Bikaner - getting in touch

During the first days of our trip Patricia, Agus and I had a hard time to convince our driver, that we were not sheep who wanted to be guided by him and do the standard tourist program. When we told him, that we wanted to see the city first and search for a guest-house or hotel later, he got a bit nervous and started inventing arguments. The problem was that he did not know anything apart from the route he would do with all the tourists, so he wanted to drop us somewhere and meet us there -- not even he knew, where actually "there" was --- a few hours later. Luckily Agus asked a lady about one of the city gates and as she had to go there anyways, we took here with us by car. When "Dr. Sheila" , a retired physician got of the car she instead to invite us on a Chai in the evening. The 3 of us started then to explore the old town, walked through a textile baser and searched for a famous Hindu-temple. On the way a young boy started talking to us, asking, if we would mind talking to him so that he could practice his English and Spanish. He turned out to be a very humble, educated and nice guy, who leaded us to the temple and even invited us to his home. He lives with his parents, siblings and grandmother in a tiny flat without flowing water and just the very basic things they needed to live. We asked him, if he needed anything, but he was just fine with our company, which was a refreshing difference after having been asked for money by so many people on the streets. Many children asked us for a pen, so we are thinking of buying pens, as they should be of use for them at school.
In the evening we met our driver in front of the clinic where Dr. Sheila lived and were about to leave, when she came and pulled us into her house to have tea. It turned out that she lived alone there and was afraid of a psychopathic neighbor and thus appreciated a lot our company. She invited us to stay over night, so Patricia, Agus and I shared one big bed. Before we went to sleep, we went to have dinner outside and lived 2 unforgettable happenings. The first was what I would call a real, authentic bull-fight an the streets. I am not talking about the Spanish way, but about 2 bulls fighting against each other, causing a traffic-chaos and panic among the passersby. The next instant they disappeared and prepared the scene for the second adventure. We were near the rails and could already hear the hooting of a train coming nearer. People kept crossing the rails until the last instant while I was freezing by just watching them.

After dinner we went to Dr. Sheila´s place to get some sleep. Every now and then she shouted form the hallway asking, if we were comfortable. She continued doing so, even when we were already falling asleep and we ended up under a mountain of blankets because she was afraid we could be freezing ;) Like at the boy´s place, this huge flat did not have flowing water and everything was very simple and humble. Bikaner provided us a glimpse into people´s lives, which is much more special than visiting tourist sights. Unwashed, but happy we hit the road again...