Temple of Rats

It‘s a long drive from Jaipur to Jaisalmer, so we stop overnight in Bikaner, to visit the Bikaner Fort and the Temple of Rats. That one is special. The story is that a local lady living there in the 14th century lost her son in a drowning accident. She then decreed that all members of her family would no longer die but would be reincarnated as rats. So now they have a temple full of rat ancestors. The rats themselves would be fine, but the temple smells seriously bad. And the custom of the worshippers to drink from the same milk pots as the rats do, makes us shudder.

Right at the hotel entrance, our car collides with a car on the oncoming lane. Our car is somewhat dented, the other car looks totaled. What surprises us most is that everyone is very focused on the damage done to the cars and none is checking if anyone in the cars got injured/takes care about the hurt driver.












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