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Published: October 9th 2010
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Wild Pigs
They are everywhere! Hey all!!!
Thank you so much for all the lovely comments and messages you have been sending us. Its great signing in and reading them all! This week has been really busy as you can see from the title, we have been to all of those places and we are now in Agra. So today is a relaxing day to allow us to catch up on sleep and water!
Jodhpur
We stayed in a lovely place ran by an Indian family - we actually stayed up one night with them watching a Bollywood film all in Hindi, it was surprisingly gripping and good fun. We went up to see Mehragarah fort, which was beautiful. The view was incredible and the rooms were beautifully decorated. There was also a good audio tour included in the price which made it more interesting if not a little cheesy! Dad - we had the best omlette in the world - yes even better than the all in one. It was pretty much in the middle of the road and there were 2 plastic crates for us to sit on. The guy has been making them there for 30 years and claims to
go through 1000 eggs a day. He is known simply as omlette man. They were so creamy and yummy we could have sat there all day had it not been for the worry of being hit by an autorickshaw! We had 2 types of cheese massala omlettes - he puts burger cheese in them and squeezy cheese. He also says that a pinch of turmeric takes the eggy flavour away. They were great! We also bought some spices and looked at a fantastic school for art students where a guy drew us pictures on lentils! Lesson plans are definitely coming out of that! So after this fleeting visit we moved on to Jaipur!
Jaipur
Again we stayed at a lovely place outside the main area of crazy Jaipur, which was nice as the sound of constant autorickshaws gets to you after awhile. We even had really clean sheets to sleep in and towels! This was of course where James asked me to marry him which was great and yes it was a one knee job! On top of Nerhargah fort at sunset, very romantic and absolutely beautiful. We also went to the palace and Jantar Mantar, which is
an Observatory. There were snake charmers outside - yes I got a photo of it Ratty and I touched the cobra but then the man tried to charge me 500R luckily I got away with paying 20R. After eating curry 3 times a day for the last 2 weeks we decided to go to McDonalds - James wanted to order a cheese burger until he remembered that cows are sacred and there is no beef here! We both settled for chicken. Then we went to Raj Mandir cinema -the biggest cinema in India and it is indeed beautiful! We watched DaBangg another Bollywood film all in Hindi (no subtitles) but easy to follow and the cheesy fighting makes it funny. The atmosphere was great with all the Indians cheering, booing and singing along. It was great although we seemed to be quite an attraction ourselves with everyone staring at us. Then it was back on the train to Sawai Madhopur to hopefully see some tigers.
Sawai Madhopur
We arrived at about 7 in the evening to a lovely hotel that even had a swimming pool, although the Indian food had finally caught up with me so it was
an early night. James was annoyingly fine. Up at 530 to get ready for the safari and collect our boarding passes for the canter (a big jeep thing that sat 20 people). All went well and we headed into Ranthombore National Park for 7 in the morning desperately hoping we might catch a glimpse of a tiger especially as we were told that only 1 in 5 cars see a tiger. 20 go out every day! It really was like the jungle book and we saw many peacocks, Samba deer, antelope, monkeys, mongooses and even a crocodile! What we really wanted to see was a tiger, we saw many footprints and you could feel the excitement building on the bus. The guide was surprised that we had only booked one safari and wasn't overly hopeful that we would see anything. After awhile it seemed that we weren't going to be lucky so we stopped for a toilet break. Sadly, the toilets were locked so everyone had to go around the back in the bush. It was coming up to my turn when we heard the warning call of the Samba deer. Everyone was told to get back in the jeep
immediately. No sooner had we all got back on when one of the guides shouted that he could see the tiger and to come quickly. Everyone jumped off the bus and ran towards where the tiger was spotted - must admit seemed a little crazy running towards a wild tiger! Sadly we were too late and didn't see it. Turns out while everyone was having a wee the tiger was right behind them! Back into the bus we got, some people very excited, others gutted that they had missed it, us being the latter. However, our luck was in, just 100 metres down the road out he came walking in to the open so we could all take as many photos as possible! It was magical, he was beautiful at about 10 foot long we wouldn't have wanted to mess with him! He wandered around for a little while and then just as quickly as he had appeared he disappeared again into the bush. It was fantastic and everyone was so excited! Turns out it was only us and one other jeep that saw the tiger that day, there were no sightings of any of the other 39 tigers in
the park. We also realised how lucky we were when we got talking to a couple in the swimming pool later that day who had been out on 3 safaris and had seen nothing. It was the most incredible experience both of us wanted to stay longer to do more safaris!
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steve and debbie
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congratulations
Hi you two, really enjoying your trip with both the photos and blogs, they are great. Fish just to let you know your boys are doing well (for the moment at least)!!! So many congratulations on your engagement we are both so happy for you both and we are both looking forward to drinking copious amounts of champers (get your cheque card out James!!) on your return!!! Pleased to hear you did it the old fashioned way on one knee you old romantic!!! Your journey looks fantastic and we are looking forward to seeing and hearing about the rest of it. Lots and lots of love Steve and Debbie xx