Tour buses, hot showers, and camel safaris

I'm starting to realize that regardless of how incredible a time one can have when he/she is playing the tourist, the experience is almost always tainted by their apparent need to bring along some of the amneties of home. In some cases, we're even inspired to invent our own types of "exotic luxuries" - an example of which is the camel safari. This sentiment may come as a bit of a shock to my fellow group members, as I didn't voice any dissaproval of last night's desert outing at the time. However, after thinking it over a bit, I've developed a bit of a negative view of how this very popular tourist activity seems to be currently practiced.

Probably the most salient negative impact of camel safaris, from what I saw, was environmental. Although the scenery was beautiful (the terrain that we covered in an approx. 4 hour trek ranged from scrubland to sand dunes), it was quite often defaced by garbage (the prominence of empty water bottles hinted that tourists were largely to blame for this). Also, although I'm no soil scientist, I seem to recall hearing that sand dunes are delicate formations, that perenially endangered by frequent animal contact (hence the instances of cordoned-off dunes that you'll often see at beaches). Sure, you could say that wild cames have been roaming through the desert since the beginning of time, and these piles of sand have remained intact throughout that pretty-long period. But tourism has surely increased the utilization of specific routes throughout the Thar desert, in this specific instance, which can't be any good in my amateur opinion.

My second major critique is related to the always-fiery topic of child employment. A good portion (if not the majority) of our guides were kids or adolescents, I'd say ranging from about 8 to 16 years of age. My particular escort was 15, and despite a significant language barrier, I was able to have a pretty good conversation with him. Turns out he was a 5 year veteran, having worked with the company (presumably not making a significant portion of the overall profits) since he was 10. Now hear me out: I understand the need for teenagers to drop out of school in some instances, whether due to pressing financial needs or a total lack of desire to participate in academia. But 10 years old? As I mentioned a couple sentances ago, I also saw kids that looked like they could have been as young as 8. Should we support an enterprise that employs kids at this age, in light of the fact that they'd surely be making more of a future for themselves achieving the most basic levels of education? Or, contrary to that rhetoric, is it important to realize that the income from those jobs is a crucial lifeline for their families? I'm a bit more stuck on this one.

So far, the justifications for my disapproval have been based mostly on objective reasoning, regarding socio-economic-environmental impacts. Although, when I push my conscience aside, I recall having a pretty darn good time on the trek, there were a few things that made me feel like I was participating in an activity designed for 65-year-old tour bus tourists from Mississauga. Especially notable was the after-dinner music performance that we had. Although this initially appeared to be pretty authentic, the singing to the tune of "Frere Jaques" (pardon my French, literally) at the end of the night, incorporating some corny lyrics about "enjoying chipatis and daal amongst the dunes", tainted what could have been an enlightening cultural performance. In summation, even the "carnal utility" that I derived from the trek was limited, in addition to my moral objections.

That said, my time in Jaisalmer has been a blast, despite being short (still only 3 days). I spent the better part of this afternoon taking a tour through the Maharaja's palace in the city fort which also contains my hotel. The traditional rulers of this area, the Rajputs, have a pretty rich - if violent at times - history, largely due to the scope of culture-sharing ("syncretism") with different people groups, such as the Mughals. It's off to Jodhpur, another town with a renowned fort (I love forts!), tomorrow, and then back to Jaipur for a final 2 weeks of classes.

Cheers,
Tom

P.S. I'd love to get your feedback on some of the stuff that I've written - It's been far from a normative account by any stretch of the imagination! Hit up the "comment" option, and tell me whether you agree with my sentiments, or think I'm out of my mind.