I took a night train from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer that cost me a whopping $4.22 USD.  I got there early morning but I already made prearrangements to have someone pick me up, so was able to avoid the rickshaw mafia for once.  With him and me on one motorcycle, wedging all 3 of my bags somewhere on the bike, we took off for the hostel.  I’ve been packing pretty heavy in India with the extra light kit bag.

The hostel was simple but I liked it for a few reasons: 1) it was inside the fort and my room was inside an old tower.  When I took a shower I had a little window that overlooked the city, on top of the bay window in my room. 2) it was only $4.45 per-night, which made it a steal for me.

I wish I could say the rest was just as great but I can’t.  The deals stop for me there as I ended up taking the worse tour to date in India later that day.  When I checked into the hostel, the guy asked me if I wanted to do a camel trek out to the desert.  Said yes I would because that was the big reason why I came there. I didn’t care so much about riding on a camel as I just wanted to get deep into the desert away from any light pollution and try some long night exposure photographs.

The guy laid out the two options and neither seemed all that great but one option had 3 Danish girls going on it, which sounded more fun then being all by myself, plus figured if they thought it was good, then it couldn’t be that bad.  I was WRONG!

I paid 2,500Rs ($55 USD) for an over night camel trek, that included:

• Jeep to get outside the city and back (a 45min long journey)
• 1 camel for me to ride
• Water and all vegetarian food
• Blankets and gear for camping

I knew I was paying too much but I only had about 30min to decided if I wanted in or out, as they were leaving that morning.  The guy at the hostel said he wouldn’t charge me the first night of accommodation since I would be gone… after he said that I said deal.  What an idiot I was for letting myself get rushed on a decision and for not looking around first.

The camel tour was nothing more then us getting on them, riding them out a little ways and back, a complete waste of money if you ask me.  The first day we rode for 1 hour to some tree, where we had lunch.  The food was the awful, as it tasted like sand.  No serious, it had more sand in it then flavoring.  We ended up staying under that tree for 4-5hrs and I was bored out of my mind.  Afterwards we finally got back on the camels, rode another 1.5hrs to a little village, which was accessible by a paved road.   Yeah, really getting off the beaten track here but at this point I didn’t care as I just wanted to set up camp and wait for the stars to come out.

We stayed at the village for an hour and our guide asked us if we’d like a cold soda.  Hell yeah, as the water we had tasted like it had been boiled.  Then we found out it was like 50Rs, which was double what it should have been.  I didn’t care, as I would of killed for a cold drink by that time.  We got a little tour of the village by a 10 year-old boy.  There was a wedding going on but I got yelled at from a crazy lady for shooting a photo of some kids playing, which has never happened to me in India yet.  To be fair a man came up and told us we could take photos of anything we liked but at that point I didn’t really care to after crazy lady took me out of the mood for it.

We finally left and rode the camels for another 1.5hrs until the guide found a “perfect” spot for us to set-up camp.  The two guides started making dinner and I decided it was time to actually take a photo of something.  The sun was setting, so I asked the Danish girls if they wanted to model for me.  They were down for it and that was basically the only photograph’s I got worth a crap from the whole trip.

When the sun finally set and it got dark, the moon came out and was so bright that it hide most of the stars, so I didn’t get any star-trail shots like I hoped.  I snapped one photo of the camel (the postcard photo) above, as the guide said it was ok to use a flash on them.  Guess I didn’t ask the camel first if it was cool because after the photo, he got up and took off for the night.  Yeah I was having all the luck on this trip.

Again the food for dinner tasted like sand and I just threw my food on the ground and covered it with sand to hide it.  I slept on the ground with a blanket as bedding and it would have been ok except the whole night sand was pounding my face.  I woke up covered in sand and had an inch thick of it in my eye sockets.  I was so ready for this crap tour to be over with.

We got up and I didn’t even bother with breakfast, as I knew what it would taste like.  The guide asked us all if we wanted to go straight back to the jeep or to trek longer that morning and have a lunch.  We all agreed we wanted to just go straight back.

I think the Danish girls had more fun then me and they seemed pleasant the whole time… but I won’t lie, this tour was sh*t and was glad it was over with.  There isn’t a whole lot to see in Jaisalmer but I ended up staying 3 nights so I could catch up on some work.  Next stop for me is Bikaner, home of the Rat Temple!

The Danish girls were more fun to shoot then a group of Asians at Disneyland!  Anything I thought up (within limits that is) they were cool for shooting.

For you photo Geeks out there: All photos were taken with a Westcott 28″ soft box with a Canon 580 Ex II Speedlight.  Shot just as the sun was setting and used mostly 1/200 sec shutter speed and just adjusted my aperture from there (I was using Tv mode on my camera).  You can see more on my gear here.

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