Friday 24 June 2011

Karni Mata, the world's famous Rats Temple, or how to chuck a perfectly good pair of socks

In our week long trip across the North of India we have managed to cram an average of 3, 4 or sometimes even more sights within a day and this is despite the considerable travelling time between each city.
I must say that each and every one has been far better than described in our guidebooks. But of course we are in India and there was always going to be the odd doozie thrown into that mix.
We discovered that yesterday when just short of the town of Bikaner, in western Rajasthan, we were invited to go and explore the Rats Temple.
Silvia and I are both a little quirky and we thought we have to see this.
We were lead to believe that there wouldn't have been that many rats, actually one of the books says that you can just "occasionally" spot one or two running around, but just in case we put on a pair of socks, after we saw the usual sign "shoes off" at the entrance.
From the outside it looked like any normal temple, bright colours, nice decorations, sandstone pavings, but once inside we were to discover where it got its name.
Literally as we walked inside the courtyard we gazed upon 1000s of rats, some of them resting in a shady corner, or aside door entrances, feeding on bags of grain or scurrying around between our feet.
The sight of dozens of rodents drinking peacefully from large bowls of water and milk was something to behold. And of course the smell, together with the many many pigeons also living there, made it a most romantic occasion...
We were both thankful that at least it was not a spider or a snake temple, rats we manage to cope with.
20 minutes was more than enough to take it all in.
P.S. those 2 pairs of socks are no longer accompanying us on our tour..... 

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