saying goodbye to India

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October 8th 2007

Published: October 8th 2007

The last week has probably been the most incredible week of my entire life. I wish I could go into detail about everything but there is a lot that needs to be saved for story telling...

I last left off as I left Jaipur in the middle of the night - about 3am - because protesters were headed into the city on all the main roads in order to block off all access to the city. After 4 hours of the bumpiest car ride of my life we made it to the city of Ranthambore. The place is on the border of a huge national park that is home to 36 tigers. You'd think it was the only place in the world with tigers by the looks of the town. You can't buy anything in the town without the picture of a tiger on it and every third hotel is called Tiger Resort.

The place WE were staying at had a pool and that was enough to bring our spirits back up after the rollercoaster ride there. After some much needed sunshine and a dip in the pool we loaded onto open air buses and headed to the park for a safari. The park just opened the day before. People come from all over to visit and go out several times a day in the hopes of spotting a tiger. We had one shot - three hours to drive around a gigantic national park in hopes of seeing one of 36 tigers.

Two hours into the trip the sun was slowly starting to set and we hadnt seen any tigers. We hadnt seen much of anything actually except for a few deer, antelope, monkeys and wild bison. Then just as we had stopped at a view point where everyone could take pictures of the places they wished they had seen tigers our guide jumped back into the bus and we took off. I don't know what he heard or what kind of sixth sense he had used but he was determined we were on our way to see tigers. Most of us on the bus were still unconvinced - many times we had stopped to stare at trees or stare through binoculars at trees or stand on top of the bus seats to stare at trees..

This time things felt different. We bumped along winding through the jungle and opened onto a small clearing that bordered a river. There in the river were four of the most beautiful animals that have ever set foot on earth - a mother tiger and her three cubs. No one even reached for their cameras in awe of the incredible beasts nearly 70-80 feet away from us. They just sat there licking their paws and splashing about in the cool river. For minutes they sat like orange and black statues only occasionly moving to remind us we were staring at wild tigers.

Finally, they slowly began to stand up. Surely, the flash of a camera or the roar of a jeep deeper in the jungle had disturbed them and they would be on their way. Mom stretched and her cubs mimicked and they all began to march away from the river. They were walking directly towards us - closer and closer. A second bus had joined us coming from the other side of the road. The mother marched her three cubs right between our two buses and without even picking up speed walked on through the jungle to our side.

From there we took the bus back out through the park and back to our hotel in almost silence. We stopped to check out a crocodile at one point at the edge of a lake but to none of our interest after having just seen such an amazing sight. Then our night ended with a few beers on the roof with a couple of Norwegian girls and a few Indian guys to celebrate Gandhi's birthday before falling asleep to dream about tigers..

The next day we piled into jeeps and headed to Bundi. There wasnt a whole lot to Bundi except for yet another 400 year old palace. I walked around for a few hours and stumbled upon a cricket game between a few highschool aged guys. They caught me taking their picture and chased me down a good 100 yards just to get a look at the shot. I showed them and got an invite to play. They assured me that they had a game to finish but that I'd be allowed one swing.

I whiffed. Big time. The ball flew past and I spun around on my heels just in time to see it bounce away. Embarassed but wanting to redeem myself (and Americans everywhere) I held onto the bat and asked for one more. A big pompous Indian kid with a sleeveless shirt and sunglasses came out of the crowd and took the ball. This time I was ready. I called my shot, yelling "six" at the boys - a six is cricket's version of the home run.

I smoked it. It soared past the last kid playing the field. A few cheers from the crowd made me feel good enough to end my cricket career on a high note and I left the playing field. Then, sitting on a stone wall at the opposite end of the field, the boys returned about 5 or 10 minutes later to show me a broken ball. They tried to convince me that my one swing of the bat had broken their ball, even after the following ten minutes they played..Soon enough though the boys pooled together some change and had a new ball in no time.

That night we visited the old palace in the city and though it was not so impressive itself, we did get to enjoy an epic sunset as we sat on the wall of the palace surrounded by at least 50-60 monkeys, no exaggeration neccessary.

The next two nights we stayed in an old Maharaja's castle. Except for a ride around the local village we spent most of our time relaxing around the hotel's marble pool sipping the local 'Mahua' moonshine with the big man himself. Each night was accompanied by some of the best star gazing i have ever done in my entire life, from high atop the castles rooftop.

This our second day now in Pushkar, an incredible little city that surrounds a lake which local tale says developed from a lotus flower dropped by lord Brahma. Life truly flows from this little body of water where one can cleanse their sins with a rinse of the body. Last night we went on a camel ride through the desert. We stopped at a circle of trees on a small hill where we smoked Bidi's - the local tobacco rich cigarettes - as a man seranaded us with a make shift viola of sorts.

Finally after watching the sunset we re-boarded our camels and headed back to the city. At one point Magee and I let our camels get too close and they started to jump around a bit. Magee's actually ripped its reins away from the camel guide and required some settling down. We eventually made it home though and got some rest before waking up at 5:30 this morning to get the best view Pushkar has to offer. At the top of the largest mountain here there is a small temple which the local 'Baba' or holy men visit. We were the early birds to see the beautiful sunrise but on our way down we passed many Hindu visitors including men carrying buckets of water and women crawling on their hands to reach the top.

Pushkar. No description can really do justice to the experience Magee and I shared two nights ago. The best story you've ever heard is waiting for you if you take the time to ask me..spiritual, beautiful, dangerous, and incredibly weird - thats my kind of story and thats this kind of place - India.

In just a few hours we will be jumping on an overnight train back to Delhi before flying to Bangkok to begin the second half of our epic journey that seems unmatchable to India but only time will tell.

See you in Thailand.

saying goodbye to India

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