Dhula Village - Rik

Our Dhula Bagh Village visit got us deep, deep into rural life in Rajasthan. 

We left the highway and started off-roading down a narrow, potholed, road, barely squeezing by tractors, scooters, motorbikes, and what I think were slow-down bumps. Those might have just been the result of the worst patch jobs ever, or some sort of practice for future pavers.

It's the only time our van has bottomed out.

Children along the route ran to the road to greet our van as it passed. Three little boys were delighted to pull down their pants and display their little penises. The ladies on the bus howled with laughter at the cheeky boys. Som just shook his head. 

We pulled up to a gate and once inside the compound, it was a whole different kind of rural life. 

The property is owned by some some dude whose family have owned the place for hundreds of years. They have a big fort up on a hill but, more importantly a bunch of glamping tents and A POOL!!!!

After we dumped our day bag into tent number five, we jumped into swimwear and headed straight for that pool. And it's not just a pool, it's a gorgeous pool carved out of the ground right beside a very old temple. The dude's family have their own temple. It feels like an oasis. 

The G-Adventures people booked the whole place just for us. 

We hit the bar for a moment, then met up with the local feller who we'd booked a bike tour with. Turned out only Ruth and I were the only ones doing this so we got a private tour.

SCORE!!!!!! GOL!!!!!!

We strapped on helmets and mounted a rickety old pair of one-speed bikes and headed down the goat path they call a road to the nearby village.

We biked by a sacred tree, and he told us about it but we could only understand about 40% of what he was saying. I'm guessing their local school English class isn't the best ever, but the dude was doing the best he could. 

We saw really noisy local birds and their very odd hanging nests; they were screaming like Taylor Swift had just dropped in for a visit.

Almost everybody we biked by, especially the kids, waved and said hello. People passing on scooters smiled and did the same. Some kids chased us for a while, yelling hello - more than likely the only English they know. 

We biked over patchy steps of pavement and sandy bits of road to the dude's house and we got the grand tour. Through their large but let's say rustic house to their rooftop, we climbed the stairs and met his two adorable kids and his mom who fed us chai.

The kids predictably liked saying hello, and once that got tired we started high-fiving. Then we got into low-fiving. That was about the extent of our conversation but Ruth complimented the little girl on her beautiful dress and I think she really liked that. 

From their rooftop open-concept living room, we could see monkeys and peacocks on rooftops, at least three different churches, and hear the call to prayer. Nobody dropped to their mat and prayed so I guess they're non-practicing, or Hindu, or buddhists, or wherever. 

Back on the bikes with hordes of children saying hello and then kickstands-up, we headed back to the oasis.

On the way there, we were forced off-road by a gang of cows, one of them idly threatening to toss Ruth,

 but then there were goats. Must've been a hundred of 'em. We biked through them along with motorcyclists and scooters, navigating what narrow bit of road they were willing to concede. Oh my God they were so cute though. 

Back at the compound, our group had supper together; everything but the rice was produced right here on the family farm. They even had a woman guarding their freshly-harvested crop of lentils, fending off the peacocks as they tried to eat the lentils. We watched her at work but it got boring fast.

Another large day on the Indian sub-continent behind us, we collapsed onto our tent beds, amid the sounds of wild dogs howling, shrieking peacocks, and techno Indian music blasting from a nearby tractor. Yep. It's a thing.

 - Rik