Leopard Fun

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Hello!

Sorry or the delay, im playing catch up again!

So I finished up my last blog in Jodphur, which as you could probably tell I wasnt a great fan of. But things got a hell of alot better!

Our next stop was a village called Bhenswara, on route we visited a Bishnoi Village, where for some reason it is legal for them to use opium. We sat in this guys house as he prepared and smoke opium, we even took pictures, apparently its part of their culture so its allowed! They give it to newborn babies up until the age of 6 months and then use herbal remedies to wean them off of it, then at the age of about 12 the boys get to start up again! From there we went to a traditional handmade carpet place (are you feeling my enthusiasm) which to give credit where credits due is a very skilled job and I wouldnt have the patients for it! I didnt buy anything!

We were in private jeeps for the day, which was a real treat after the local buses and when we reached our destination the day was just complete! We were staying with the Prince of Bhenswara in the most lovely palace/hotel, all us girlies got henna paintings done and had some of the best masala chai ever! Our activity for the afternoon was to go out on a trip to the local villages with the option of going spotlighting for leopards afterwards and having dinner out in the hills, we of course decided to do this and it was amazing!

Firstly the kids in the villages were so excited to see us, I must have taken a hundred pictures of them and they just love seeing their image on the screen! You have to be careful as they also love to try and removed your rings and hair clips! most of them are harmless though! There is a real difference between the poverty in the cities and that in the villages, they are mostly clean and well fed, where as seeing the kids in say delhi is just heartbreaking.

From there we headed out into the Arvelli mountains to watch the sunset and got served chai (it just appeared from nowhere) after that it was off to hunt down the leopards! This was probably the most hilarious part our trip so far. Im laughing so hard even thinking about what im going to type! although i think you had to be there!

So were in this open top jeep in the dark with our guide, a local guide and a tracker/driver, the latter then starts making goat (we think?) noises to try and entice the leopard down from the rocks! humm!! when this doesnt work the local guide (who thinks he is so smooth) decides that he is going to have a crack and in addition to the goat calls he gets down on his hands and knees and starts to scratch around on the floor in the dirt with his arse waving in the air, by this point im in tears and chewing on my scarf to stop myself laughing, which is setting everyone else off around me. We eventually composed ourselves at which point the local guide wanders to the back of the jeep and says to me "she goat mamamam" in a funny voice. My shoulders start going again and then Tim whose sat next to me starts laughing, then Caz starts, then Chandra turns to us (im thinking im gonna get a bollocking for having the giggles on a serious leopard safari) and he is crying with laughter, and managed to break the roll bar on the jeep, by this point no leopard is going to be showing its face so we give up and go for dinner!

So the Dinner we were meant to be having at the hotel has been transported out into the mountains for us to eat by the camp fire! what service and the best mutton curry ever!! im gonna get my some goats when i get home!! The Prince turned up and after chatting over a few rum and cokes he decided that he really wanted us to see a leopard and that live bait was the way forward! So he sends a boy off to a local village to get us a kid to tempt the leopard down. we nicknamed him ben! it didnt really work, we think we saw some eyes but not sure! was very good fun! never laughed so much in my life! again i think you had to be there! oh id like to point out Ben was live bait and not sacrificial!

So after the fun at Bhenswara it was on to Ranakpur via a wonderful Jain temple (sorry temple overload) we stayed in a little place in the middle of nowhere again and went on a bit of a jungle hike! which i would like to point out that i did without stopping or turning blue! Im so glad the fags have gone!

So next stop Udaipur!!

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