November 9th, 2016

Day 225: Bikaner

Not gonna lie: Lindsay did not take the news of Trump’s victory well. Once Trump was 6 votes away from the presidency, Igor told her, “It’s over,” and she burst into tears.

“But I don’t want to move to Namibia! I…want…to…go…HOME!” She wailed, convinced that America was spiraling into an anarchistic wasteland, ruled by a misogynistic despot. Igor tried to reason with her that things were not *that* bad, and that we would definitely be going home at the end of our trip, regardless of who was president. It took a couple days to talk her down from the imaginary precipice of expatriatism, during which time our driver was perpetually worried as to why Lindsay was so upset.

“Madam…why are you so angry?”

 

The day started so well, with half a dozen different fresh fruits for breakfast…too bad the election results made Lindsay want to hurl like the previous passenger of this bus…

In addition to Lindsay’s political worries back home, we also had the more immediate problem of the ban on Indian 500 and 1000 rupee notes to worry about. We had only broken one of our 500 notes so far, so we only had about USD $6 in valid liquid cash. Luckily, our driver is a very crafty fellow, and cleverly forced toll agents and restauranteurs to not only continue taking our big bills, but also getting change! By the time we reached Bikaner that afternoon, we had *just* enough money to buy our entry tickets into the fort.

 

Trying to pay for tolls and monument admission fees is proving very difficult with our now worthless 500 rupee notes. Many toll agents eventually let us through without paying (a few days later, Modi decides to suspend all tolls for a week until people get access to more cash). Monuments, however, have no sympathy for tourists without small bills. Luckily for us, we had just enough 100 notes to get into the Bikaneer Fort – we passed dozens of disappointed tourists who were on a bus tour standing outside the entrance after being denied tickets

 

The Junagarh Fort in Bikaner is too pretty to be a military base!

 

The fort contains several palaces. Apparently each new raja didn’t want to live in his predecessor’s “leftovers,” so new and more elaborately beautiful courtyards were built. The resulting fort is a mosaic of architectural styles that span over 300 years

 

Fancy doors decorate one of the many courtyards – some colorfully painted, others made from silver

 

Swords on display within the palace – Igor loves the gem encrusted hilts

 

The private meeting room in the Anup Mahal palace is insanely bling – the walls are covered in gold leaf and mosaics made of rubies and diamonds!

 

From the rooftop of the palace we can see into the private interior gardens

 

The grand, cathedral-like coronation room is decorated with intricately carved wood panels

 

One of the rajas fought in the British Army during WWI and brought home an aeroplane as a souvenir

After exploring the fort, we drove to the National Camel Research Center just outside of town. The compound is home to over 400 camels, of which there are three different breeds (but all are dromedaries). Since this area of Rajasthan is within the Thar Desert, camels are extremely important livestock to the local people. Obviously, transportation is at the top of the list for uses (the camel is called the “Ship of the Desert” out here), but they are also milked, their fur is used to make wool carpets and clothing, and once they die of natural causes, their bones are used as an alternative to elephant ivory (which is a banned substance in India) for handicrafts.

The Research Center’s mission is mainly focused on husbandry and disease treatment and prevention, but according to our guide, there is also a “loaner program” with local farmers where they can “swap out” sick or old camels for healthy ones! Of course, they also provide tourists activities such as camel rides and a Milk Parlour where you can taste camel ice cream! We couldn’t try any of the milk products for sale as we didn’t have enough change – Lindsay was disappointed to miss out, but Igor was relieved as the milk isn’t pasteurized.

 

Igor is absolutely delighted to visit the 400+ camels at the National Research Centre on Camels – he’d pet every single one if he could!

 

It’s like a big dog! This camel doesn’t spit – he just wants some affectionate scratches

We finished up the day with a quick visit to the marketplace (where we were able to get a little more change!) before heading back to our hotel. Despite the political and financial drama in America and India, the sun continues to rise in the east and set in the west…tomorrow will hopefully be a better day.

 

We take a short walk through the marketplace where a spice merchant agrees to break one of our defunct 500 rupee notes for change…provided we purchase 200 rupees worth of cinnamon bark and cardamom pods

 

We both desperately need a bottle of beer tonight – we order dinner at our hotel’s rooftop restaurant and try to (calmly) come to terms with current events