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Published: January 20th 2010
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So, it’s been a while since our last entry which I believe ended with our Himalayan trek in Nepal.
Well, from there we headed along the crater filled main highway to Chitwan National Park. The main reason for visiting the park is for the chance to see the endangered and elusive one horned Asian rhino. Our first excursion was in a dug out canoe into the jungle along a slow, ambling river. Lots of bird life, but no rhino's. We then made our way by foot through the forest and grass land...lots of rhino shit but no sign of the beast itself. We then spent a night in a watchtower which is meant to be a prime rhino spotting area as they eat and drink in the clearing directly in front...once again, no rhino. Our final attempt was on the back of an elephant that lugged through the bush, crossing rivers and carving its own path through the dense jungle, when suddenly we saw a movement in the shrubs and then a flash of grey...A rhino...two rhino's! A baby followed by its huge Mamma! We were able to get right up next to them and watched them going about there lazy
day, quite happily munching away on the grass...Brilliant.
From our little park adventure we traveled to Katmandu where we spent a week in the city and the surrounding valley visiting various world heritage sights and ancient cities. It was with fond memories and sad hearts that we left Nepal to return to India.
Our first stop in India was the sacred city of Varanasi which is one of the holiest places in India and a sight of pilgrimage for many Hindu's. Pilgrims come from all over to bathe in the water as part of their own personal ceremony and families come to cremate their dead on the bank of the river and have their ashes scattered in the sacred water. Along the river runs a labyrinth or narrow alleyways to loose yourself in, filled with guesthouses, shops, cafes and cows. Lots of cows.
Next destination was Kajuraho...a rickshaw, a train, two buses and a tuk-tuk later we arrived! This place has the most amazing temples - like nothing we have ever seen before. They date back over 1000 years and are intricately carved, incredibly detailed and as saucy as hell! After blushing at stone sculptures of group
orgies, sexy acrobatic antics and animal anal, we headed south to Bandhaugarh National Park to try and find some stripy felines!
The park is pretty small and the tiger population is pretty big so we figured we had a pretty damn good chance of seeing them...we weren't wrong! We chartered a jeep to take us deep into the park, within 15 minutes we saw a huge dominant male which was literally walk right past our stationary jeep the sauntered into the jungle. After another 15 minutes we found a magnificent female who we tracked for about 30 minutes watching her go from tree to tree spraying her scent marking her territory. Eventually she turned and, I'm pretty sure she winked at me, disappeared into the jungle. We later saw a mother with her two cubs and then another large prowling male making his way through the forest. We were lead to the male by following the warning calls from the Langur monkeys high up in the canopies....It was gggrrrrrrrrreat! (Sorry).
From the natural beauty of the National Park and the lovely Bengal tigers we traveled south to spend a couple of days at the man made wonder of
the Ajanta caves. These are not any old caves but fabulous palaces, temples, shrines and monasteries that were carved into the sheer granite rock face over hundreds of years. They date back to the 2nd century BC and were a continuous labour of love for over 800 years. For reasons unknown they were abandoned in the 6th century and were smothered and reclaimed by the jungle until some 1300 years later when they were discovered by a british hunting party.
From there, an overnight bus took us to the most cosmopolitan city in India, Mumbai. Mumbai is a bustling place with big wide streets and beautiful colonial buildings all over. It’s an exciting hub for the young, rich and famous and it draws Indians from all over the country to see if they can have their own slice of success. You see a lot of them on the streets and in make shift slums which brings you back down to earth with a bump.
We had our own slice of success one evening when we had a knock at our hotel room door. We were asked if we wanted to be in a Bollywood film, Rosey squealed 'Yes!!'
and I said 'No'. The next think I knew I was agreeing to shave my beard off and to an 8am pick up the next morning! We were taken about 2 hours away to some studios. By now the plan had changed somewhat and we were going to be in a TV comedy series and we were going to be the only westerners...and possibly have speaking parts! Not exactly the background, incognito extra work I had in mind!
It was an interesting day to say the least. Lots of waiting around and people watching and after about 4 hours they came in armed with our costumes. Rosey's was a Dynasty inspired lilac mini skirted suit with a bright red polka dot blouse and mine was an ill-fitting suit that made me look like Gareth from the office. Another 4 hours past when the director came in to the dressing room and told us we were on in 5 minutes and thrusted a script in our hands...Blimey. It only took 30 minutes and all in all, the filming went pretty well, we still secretly like to think we were easily the stars of the show.
We spent a week
Ajanta Cave
This was once a monastry. Carved from the rock face, it is about 20 meters deep. in Mumbai and both fell in love with the city, a place which we both hope to return to one day.
As Christmas was creeping upon us, we decided our next destination was the beach! We spent Christmas week being lazy and enjoying the sunshine and beach bum life. Christmas day consisted of curry, beach, beer and us reveling the fact we had seen our TV debut on Christmas Eve completely by chance! We we're flicking through the channels and saw that our show was about to start and all of a sudden there we were!! It was hilarious seeing it back!
In between Crimbo and New Year, we headed to the capital of Goa for a few days to soak in the Portuguese heritage. We checked into our guesthouse and the owner was really friendly and chatty. After a little while he was looking at us strangely when he said 'You both look familiar, tell me something, have you done any Bollywood TV here?' We tried to play it cool but Rosey was beside herself and screamed 'Yesss!!!'.... we are now holding out for our invite onto India's Celebrity Big Brother.
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Chris Stock
non-member comment
Sounds quality. Keep the updates coming..... I'm a little cloak and dagger about my travels, this looks fantastic though, keep up the good work. Cheers, Chris.