We didn't see it, but enjoyed seeing rat-enthusiasm taken to the extreme! Everyone was praying to the rats. There was one very holy inner-sanctum we weren't allowed into, but I peeked in and saw a woman bowing in front of a shrine, with rats pouring out of it. Vijay said that here Western tourists aren't very common, so some people show Froody (and Pietr) a lot of interest.
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