The Group

There are 11 in the group, 4 couples, 2 other singles and me.  An interesting bunch:-

Smiler - a nurse, early 40s and single - an absolute delight, first time on a tour of this kind and in wonder of everything.  Had come on the trip with MM below having met her on a singles holiday a couple of years ago. 

Moaning Minnie - an adult education teacher, early 60s and single - a really nice lady but unfortunately she able to find fault with everything so it got a bit tiresome after a while.

Mr Wolf in Sheep's Clothing & Wife - seemed very pleasant and had constant smiles on face but transpires were actually bitching about everyone all the time and engineering things to suit themselves. Always ate at their own table away from the rest of us.

Tigger & Wife - retired HR Manager and practising nurse - lovely couple, way younger than their 60 years.  He bounced around in sheer delight at everything and she was just lovely and normal.

Been Everywhere & Wife - mid 70s/late 60s, another lovely couple, hardly a country they haven't visited. Down to earth and a pleasure to spend time with. Been to India 11 times, he was brought up in India and spoke Urdu. She just had so many tales of trips to tell and took everything in her stride. Super people.

Oddball & Girlfriend - late 60s she was lovely but he could be quite difficult although I warmed to him as time got on. Both very kind people, I just think he had an unfortunate way of expressing things and hadn't been on a tour of this kind before, so wasn't sure what went on and how flexibility was needed.

Our tour leader, Mahvi, is from Rajasthan where he is a feudal landowner (his words). He lost his wife in 2002 and has 3 children 16, 14 and 12. Also speaks fluent Italian.  Very knowledgeable. patient, kind (when I was ill) and funny with it.

Me - I just sat back and went with the flow; didn't mind what I did or when. The most stress free holiday I've ever had !!

Jaipur 2

 The next morning I was as right as rain and a few of us set off for a rickshaw ride around the old town.

I think I'm correct that in India there are 3 legally recognised genders; male, female and hijra (or eunuchs of which there are more than 1 million - 1 in 1,000). Mostly treated badly by the rest of society and often it is hard to tell (not that it matters), these lovely ladies definitely are

Whereas ?

At about 5pm we caught a train to Jodhpur, luckily we were in an air conditioned seated class coach but some of the lesser class coaches looked dreadful.

Where ever you are, whatever time of day or night it is, in India there is always refreshments available - the "chaiwalla" doing his rounds.  The tea is quite revolting, made with condensed milk.

Jaipur

Relaxing at the Ranthambhore hotel waiting for my fellow travellers/coach to start our next leg.

Our next stop was Jaipur, about 4 hours drive away - a few random shots either from the window or taken on a "comfort" stop.

This little girl's dress was so pretty - shame she didn't have any pants on.

I'm sure she couldn't see where she was going.

The Sujan Rajmahal Hotel in Jaipur is just beautiful and was once a Maharaja’s Residence

The ‘suite’ I stayed in was fabulous; a large anti-room and then a circular bedroom. 

We were later shown the royal rooms and they were HUGE, apparently Charles & Diana stayed here at one time.  Unfortunately we couldn't take photos.

This evening we went “off piste” for dinner and went out with Mahvi our guide to a local restaurant where, after much consultation, it was confirmed that the chicken in my chicken tikka would be just breast meat – sadly it was gristle, wobble and bone once again.  But I wasn’t charged for it because I left it all!

Jaipur is the largest city in Rajasthan and is known as the Pink City as it was repainted specially for a visit by the Edward, Prince of Wales in 1876.  Repainted annually, it looks more orange to me now.

Unfortunately I'd woken up with the tell-tale gurgling in my tummy (chicken last night - mistake!) and as we were going across town to visit the Amber Fort I checked with Mahvi that if need be I could come back on my own.  On the way to the Fort we stopped outside the Palace of Winds, which although huge from the outside is actually very narrow and was simply for the upper class ladies to watch what was going on without being seen.  Nevertheless, an absolutely beautiful façade but taking the photo was quite precarious as I had to stand in the middle of the road to avoid getting too much traffic in front.

Located about 11kms outside Jaipur the Amber (Amer) Fort is huge and very impressive (coach deliberately included for scale!).

An elephant ride is a popular way to reach the top, but we were bundled into jeeps and driven up (probably best as friends who visited several years later were held to ransom atop their elephant and not allowed to get off until they'd paid a ridiculous "bonus" to the mahoot).

This chap was waiting by the coach park.

As it turned out, I was hardly able to see any of the Fort as my stomach deteriorated rapidly and most of my time was spent in the loo – luckily western style – being sick and .................   When the group had finished looking round we all went to a shop emporium and I was whisked back to the hotel by cab.  By then I had taken 4 Boots tablets and 2 Imodium instants and was starting to feel slightly better, however I went to bed and slept.  Luckily I hadn’t booked for the afternoon trip but I decided to miss the evening Sound and Light Show back at the Fort.

Internet access back

Back onto the net for a day so will try and catch up with my missing posts.

Ranthambhore National Park

Ranthambhore National Park is vast, approx 1,334 km² and covers a wide range of landscapes ranging from rocky outcrops to deciduous forest.

Most safaris are undertaken in open-top canters which can pack in about 20-25 people and which depending where you’re sitting, are very dusty and very bumpy.   If you pay a heavy supplement you can take an 8 seater jeep but I didn’t.  There are 9 different routes and supposedly the vehicle driver doesn't know which route he will be allocated until arrival.

Safari 1 was yesterday morning, it was freezing cold before dawn and we were given blankets to wrap ourselves up.  The birds were quite active 

Unfortunately we saw very little clearly else; two spotted deer, some tiger footprints and a couple of monkeys.  I did however glimpse a sloth bear crossing the track but couldn’t get a photo.  It was huge and proceeding to scratch around in the undergrowth for a while but was hidden from clear view by some boulders.

Safari 2 yesterday afternoon.  Lots to see: monkey, sambar (deer), spotted deer, kingfisher, wagtail, stork?, crocodile

and, finally, TIGER!!!!!!  albeit mostly back view.

This was the point when I really, really wished I'd splashed out on a jeep seat; our canter was at a distance from the tiger but suddenly out of nowhere 10 or more jeeps arrived and drove right in front of us and right up close to the tiger.

I was lucky enough to be sitting at the front, but there was a tree blocking a clear view.

It was fascinating and hard to know whether or not the deer (there were 2) knew the tiger was there.  She played the long game and just sat there for ages. 

Eventually we saw her muscles start to tighten and she finally got up but of course the deer scarpered immediately.  

I don't think she was really bothered about hunting as she then just wandered off and at one point crossed the track right in front of me but everyone was leaping around in the canter and unfortunately my shots were out of focus.

Safari 3 was this morning and no tigers in sight and very little else!

End of free internet access so I’m not sure when my next post will be.