Final days in India

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Dear Friends,

This is our final entry about India as tomorrow we fly to Myanmar.

Baby buttocks?

We are in Kolkata now, and the last few days were pretty adventurous. We left Varanasi towards Daltonganj in good faith, expecting to arrive around 9 pm by train. However, a delay occured to our train schedule (as always), and honestly in the darkness we had no clue anymore which station is Daltonganj due to the poor station indications and the fact that we could be there sometime between 1 am and 3 am. We have to add that Jharkhand district of India is infamous due to some security issues, so the conservative selves told us to stay in the train and see what happens in the morning. When we woke up next day our travel companions were surprised that we were still on the train but when we explained our story, they agreed with our decision. Actually they helped us with suggestions, so we decided to get off in Ranchi and see where we go from there.

We thought for a moment to give up the jungle idea but in Ranchi we found the LP recommended travel agent who agreed to bring us to the Betla Jungle with an all inclusive package tour. So we were off with our driver to Betla and after 6 hours on the terrible roads we arrived. We were booked into a ran down hotel, but our balcony had a view on the Park. Indeed, instead of a jungle, Betla is a national park, hosting deers, monkeys, bisons, tigers, wild elephants etc. After arrival we had a 2-hour jeep tour with the hope of spotting some animals around dusk, but the only interesting thing (besides monkeys and deers) we saw was the buttock of a wild elephant baby in a huge distance for approx 5 seconds. No pictures could be taken as it went that fast, so you'll have to take our word on this one.

All right, we had an elephant ride scheduled for next morning to do some safari off the treks. We were up 6 am in the morning, however we only saw the tamed, old elephant that rode us into the bushes for an hour and an other one carrying a similarly hopeful Ukrainian couple.... Being still hungry for spotting more wildlife we arranged an extra jeep safari of 2 hours together with this couple... still no success.

Left unsatisfied we departed for Ranchi in order to catch our night train in Kolkata.

The camera

We had an eventless journey (or at least we thought so) to Kolkata on a sleeper train. Upon arrival we checked in the hotel and I fell asleep for a few hours. Yes, India causes so many stomach problems to me, Chris is so lucky with his guts! Anyways, after I woke up we decided to go for a walk and visit the famous Victoria Memorial, which is said to be a combination of the Taj Mahal and the Capitol Hill in the US. Indeed, nice building, but the painting exhibition inside did not really entertain us, so instead of the 150 rupi ticket to enter the building we should have settles for the 10 rupi to enter the surrounding park. But allas, our grumpy mood would soon turn even more sour... In the park we've figures out that our camera as missing (to be more precise: camera bag, which had in side the camera, 1 spare 8gb memory card and spare battery....). We had it in the car back to Ranchi, didn't sue it in Ranchi, so the train is the only option? We called the travel agent just to be sure whether they found it in their office or car, but nothing they found said, probably we left it in the hotel. But it was not in the hotel either, as this one was called as well. No clue where it was lost, but all's gone.

Thanks God, we copied all pictures to memory sticks up to Varanasi, so the only photo loss is Betla Park. And only partially, as we used there our second camera too. This latter one we bought in Pakistan for serving as a backup, now it became the master camera...

So painful. And on top of all that the police officer did not want to believe it was stolen and gave us a really hard time to get the stupid police report to get part of the cost from our insurance. Fingers crossed.

So our last few days did not really go according to plan in India and last night we decided to leave. We fly through Bangkok, so hopefully we can taste some Thai cousine at the airport. Anyways, we are looking forward to Myanmar with all its beauty and strange political system. As it seems internet access is available in Myanmar so you will hear from us soon!

(As with the previous enrty: no pics, as we're still in the same bl##dy internet cafe wit the blocked USB ports .... So maybe later some pics?!?)

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