Omi, our hostel host, even tagged along himself, along with our camel guides/cooks/company for the night. Camels are surprisingly easy to mount, conveniently crouching down for you to hop on board. They're not as uncomfortable to ride as I expected, having been forewarned to expect sore legs. An hour in, and I decided I really liked this mode of transport. They're fast buggers too, I never knew a camel could gallop, especially Lashkmi, who wanted to show that he was faster than all the others, with me desperately trying to drink a bottle of Kingfisher on top.
Kingfisher is the popular beer around these parts incidentally – a cold beer on a camel in the sun being my favourite moment of this trip so far.
We found our spot in the desert and a few mats were laid out and a few more beers were had and a fire was lit. Not by us though, by our Indian guides, who refused to let us do any of the work (we asked a few times – honest). They cooked the food right in front of our beer-swilling faces, proper Rajasthani fare, different to the more general Indian food we'd had up to now, and just as delicious.
Once the food disappeared and the drink really started to flow (whiskey and rum were involved too) the songs started to come out. Each of our guides sang a traditional Rajasthani song in turn, until the baton passed to us. We were reluctant at first, but eventually found our steam. Rattlin' Bog in particular went down a storm (kudos to Gearóid for knowing all the verses). The efforts from the Aussie/Kiwi combo who tagged along proved less successful but all the funnier for it.
The gang
A mix-up in the blanket distribution meant I was bloody freezing after the last embers had cooled, but I was allowed to “drive” the camel all the way back to Pushkar the next morning, which more than made up for it. Oh, and in reference to the title, all camels in India have one hump, the dual-humped variety appear in Africa only.
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