Camel Safari

At 3.30 the next day we set off to cover the 40km to the desert. When we arrived we had a welcome masala tea and were shown a hut we could stay in if we wanted to. The hut was cute but we had already decided we wanted to sleep out in the desert under the stars. We were taken to our camels. Bryan on Captain & Jody on Bilabo, we were led by two young lads about 12 years old. We had thoughts of Mongolia when we went out at Hovsgul Lake with the young lad, so we vowed to hang on tight. The lads were good fun and made the ride funny by making the camels run and us bounce around on top. Bryan in his turban was very funny. On the way Jody tried to learn some Hindi. This is all she can remember though; toom cassie ho? - how are you? (to a younger lady) toom casa ho? - how are you (to a younger man) say ‘up’ instead of toom if they are older than you oot - camel (say the oo like typhoo) Hiron - deer and of course “namaste” has been with us since Nepal. We had a lovely ride up to the sand dunes and sat watching the sun go down over the desert. Well Jody did, Bryan was too busy off somewhere taking photographs! On the way back, we had a bit of a race which was really funny but we could also see lightning in the sky. We got back to the camp site and they had set up some tables for us and the French couple who were staying there too, outside in the yard. They brought us a lovely thali which we ate whilst the band played. Then the dancer came out and got us all up swirling around. We tried to photograph her dancing as she was so colourful, but when we looked at the pictures, we had captured one where she is pulling a really funny face, just for that split second. Priceless. You can bet we didn’t show it to her though. So as we are sitting there, rain drops start to splosh on us ending our hopes of sleeping in the desert. We resigned ourselves to this and went into our hut. Where Jody found a scorpion. Not really knowing how to catch a scorpion, we summoned help from the staff outside. Who promptly came in and stamped on it! We were horrified - he was obviously not a Hindu. Desert Huts Room rating: 2/10 - No windows, no hot water Location: 9/10 - good for the desert Staff: 8/10 - very friendly Value for Money: 7/10 Other comments: Stay again? No, next time - definitely in the desert!