With Greta gone I'm now travelling alone, well, for a few hours at least. I meet Bryan on the bus - a very well travelled American. He has a hostel booked in Bikaner so I jump in a tuk-tuk with him. The hostel is full except for one "room". He leads me up to the rooftop where a great view of the city and a bed awaits. He says I can have it for 100 rupees. Why not - I slept under the stars last night. I accept the roof, insert ear plugs to dull the traffic noise and have a great nights sleep!
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| rooftop bedroom |
There's not much to see in Bikaner itself, it's mainly used as a transport hub by tourists, so for us it will take us to Amritsar later that evening. The hostel manager did however tell us that it's a great place to shop for fabrics, especially wool, as it has the biggest wool factory in the world (I haven't confirmed this with Google so please correct me if wrong). Needless to say I didn't shop for fabrics but instead decided to go to the rat temple 30km away.
The temple is extremely busy being a weekend so we queue to get in. The rats contain the souls of dead worshippers and are sacred. They are offered milk and corn by the worshippers. If a rat is killed it has to be replaced with a golden rat - I don't recall seeing any golden rats though! A white rat is especially lucky. There are holes in the walls at ground level which they enter/exit the temple for food. I thought there would be hundreds swarming about but there wasn't so many. There was maybe twenty in a group around the giant milk bowls at one point. Considering there's (too much) food for them they looked in pretty shabby condition, I've seen healthier looking rats in sewers.
The temple is extremely busy being a weekend so we queue to get in. The rats contain the souls of dead worshippers and are sacred. They are offered milk and corn by the worshippers. If a rat is killed it has to be replaced with a golden rat - I don't recall seeing any golden rats though! A white rat is especially lucky. There are holes in the walls at ground level which they enter/exit the temple for food. I thought there would be hundreds swarming about but there wasn't so many. There was maybe twenty in a group around the giant milk bowls at one point. Considering there's (too much) food for them they looked in pretty shabby condition, I've seen healthier looking rats in sewers.
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| Rattus Rattus |
Waiting at the train station to get back to Bikaner we pulled quite a crowd. Normally there's a small staring party but this was literally twenty people, gathered close around us, not saying a word but occasionally trying to take sneaky pictures. On the train was the same, with people curiously studying from afar. Nearing Bikaner a child had a trouser accident, which ended up all over the floor when the mother took the trousers off, making getting down from our 3 tier bunk treacherous!
That evening, with nothing else available, me and Bryan book a romantic double bed sleeper bus to Amritsar.
That evening, with nothing else available, me and Bryan book a romantic double bed sleeper bus to Amritsar.
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