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Other entries in Sawāi Mādhopur

Ranthambore National Park

We left Jaipur in the morning and made another dusty yet cool air conditioned journey to Rathambore National Park, hopefully to see some tigers. All that we have read indicates that poaching in the park has devastated Tiger numbers and that you are really lucky to see one. Apparently some of the game keepers were involved and paid off to let it go un-noticed and in an India that is quite corrupt the explanation seems plausible. However one must not forget that this place was also the hunting grounds of the English Colonialists during the late 1800's but the recent scandal relates to the 1970's.

We stayed in a really nice resort with a pool and all the trimings of a Safari location, the guard at the main gate had a head peice and a moustach to die for, it looked like he had a pair of bicycle handle bars under his nose. I was tempted to ask him if he liked his nose as he seemed to have underlined it with great eloquence, but with bad english and fear of insulting him we decided against it, shame we missed a photo of that one...... 

Again with good Indian food, curries, beer and chapati after chapati and a bit of national news Tommy headed off to a local festival in the town with the driver Salim. Jo at this point was in the throws of Delhi Belly and unable to move.

This festival is a pre-Diwali festival in which there is a performance of the God 'Ram' fighting and burning evil. The evil god (who's name I have forgotten) is made of paper and full of fireworks so he goes up a treat! Salim being the good man he is got Tommy into the VIP section and soon freinds were made with locals.  I met two lads holding hands (a sign of brotherliness / friendship and not craftiness as you would expect in the west) one spoke quite good English and his accent was so funny but he was delighted to meet me. He had a BA in Hindi (Indian language) and Sanskrit (the original Indian language) and was a man of basic means, his chararter was charming and his use of English was like old school proper English, so I was really charmed. He talked me throught the festival and we sat behind the local MP and the Indian Minister for Agriculture. Now I was feeling like an old Englishman! I have some pics I will try and upload them I also have a great Video but cannot get it on this site... At the end of the festival this Indian chap asked me for a souvenir (No not a tip) but a genuine memory of him meeting me. I searched everything I had and all I had was a book of matches from Vertigo Bar - that is on top of the Natwest Tower in the Big Smoke in Blighty (Go there is great), I gave them to him and showed him the address on the back and described the resturant and location amongst the frenzy of people leaving the festival. Delighted he walked off only to return in a few mintues with his ring for me as a gift, shaped like a heart and bearing the Hindi name of the head God of Hinduism. He and I were both really happy with the excellent trade. Foolishly I was later to lose this ring in Bombay, a loss of a memory I will deeply regret and hope that if he knew he would forgive me.

The next day we got up for our Safari pick up at 6:30am in an open top vehicle known as a 'Cantor' the first of an am and pm tour we headed off for the forest in search of the animals - it has been described as something out of the jungle book. Unfortunately we did not manage to see any tigers on either safari but we did hear two cubs fighting over some food that their mother had bought back and it was damn loud!! we also saw the footprints and that was as close as we were going to get that day.

Lots of other animals were spotted and photographed and the scenery WAS very jungle book so we enjoyed it and loved being out of the big cities.  The days were hot, really hot, and for us, just coming from the UK we were certainly not used to this so in between the safaris we flaked in our room and sat under the air con trying to breathe - it must have been close to the mid 40's.

Our last evening here we met another couple from the UK who were also touring Rajasthan and had dinner with them.  There was also some evening entertainment laid on - traditional Rajasthani style dancing, fire eating and singing.  We all got involved had a really good dance.  Next stop for us Jodhpur.

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