Hmm seems like a little while ago now - 2 weeks or so - so the images are not so fresh in the memory! Here goes.
After leaving Jaipur we headed to a place named Ranthambhore where there is a national park - the accommodation, a few kilometres outside the park was nice & they even had a swimming pool - pretty darn cold but ok once you got in & swam about.
We booked ourselves on to an afternoon safari in a canter (20 people roofless bus type thing) after having some lunch & started off all excited about the possibility of seeing the wildlife talked about in our guidebook - the main draw being the infamous Tiger.
It was a hot sunny day & the vegetation within the park was quite dried out, all the same lots of trees are managing to survive (the next rain is not due until May / June) - a favourite tree here is the banyan tree which is quite something to see - as it grows it sends out new branches which grow down - sometimes even on to neighbouring trees - which then turn into roots in an attempt to maximise the water it can take in. Not too much in the way of leafy undergrowth so it meant we could see quite far into it as we kept our eyes peeled on the lookout for our prey.
We drove around stopping every so often to listen & look for fresh tracks in the dusty path ways - still in the canter of course - we did find some tracks on a few occasions but the tigers alluded us. We saw lots of spotted dear, samba deer, black face monkeys & birds which I don't know the names of..oh one was called an Indian magpie - very similar to the European one (about 5 kgs when laden with a coconut where as the European weighs around 3.5 kgs with coconut when it can find one that is!) but with a brilliant copper colour to its plumage rather than the blue/purple we know.
We stopped at a sort of watering hole & were allowed out of the canter & found more tracks in the wet mud around the edge of the water. Lots of wadding birds & peacocks were hanging around talking a drink & eating some of the pond life no doubt - down the way a little bit after some sort of dam we saw a couple of crocodiles - not doing much other than sunning themselves. So the search continued back in the canter & we drove around for another 2 hours or so but alas no tiger.
So a little down hearted we were returned to the hotel - although we had seen some interesting wildlife all the same but also safe in the knowledge that we had another day in Ranthambore so eagerly booked ourselves on the afternoon safari for the following day - they also did an early morning one but no way were we getting up a 3 or 4 am for that!
Afternoon 2 of the Safari
We were taken to the same zone of the park (it is split into 5) but were taken a lot further in - this guide & driver didn't hang around, but they did stop to explain a lot more about the park & the wildlife there. They told us that the monkey & deer hang out together a lot as each acts as a lookout for the other & will make warning sounds if something dangerous is close by.
We saw some mongoose today which the guide said was good luck.
After going around the park for 3 or 4 hours it was time to start heading back as the park closed at 6pm - we had all but given up hope of seeing a tiger & were not interested in the common as muck spotted deer & numerous peacocks strutting around.
Then from no where we heard a strange call being made - the driver stopped the canter - the guide searched the surrounding tree tops & spotted a monkey making the warning call - then the deer joined in & everyone started to get excited - then on the left through the dried out bush we caught our 1st glimpse of a TIGER!! What a creature, what a sight - I can still hardly believe it - he was walking along rather nonchalantly not seeming to care that the monkeys had spotted him , he came out of the bush & on to the track we were driving down, walked along the track for a few metres then crossed to the other side, by this time about another 3 or 4 canters had turned up & also 3 or 4 jeeps - it was turning into a bit of raucous - as everyone tried to fire off a few rounds of .....camera film of course!
Thursday, 22 February 2007
Friday, 2 February 2007
Day 7 to Day 12
Hello Hello!!
Latest update:
We are now in Jaipur, capital of Rajhastan, actually, this city isn't so great... so will start with day 7: We left Jodhpur in the morning, and stopped on the way at some sort of carpet factory, ran by an indian family. We got a little demonstration of how they are made, then obviously got the sales pitch!! We bought a nice colourful patterned rug and i also got scarf there... It's nice going to these places, where we think it's our driver's knowledge of the place, but then there is always an other car arriving behind us, and the whole show starts again.. it makes us think that the "good deal" we have just made was not so good after all. We realise this more now, after a week or so. We try not to fall in the trap anymore.
Anyway, after this, we got back on the road to Udaipur, and on the way stopped again to visit this amazing Jain temple. Jain is another god, separate from Hinduism, and he is worshiped in different places in the country. The temple was amazing mostly because of the columns, which are carved in marble, and are all different, i mean, there were hundreds! We both tried to see if we could get in to the Jain paradise by crawling under an elephant (in marble too) but both failed... so i guess we won't be going there! moreover, Steve took a picture of Jain himself (well, his statue) and that would get us in trouble anyway!
We also met our first monkeys there, the ones with a black face & light beige coloured hair. They wait on the side of the road for people to feed them, but when you get close, they're not actually especially friendly, bearing their teeth at you, so I do it back & make chimpanzee noises at them! Better than seeing them behind bars in a zoo though, they're a lot more lively.
When we left the temple for the last leg of our journey that day, we met the most beautiful scenery we had seen so far! we started going up in the mountains, on a little winding road, and saw simple little huts dotted here and there, and colourfully clothed farmers working the land, it's like going back in time, but it was a breath of fresh air, literally after all the desert.
After the farm lands the road started to go down the other side of the mountains, we passed through a lot of new road works & even had to stop for about half an hour because of 'blasting' it was cool - loads of rock went flying up into the air about 20 or 30 metres! A couple of minutes later they let the traffic pass through once more, the dust had still not settled & you could only see to the end of your nose!
So on the road we went in our little ambassador car, with Rajindar every so often pointing out 'this is temple', 'this is army building', 'this is road to Bikaner', how we laugh at the end of the day over dinner! It's hard to keep a straight face as he carries on pointing out 'this is temple'!
Finally we reached Udaipur, the place made famous by the James Bond film Octopussy with the palace in the middle of a lake. A beautiful place, but we had a nightmare finding somewhere to stay for the night, after doing what seemed like 5 circuits of the city we just couldn't be bothered to keep searching & ended up with a really filthy room - urgh & guess what the name was? Hotel VIP - my arse once again!!
On the upside we finally got to do some exploration on our own in the evening without a guide or Rajindar, so we walked around & came across 2 or 3 marriage ceremonies along the way. They have a mobile sound system, with live singing & a sort of brass band blazing out Indian music.
That night we ate at a place named the Taj restaurant & met our first group of fellow travellers, some lads from Shrewsbury, we exchanged travel stories & had a few beers - nice.
The next morning we meet with our guide (after moaning a bit & bargaining a better rate on the room) his name was Sanjah Singh & he planned to take us to the city palace - not another palace we thought - they also wanted 250 rupees per person & another 250 to take the camera, so instead we said lets go have chai & something to eat & we can talk about something other than the history of yet another Maharaja. The guide was a bit miffed 'what you're not interested in the history?' he said & we were like, yeah, but this is like the tenth one in 5 or 6 days so lets just sit down have chai & a good old natter about stuff. We sat near one of the lakes (the city has 3) & watched the people going about their daily lives, many down at the waters edge taking a wash or washing their clothes.
After the day tour we had the evening to ourselves once more, so off we went to explore some more & find somewhere for dinner. We found a roof top restaurant that had a nice view of the lake & palace, on our way back to the hotel (we changed from the cough cough VIP) stopped in a cafe / bar to get a couple of beers & bumped into Sanjah, very funny he was with some mates drinking Indian whisky & we were invited to join them - so of course we did! The whisky was ok with a bit of soda mixed in. He was with a cousin who told us that in 6 years of being a guide in the city he had never had anyone from his tours go somewhere he might be in the evening, he found this very funny. We finished our whisky, got our carry out beers & went back to our room.
Next up was Pushkar - what a little haven - a small town built around a holy lake that is said to have appeared after Brahma dropped a lotus flower there. We were picked up from our hotel by La La (no not from the telly tubbies!) on a motor bike! So we were 3 on the bike (this is nothing over here, we have seen 4 & more at once - crazy) as no cars are allowed in the main part of the town, which makes for a nicer, calmer place to be.
This place was also by far the cheapest & we are thinking of heading back there for a week or so - La La has invited us to his guest house. (80 rupees per night = 1 pound!) La la is a brahman which is one of the highest casts - sort of equivalent to a priest.
In pushkar you must have your 'pushkar passport' which is making a prayer at one of the ghats around the lake (there are 52 in total) you offer sugar, rice, flowers and pray for long life & happiness for family & loved ones & yourself - so have you all noticed any change? - La la then put a red mark in the middle of our foreheads with a few grains of rice stuck on it & puts a coloured string bracelet around our wrists - we can then flash this at the other 'priests' so they leave us alone.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=682712
Latest update:
We are now in Jaipur, capital of Rajhastan, actually, this city isn't so great... so will start with day 7: We left Jodhpur in the morning, and stopped on the way at some sort of carpet factory, ran by an indian family. We got a little demonstration of how they are made, then obviously got the sales pitch!! We bought a nice colourful patterned rug and i also got scarf there... It's nice going to these places, where we think it's our driver's knowledge of the place, but then there is always an other car arriving behind us, and the whole show starts again.. it makes us think that the "good deal" we have just made was not so good after all. We realise this more now, after a week or so. We try not to fall in the trap anymore.
Anyway, after this, we got back on the road to Udaipur, and on the way stopped again to visit this amazing Jain temple. Jain is another god, separate from Hinduism, and he is worshiped in different places in the country. The temple was amazing mostly because of the columns, which are carved in marble, and are all different, i mean, there were hundreds! We both tried to see if we could get in to the Jain paradise by crawling under an elephant (in marble too) but both failed... so i guess we won't be going there! moreover, Steve took a picture of Jain himself (well, his statue) and that would get us in trouble anyway!
We also met our first monkeys there, the ones with a black face & light beige coloured hair. They wait on the side of the road for people to feed them, but when you get close, they're not actually especially friendly, bearing their teeth at you, so I do it back & make chimpanzee noises at them! Better than seeing them behind bars in a zoo though, they're a lot more lively.
When we left the temple for the last leg of our journey that day, we met the most beautiful scenery we had seen so far! we started going up in the mountains, on a little winding road, and saw simple little huts dotted here and there, and colourfully clothed farmers working the land, it's like going back in time, but it was a breath of fresh air, literally after all the desert.
After the farm lands the road started to go down the other side of the mountains, we passed through a lot of new road works & even had to stop for about half an hour because of 'blasting' it was cool - loads of rock went flying up into the air about 20 or 30 metres! A couple of minutes later they let the traffic pass through once more, the dust had still not settled & you could only see to the end of your nose!
So on the road we went in our little ambassador car, with Rajindar every so often pointing out 'this is temple', 'this is army building', 'this is road to Bikaner', how we laugh at the end of the day over dinner! It's hard to keep a straight face as he carries on pointing out 'this is temple'!
Finally we reached Udaipur, the place made famous by the James Bond film Octopussy with the palace in the middle of a lake. A beautiful place, but we had a nightmare finding somewhere to stay for the night, after doing what seemed like 5 circuits of the city we just couldn't be bothered to keep searching & ended up with a really filthy room - urgh & guess what the name was? Hotel VIP - my arse once again!!
On the upside we finally got to do some exploration on our own in the evening without a guide or Rajindar, so we walked around & came across 2 or 3 marriage ceremonies along the way. They have a mobile sound system, with live singing & a sort of brass band blazing out Indian music.
That night we ate at a place named the Taj restaurant & met our first group of fellow travellers, some lads from Shrewsbury, we exchanged travel stories & had a few beers - nice.
The next morning we meet with our guide (after moaning a bit & bargaining a better rate on the room) his name was Sanjah Singh & he planned to take us to the city palace - not another palace we thought - they also wanted 250 rupees per person & another 250 to take the camera, so instead we said lets go have chai & something to eat & we can talk about something other than the history of yet another Maharaja. The guide was a bit miffed 'what you're not interested in the history?' he said & we were like, yeah, but this is like the tenth one in 5 or 6 days so lets just sit down have chai & a good old natter about stuff. We sat near one of the lakes (the city has 3) & watched the people going about their daily lives, many down at the waters edge taking a wash or washing their clothes.
After the day tour we had the evening to ourselves once more, so off we went to explore some more & find somewhere for dinner. We found a roof top restaurant that had a nice view of the lake & palace, on our way back to the hotel (we changed from the cough cough VIP) stopped in a cafe / bar to get a couple of beers & bumped into Sanjah, very funny he was with some mates drinking Indian whisky & we were invited to join them - so of course we did! The whisky was ok with a bit of soda mixed in. He was with a cousin who told us that in 6 years of being a guide in the city he had never had anyone from his tours go somewhere he might be in the evening, he found this very funny. We finished our whisky, got our carry out beers & went back to our room.
Next up was Pushkar - what a little haven - a small town built around a holy lake that is said to have appeared after Brahma dropped a lotus flower there. We were picked up from our hotel by La La (no not from the telly tubbies!) on a motor bike! So we were 3 on the bike (this is nothing over here, we have seen 4 & more at once - crazy) as no cars are allowed in the main part of the town, which makes for a nicer, calmer place to be.
This place was also by far the cheapest & we are thinking of heading back there for a week or so - La La has invited us to his guest house. (80 rupees per night = 1 pound!) La la is a brahman which is one of the highest casts - sort of equivalent to a priest.
In pushkar you must have your 'pushkar passport' which is making a prayer at one of the ghats around the lake (there are 52 in total) you offer sugar, rice, flowers and pray for long life & happiness for family & loved ones & yourself - so have you all noticed any change? - La la then put a red mark in the middle of our foreheads with a few grains of rice stuck on it & puts a coloured string bracelet around our wrists - we can then flash this at the other 'priests' so they leave us alone.
After we were given this blessing, we walked around the lake, Lala giving us a few more explanations about the town. He then gave us an other 3people ride on his bike to our hotel, (which was out in the sticks thanks to Rajindar) and then we just told Rajindar we were going out in town to eat. Bless him, he's nice, but a BIT protective! We said we'd be fine, even when he said " be careful the childrens!!" hehe...
Lala took us into town again, and dropped us at a little restaurant called the Moon dance, where we sat on sort of mattresses, and had Yummy food.
Pushkar seems to be the place to go for travellers who want a little brake from all the crazyness, but that doesn't unfortunately make them friendly, they were kind of looking at us like we were the "new ones in town" and their long dreadlocks were i guess supposed to mean "we're rough travellers, and we've done our way...
It didn't spoil our stay though, and we think we'll be going back there again.
The next day, we were free!! we had a long sleep, for the first time in days, and then just walked into town for some breakfast. The story goes in this town that Brahma, the "generator" created this town and pissed off his wife my making a holy fire with another wife... His first wife, after finding out, cursed Brahma and declared there would only be one temple dedicated to Brahma in the whole world... After this curse, she went off meditating on the top of a... Hill?? and a temple was built for her there. It can be reached by about 500 stairs, and so we went off, at the warmest time of the day obviously hehe, because of our long sleep, and got robbed by monkeys on the way!!
At the botom of the hill, a man was selling little bags that you give as presents to the goddess, we got two of those, but on the way up we stopped for a second (so that i wouldn't die suffocating!) and the monkey just ran to us, saw my bag, and basically grabbed it out of my hand! As we said, they're not overly friendly, so i didn't run after it (was still out of breath anyway!)
We got to the top of the "hill" and took a few pictures there, Steve got to offer his present, and shared it with me, so i wouldn't get into the goddess' bad books!
Off we went down again and hurried back to the hotel where a camel was waiting for us for a sunset safari. Riding a camel... Wow! it's a lot higher than a horse, the least you can say! We managed to make it trot a bit, which was fairly bumpy, but funny... We stopped and got down to watch the sunset (we have great pictures of all our stories, but haven't found a way to download them yet) and Steve started playing Jawharp with the gypsies that hang around there (and anywhere there are tourists!) Our camel was just chewing away, lying there quite happily in the cool evening (nights get very chilly around there).
So that was our full day in Pushkar. We went back to the same restaurant that night, and played some pool (I won, that's for Leanne!).
The next day, we left for Jaipur and drove and drove and drove again... the distance aren't that huge, well, not that one, about 135 kms but the roads are quite busy, and our little Ambassador car not that powerful. Sometimes you look up from your book, and you see that we're overtaking a truck, and then look further, and see that there are two trucks coming straight in front, on the 2 lanes, and both the overtaking vehicles get back in their lane simultaneously! (that's for you mum, not to be worried!!), no really, Rajindar says he's a safe driver... humhum!
We got to Jaipur yesterday at lunchtime, or soon after, and chilled... I got a nasty cold i've been trying to get rid of for a few days, so it was good to just stay in and sleep, and watch tv, and sleep again.
Today our guide came to pick us up at 8.30, as usual, we were late! and took us to the amber palace, out of Jaipur a bit. There we got a ride on an elephant, for which we had to queue up for about 20 minutes, and it wasn't that great really. It was included in our tour, so we did it, but don't think we would have bothered otherwise. The poor animals just go up and down and up and down all day, must be quite a horrible life... they were friendly though, and I got to give a little cuddle.
After that, it's only more sightseeing, surrounded by middle age tourist who seem to be the only ones around these kind of places, had some lunch and went back to the hotel. This afternoon, just walked around the town by ourselves (yippee) and found this internet caf to give some news to all of you!!
So here we are.
Thanks a lot for all your comments, it's cool to hear from you! Petra i hope your dad's visit went well, or will go well, Leanne, sorry to hear about your job, but hey, just a job!
Mily, thanks for your compliment, but the last posting was actually from Steve, and so is half of this... Laura, i hope your vindaloo wasn't too Vindaloo, or it will be an other sick day for you hey!! haha and for the answer, no we haven't met any dutch, nor crazy dutch for that matter!
Hey Bro - good to hear from you - glad its going well for you - thinking of you.
So bye bye everyone, will update again soon, hopefully with pictures !
Note, blue is from Steve, Pink from Jenny xxx
This is a not so great map of our itinary, but you can have a look to have an idea...http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=682712
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