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Our life on the road in India
That truck is in our lane on our way to the National Park -- remember they drive on the left (the overloaded truck is passing the 4x4 on a dirt road). And it is much closer than you think. Jessica's background as a Roseburg girl paid off as she out-did the official paid guides and spotted the tigers in the the Indian National Park of Ranthambhore.
Jaipur was interesting, but we were ready for a place where there was no pressure to shop, no constant barrage of street vendors and touts. We enjoyed our time in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, but on a trip to India you need to arrange time away from the urban areas.
Our trip to Ranthambore National Park was very interesting...the road was in terrible shape and the 200 km (160 miles) took us about 5 1/2 hours (with a stop for lunch). Being harvest time we dealt with these unbelievably overloaded trucks and tractors filled with grain and straw. When the road is worse, the driving gets scarier -- but we made it (see pictures).
Ranthambhore is a jungle break in Rajasthan's hot, flat, desert-like scenery. The area is really set-up for tourists on safari to see the famous wild tigers in the park. Along a long road that wanders along the edge of the park is a string of hotels that address nearly every budget. We stayed at a hotel called
the Pugmark (even had a nice pool). It is hard to get to other hotels, so nearly every place provides all meals (great Indian buffet). We had three great meals a day, a very nice A/C room all for 3000 Rupee per night (about $75 USD).
There are two types of safaris: one on a small jeep which has a max of 6 people and then a large bus-looking rig that had about 20 people. The cost differential was enough that we just booked two trips on the larger bus (they tell you that you see so much more, and have a much better chance to see the tiger on the little jeeps -- but the cost was quite a bit more so we had to make the decision to take the big one twice).
The next morning a small jeep arrived for us -- not what we expected, but hey we weren't asking any questions. All the small jeeps arrive first at the park, and then you draw random lots for which route you will be allowed on in the park.
For nearly an hour we drove around and saw all types of wonderful wildlife: peacocks,
The Fort above the Park
This fort stands watch over the whole of the national park. monkeys, deer...it was really beautiful. But all around the park we heard on the radios that nobody was seeing any tigers. We drove back and forth through the territory that we were assigned to, but nothing.
Our guides were just about to give up when Jessica yelled out and pointed to this silouhette on the nearby hillside...she was a wildlife dead eye. The guides and our jeep mates were VERY impressed. But then the show really started. The first tiger walked right towards us and laid down...we had to rush some rangers who were on foot out of danger. We rushed back to the spot and our tiger was still laying in the tall grass. Then she walked right up to our jeep! We followed her for about a 1/4 mile just right up on top of her. She finally left the road and wandered up the hill...we were the only people in the whole park who had seen a tiger, and our guide told us that it was one of the best sitings that you could EVER expect. It was so crazy to see a wild tiger just feet from your vehicle.
Just as we started to
Jessica's Tiger
After driving around the park for nearly an hour, it was Jessica, not the park guide, who spotted the tiger. leave, another tiger appeared on the nearby ridge...and then made her way down towards our jeeps. We had a good ten minutes with this tiger...great video and pictures. Our guides were ecstatic! We had seen two tigers and nobody else in the park had seen any.
We finally got ready to leave and drove about 1/2 mile more through the park and the mother of the first tiger was laying in the middle of the road! We were on one side and another jeep tour was on the other. Three tigers in one trip. Apparently we and the other jeep looking at our tiger #3 were the only tourists who saw tigers that day...all started because Jessica spotted the first tiger. Everyone including the guides congratulated Jessica for saving the day.
We have had such luck on this trip it is just crazy!
When we got back we found that our travel agent had booked us on the small jeep by accident, he would have let us go on the big 20-person jeep that afternoon, but we declined. He had to pay for the small jeep and we had already had the safari to remember all safaris.
The third tiger we saw
We saw three tigers that day...almost unheard of. We relaxed by the pool and enjoyed great food the rest of the day.
The next day the taxi took us back to the real world and dropped us at the train station for our trip back to Delhi. We could not get in touch with our travel agent in Delhi to find out what hotel we were staying at so we were a little stressed. The train was packed and the 4 1/2 hour trip took a long-time...but we made it back to Delhi -- but nobody to meet us?!
We finally got in touch with our travel agent, and he scambled to get us a hotel...but not before we had been stranded at the train station for over 1 hour. Hot and smelly is the only way to explain our time there.
We took a taxi to our hotel...wow, we didn't know the Olympic tourch was in town and it delayed our trip a bit. Our hotel was really nice in a great little area of New Delhi. Lots of shopping and restaurants nearby. We did love the local cuisine. However, one can only eat so much curry so on one of our last
The Park had all types of wildlife.
We saw deer, peacocks, monkeys, and so much other wildlife. days there we hit the local McDonald's. We had been dying to know what an Indian McDonald's offers (seeing as they don't eat beef) and sure enough they had a variety of chicken and veggie burger options. Lucky for us the ice cream tasted just like it does at home. The next day we hit Pizza Hut.
One of those two places fed us something that we both got sick on -- go figure.
We had a free day in India so we got a small auto-rickshaw...and the guy was an Indian with a US green card (he went by Bill). What fun he had talking about his life in New York and Chicago. He was great...and spoke great American English! We saw the mosque, the fort and the government buidlings in Delhi. Today was some "UN" day and we didn't have to pay entry fees to get in. And we survived the traffic (it was Sunday so the traffic was pretty light and not life-threatening).
We of course did some more shopping as we got dropped at different shops (Jessica did find her perfect 9'x12' rug but she didn't spring for it). Great tourist day!
A flat tire with wild tigers..makes you nervous
We got a flat tire and had to get out of the jeep...we spent the next 15 minutes looking over our shoulder while sticking pretty close to the guide - Jess and I both figured we could out-run him :-) We set-up a taxi ride with Bill's son for the next day to the airport and then just cruised around the shopping area.
The next day we were off to Dubai, UAE to see the Persian Gulf! We enjoyed our trip to India and the Taj Majal, but are looking forward to some beach time in the Seychelle Islands!
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Fred Russell
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Harvest trucks/tractors
Overloaded rigs at harvest time... you must feel right at home. And with all that pushing and shoving at the train, I'm not at all surprised that you made it to the front of the line. Those woods look a lot like Sutherlin to me, and why did you have to go to India to see them? It looks and sounds like you are having a (add all the good superlatives here) trip. We are enjoying the blog lots. You are in our prayers. Love to you both, Bonnie and fred