Tracking a Tiger

---

The city: Ranthambore is a road lined with hotels and shops and the main attraction is the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. The only subject of conversation here is the tiger, How many safaris have you had so far? Have you seen a tiger so far? Which tiger was it?....
The Ultimate Advice: If you're on a budget(like I was) stay in the nearby town of Sawai Madhopur, its a lot cheaper and you can spend the remainder of the money on safaris!
The Adventure: This one was stupid on my part, it was in the evening and I decided to walk from my hotel to the Safari reservation office to confirm my safaris for the following day(a 3 km walk). About 15 minutes into my walk, the sun had set and I was walking down a completely deserted small road with no streetlights adjacent to a tiger reserve in complete and utter darkness! It was the scariest experience of my adult life. It took a while for my night vision to kick in, and all I could see was jungle on both sides of the road. After 2 kms of terrified ambling I saw a light in the distance, I sprinted and found it to be the reservation office (which was closed!). Luckily the souvenir store in the lodge next door was open, I befriended the owner and helped him sell stuff for a couple of hours, after that we closed shop and he was kind enough to give me a ride back to my hotel, phew!
A note: My main goal here was to see a tiger, I had read 'The Life of Pi' on my way here and was really excited. I went on four safaris from 6 am to 6 pm, but didn't see a tiger... even my hotel staff couldn't believe my bad luck. So my search for a wild Indian tiger is still on...

---