The fun part was trying camel kefir (fermented frozen milk, sort of) from unpasturized camel milk and a tiny coffee with unpasturized camel milk. I wouldn't normally try unpasturized anything, but the pasturized items were all gone and I really wanted to try camel ice-cream and milk. I figured that I was close enough to going home that if I got "camel-pox" the lesions wouldn't show up until I was off the plane, thus not causing an issue at immigration. 😇.
One thinks that these babies look fairly large for babies (also, note one of each colour) until you see how large a baby reallly is in the next photo.
"Honestly, Her child is far too old to still be nursing..." say all the other camel mothers.
Also while in Bikaner we visited yet another fort. This one is called Junagarh Fort and it was actually very enjoyable. It was built it 1589 and is as massive as all the other forts we've visited. Those Indian stonemasons really knew how to build a fort. This one I enjoyed because of the colors and ceilings and the doors. Lots and lots of amazing doors.
(This isn't my picture, it's a stock photo) The fort goes is huge, so much larger than this picture shows.
I was trying to be artsy.
Painted doors.
Carved narrow doors.
Inlaid wooden doors.
More painted doors.
Brass doors.
Even little tiny doors. I'm not sure what the purpose of this was. It was about 3 ft high.
And yes, sterling silver doors. Each panel weighs 62 kilos.
I love this picture, the whole fort was a multicolored joy to wander through. Even the ceilings were glorious.
Look up....look waaaaay up....
I love this one, its a "clouds and lightning" playroom. What looks like snakes is actually lightning bolts.
Apparently this was an early water toy. It would get filled with up with water and when the brass knob on the left was turned, the water would stream out of the slot for the young royals to play in.
Back in the day, if a woman was widowed she was expected to live the rest of her life either in confinement or as an outcast, or, they could chose to immolate themselves on the funeral pyre of their husband. Most women actually preferred to burn themselves alive rather than to live. This was called "sati". They were indoctrinated since childhood to believe that a woman is worth nothing without her husband.
Royalty often had many wives, mistresses and concubines and sometimes, after the maharaja's death, all of them as well as their female maids and staff would all commit sati. Occasionally a manservant woud as well, that was called "sato". After one maharaja's death, 35 women chose to burn themselves alive, beleiving that without their man, their lives without him were "worthless". It's hard to look at those handprints and imagine the horrendous ending their lives had.
~~~~~~~~~~~enough of that though.~~~~~~~~~
Bikaner has a huge market that we strolled though. It's huge and it's where a lot of the smaller street vendors buy their produce to sell, as well as where the hotels and restaurants buy the great majority of theirs as well. It was loud and hectic and crowded and fun and smelled of coriander.
Truck after truck pulled in loaded with coriander, I couldn't believe how much.
Also so much okra, cucumber, cabbage, peas, peppers, carrots and tomatoes.
The displays were very clean and organized.
Lots of ginger.
Separating the nice looking peppers from the not so nice.
Final result....lookin' spicy!
You can stop for a drop of masala tea if you want.
This market was massive and went on for what seemed liked blocks and blocks.
Bikaner had some of the most crowded and hectic streets I'd seen in India. The cows were everywhere, this was the worst place for fresh cow poop! So bad that the hawkers here weren't trying to sell goods as much as they wanted to clean your shoes.
The garbage is just burned in random piles in the street. This pile must have had an aerosol can in it because as we walked by there was a huge BANG! and debris flew all over, everyone shouted and ducked. Thought it was a gunshot or a bomb of sorts. Gave me a start.
This was also the worst area I'd seen for begging kids. A lot of other touristy areas, outside forts and museums etc, the kids were not so much begging as they were performing, and then wanting money. They'd generally be fairly well dressed and clean (ish). These kids though, were filthy, and looked so unhealthy, sores on their faces and arms. They would literally claw at each other to get close if they thought you were going to give them money, and then they'd tug at your clothes to get your attention, screaming the whole time. It was really depressing, you know these kids have no future.
But as we walked through the streets we'd see small groups of kids with backpacks on, heading to school, in their uniforms, so there is hope. It's a hard life for most of these people.
As we walked through the incredible maze of twisted amd narrow streets, I couldn't help but worry that I'd get lost, these were the maziest, twistiest and narrowest streets yet. We had taken a tuk-tuk part way, but the walking was just bewildering. Eventually we arrived at these gatesb to a Jain temple. It was really an odd feeling, as we walked though them, becuase it was like the beating heart of the city was muffled and almost silent. All in my mind, no doubt, but it was like I could suddenly breath deeply.
It was another barefoot or socks place, and it was pretty unassuming and ordinary on the outside, except for the marble tiles on the steps.
Until you walked inside and it was so full of colour and life and joy! Small birds were fluttering everyhwere and the artwork was golden and magical.
The holy man (I'm not sure what he should actually be called...priest? Brahmin? I don't know) anyhow, he performed a sort of ceremony where he took poured the colored seeds in a pile, and then held the fingers of one of our girls and drew the swastika . As he held her hand and placed the nuts and seeds in the design, he was chanting and blessing us. We had to touch her arms and shoulders for the karma to flow from him, through her, to us. It was really interesting.
The temple is almost 600 years old and apparently 40,000 kg of ghee (clarified butter) was used in building the foundation. In the summer when the temperature can get as high as 45-50 C, the ghee oozes out in places and the smell is undeniable. I guess there's a lot of truth to this story, the ghee was used in place of water when making the cement as there was a water shortage.
I loved this place, the atmosphere was peaceful and it was just so pretty. And I got a kick out of this; the Brahmin laid a cell phone in the middle of the floor, and arranged us "just so" and took a group selfie of us and the intricately painted ceiling. The spot was so perfect that you'd think the architects of 600 years ago had a vision of future cell phones and photography. The symmetry was perfect...a circle on the floor matched up perfectly with the centre of the dome.
Our awesome guide.
Bikaner was a pretty fascinating place with forts to explore and temples to contemplate in and markets to sample fresh food at and palaces to sleep in and camels to check out and weddings to go to and amazing foods to eat....it had almost everything you could want all rolled into one magical city.
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