The road from Jaisalmer back to Delhi is about 780km, which roughly translates to about 15 hours in Indian time. We broke up the drive by overnighting in a couple of small towns (Bikaner and Mandawa) along the way, neither of which had major attractions, so we just relaxed. But, we did still see a couple of things worth noting…
After Bikaner, we requested a short detour to the town of Deshnok to see the Rat Temple. One might think it rather odd to worship rats, but here it is quite apparent that they are considered sacred. The temple does not have rat images or carved idols from simple materials like wood, stone, or marble - in fact the Hindu temple (uniquely) does not contain any images or idols at all. Hindus come to this temple for blessings, and as with other temples they bring offerings of sweets. But the sweets are for the rats.. the sacred rats.. the sacred black rats that are all very much alive and hungry!!
According to legend, a goddess (Karni Mata) asked the god of death to bring back her drowned sun. When he refused, she decreed that all of her descendants would reincarnate as rats, and that these rats would return to this temple to be part of her family.
They feed off the milk and sweets offered by the visitors and, in return, they scamper across the feet of visitors as an auspicious sign of good luck. Their excrement is scattered all over the floors of the temple, and all Hindu temples require shoes to be removed before entering. Fortunately for us, they offer free slippers for tourists to wear. We asked our driver Rana, if he wanted a pair of slippers too - he scoffs and valiantly exclaims "No! I am HINDU!!".
The 20,000 sacred rats are given protection and roam freely throughout the temple. Rana noted that there weren't many rats running around while we were there.. apparently he usually goes to the temple later in the day and there's WAY more. In the temple courtyard, Rana pointed out a mesh barrier ceiling that they installed because eagles were diving into the courtyard to eat the poor little sacred rats… don't worry, the mesh keeps them all safe now.
One last thing we wanted to mention from the Rajasthan trip was all of the tipped over tractors transporting massive bags of dried grass, that we saw on the drive back to Delhi. The first one we saw was torn open and blocking traffic.. we thought it was pretty crazy! Within a couple of hours we saw the next 2.. or 3..? ..bewildering. After the 9th or 10th.. we were dumbfounded - you'd think that there must be a better way to transport a bunch of dried grass..!!
