On the trail of panthera tigris

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I was up early this morning, to catch some photos of the sunrise on the temples (which glow a slightly pinkish colour), and even at this hour I was hassled by some old crone trying to foist a flower garland on me.

My taxi arrived at 9AM, and was a Tata Indica - a small car with a virtually non-existent boot. The journey took 6 hours and was dull apart from the appalling condition of the roads at times. There was one half hour stretch where we were bumping and bouncing the entire way.

I'm staying at yet another MP Tourism place, the White Tiger Forest Lodge. It's cut from the same cloth as the others, in that it has all the conveniences I need. The rooms are raised up on stilts, and are connected by walkways, which I'm assuming is for aesthetic reasons rather than because tigers are roaming around at night. However I have an AC room, as recommended by the manager in Orchha, which is clearly not needed at this time of the year, as it's bloody freezing. In fact it seems colder here than it was in McLeod Ganj.

I immediately enquired as to the availability of safaris tomorrow, and it seems as though it will be pretty expensive. It costs, per day, Rs 500 per foreigner, Rs 150 per vehicle, Rs 1460 per Jeep (2 safaris), Rs 200 for a compulsory guide (2 safaris), and Rs 40 per camera. Obviously the Jeep costs can be shared if you can find other people to share. Unfortunately it seems as though the hotel guests currently consist of a large Explore group, a family from Bengal ... and me. So no-one will want to share. Given the significance of tomorrow, I'm not too bothered about footing the whole cost myself. Disappointingly, they no longer do elephant safaris.

This does feel like the middle of nowhere. My mobile phone has no reception, and there are only 5 channels on the TV. The nearby village, Tala, has only 2 Internet places, both charging the most expensive rate I've seen yet. In short, there ain't much to do in the evenings, and even having dinner is a bit of a trial as the dining room is virtually Arctic. With the safaris requiring a 6AM start though, early nights probably aren't a bad idea.

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