Camel Safari!!

We had a fabulous safari day, with planned and completely spontaneuous elements! Our safari started out by jeep, and took us by a few sites en route to the sand dunes. My favorite of these was an old Maharaja graveyard (pictured below). Each grave gets its onw temple, with a huge slab of sandstone with all manner of Hindu inscriptions and symbols (including many swastikas, which are an ancient symbol of good luck - Hitler pilfered it from India). En route to the sands dunes, we encountered the usual array of road obstacles, including a million games of Chicken with oncoming traffic, and a few herds of sheep who take to sleeping en masse in the middle of the highway (or is it a football huddle? You decide.) Humans and animals seem equally fearless!
About an hour before sunset, we hopped on the camels, and they hopped with us - before we knew it, the Indian boys who were guiding us hopped on the back of the saddles with us and kicked the camels into a run! It was hilarious. The 11 year old boy with me belted out Indian camel songs at the top of his lungs the entire time, adding to the aura of the whole thing... It remains to be determined if my hearing will recover! We disembarked withtime enough to frolick in the sand dunes before chilling out to enjoy a beautiful desert snuset and a cup of masala chai.
Back at the guest house, we arrived after dark to find a real treat - an Indian wedding preparation in full swing! The niece of the hotel owner was getting married the following day. That night, there was a huge ritual/party that we were invited to attend, where the woman's family presents the man's family with coconuts split in half (symbolizes the joining of the families with an open, pure heart), with 10 Rupees (25 cents) inside each. They paraded down the road, men in bright red turbans and the women in a flowing technicolor of saris (and us in our traveler's gear!) to a huge tent where the man's family awaited us (about 200 people). The groom to be was seated at the front of the room on a platform, looking very proud and regal in his red turban, adorned with gold, and a dashing black suit. The closest male family members sat in a circle around him and chanted Hindi wedding songs in a hypnotic tone, with the men seated around the edge of the tent, and the women on the floor in the middle. Meanwhile, the bride was back at the hotel with her friends, who had abducted 1 limb each to adorn her with the most delicate, detailed, fabulous henna that I've ever seen (pictured)! It was really special to be included in all of this - the hotel owner insisted that we join, and really made us feel welcome. Again, as is true everywhere else in the world, it is the small towns that bring the most rewarding experiences, as they offer the best opportunity to really get in with the people. There is a wildly diverse array of people in this country, but for the most part, the Indians we have encountered in our travels have been wonderfully open, generous, tolerant, and helpful. They have really displayed to us their open hearts, and made us feel at home in this crazy country.