The distant deserts of Jaisalmer to the tiger territory jungles of Ranthambore
And a bunch of craziness in between!!
The Journey Continues…..I am sitting in a
houseboat in the Himalayas finally sitting down to write the next couple pages
of this. I am also throwing the idea of a running blog out the
window because well... traveling takes up way to much energy for all that
nonsense. It was worth a try but oh well, here we go… the eventual
Part 2!
Ok Update I am actually in China now and it has been almost two weeks since I started writing this portion. Hence the name "Eventual Part 2" anyway here it actually is.
Bikaner: Day 5- Into the desert heat
The city we awoke to is a strange desert city, very different from anything I had seen before in my travels. We drove through the city for
about 15 minutes passing yellow houses that looked to be made of clay and rock
with aluminum sheet roofs that appeared to just be leaning together. I could tell we were in the desert
because occasionally I would look out and see a camel hauling merchandise
through the streets and everyone seemed to wearing desert clothing that was light colored and covered their skin from the sun. This all became a fairly common sight by the end of
my trip. I also could tell I was in the desert because I had sweat dripping in my eye
every two seconds from the blistering heat. And of course I am
always bound to forget something but of all things…how did I forget to pack
sunscreen when I was going to the desert!?!?! I was lucky that Varun had some and
I was able to buy my own a day or so later.
The first stop, a palace from one of the ancient Kings of the desert also known as a Maharaja. We eventually arrived
outside the palace wall, a great stone wall probably 20 foot high and 3
thick. The giant wooden doors are coated with spikes apparently to
keep elephants from charging them during war. However do not think
this stopped all the battles from being fought inside these walls. Later
I noticed many of the walls still had scars from the sword fights and attacks
that had happened there long ago.
I paid 200 rupees for
a ticket. Foreigner prices are marked separately on the ticket price
board and are considerably more expensive than Indian tickets. I think Varun’s was like 20 rupees, but I guess that is an Indian right
to have cheaper tickets at their own museums. After all, I am sure the kings
that built these elaborate palaces had to be taxing the daylights out of the
people to afford it. The guide did not speak a lot of English but I
lucked out because he was more than willing to spend a little extra time
translating through Varun after each stop. I was surprised when he
wouldn’t even accept a tip at the end! He was just being a kind hearted Indian tour guide.
The first main courtyard
we walked into had a small square pond with a pearly white thrown sitting right
in the middle. The surrounding walls were made of finely carved
stone window screens with hundreds of tiny patterns carved as shaped holes in
the stone. The queens would look through these windows since they
were not permitted to enter the courtyard. They instead could only
observe the king through the stone windows which were carved finely enough that
the people below could not see them watching.
The indoor throne room
was just as impressive since its walls were coated mainly in ivory, gold, and
fine jewels. The king’s bedroom was a bit shocking however. It
contained only a very simple twin sized mattress that sat very close to the
ground and had pretty much nothing around it. These features served
security purposes such as sitting close enough to the ground that an assassin
could not hide underneath and having nothing close by to tie the King up
to.
Finally, the top tower
revealed a view first into the large palace stables meant for camels, horses
and elephants and then over the rooftops of the city stretching flat out to the
horizon. The king also had a room that seemed to effectively serve
as a royal garage. It contained a collection of carriages meant for
either people, camels, or elephants to carry while the king sat in comfort. It also contained a WWI fighter
plane that the king got as a gift because….why not he is a king….oh and a pair of stuffed
leopards beside yet another throne. Needless to say overall, not a
bad place to live, but desperately needed air conditioning!
We left the palace and
found our auto driver pretty quickly. Off to the next palace…did I
mention this city really liked to build palaces? This one has been
turned into a hotel that you can now stay in for about $300 USD per
night. It also contained a pretty cool little museum that had the
royal train carriage and a lot of the history of the more recent Maharajas. Yes
the royal family is still around and apparently the princess is a world famous
competitive rifle shooter! That’s the impression I got from the mass
amount of pics of her shooting rifles and the trophies and such being shown
off. Fun fact: during WWII the Maharaja sent his camel brigade
to Egypt and not only was this the only one in the area but the actual Maharaja led
attacks that were really effective. Can you imagine in the 20th century a king
leading his army of camel cavalry into battle?...Seems pretty epic to me.
On a slightly less epic note: I found a shop selling "Child Beer". Pretty sure they meant chilled but I thought it was pretty funny.
Our next stop wasn’t on the original
plan but the auto driver recommended it. The only downside was it is
about an hour outside of town. I had never ridden an hour in an auto
but was thinking at least the sides are open so I can get a refreshing
breeze! About 10 minutes into the drive I realized that hanging my
head out in hopes of a cool breeze was pretty hopeless since even moving fast
the desert wind was hot. Welcome to the freaking desert I guess…I
sat back in the corner in defeat and tried unsuccessfully to hide from the relentless sun.
The temple, however, was
definitely worth the ride. You see, this is not just any temple to
any Hindu deity…this is a shrine to the RAT! And as a shrine to the
rat it seemed only proper to build it as a sanctuary and paradise for
them… The entire temple was covered in rats!! And
pigeons…apparently they qualified as flying rats so they get into rat paradise
too. You walk in and you see them scurrying across the path in front
you…look over and there is a large water basin acting as a community pub with
not an inch of its edge not hosting a thirsty patron. I was not
permitted to go inside the main complex since I am neither Indian nor Hindu,
but seeing the outside was enough. It was really remarkable to
watch! There were rats drinking milk, rats playfully chasing each
other by your feet, rats just lounging in the sun! Rats Rats RATS!
Varun told me a tourist stepped on one and killed it a year ago and as punishment had to pay to make a gold life size rat as a tribute. Perhaps it’s better for my wallet that I could not go in to the temple after all.
Also I found it really
funny that there was an Indian family there that was more interested in getting
a picture with me, the strange foreign man, than the amazing rat temple they
were standing in…
After the temple we
found our way to another desert stop. The camel farm! It
is government owned and raises camels for a variety of purposes including work,
racing, camel wool, and camel milk. We each got like a 5 minute ride
but couldn’t take them out into the desert. (Don’t worry that part comes
later). We did get to try some camel ice cream and camel milk! I
gotta say the ice cream was pretty good, but not so sure bout the milk. It
taste a bit sour but may just have been since it was unpasteurized. 
Our final desert stop
was at a different Hindu temple. And I mean no offense when I say
that it kinda reminded me of a mini-golf course. It has a giant fake
mountain that you enter through the mouth of a lion and then walk to the top of
where there is a large statue of Vishnu. Was cool to see still, and
had a great view out into the desert from the top.
Feeling like we had seen
a good bit of the city and surrounding area and exhausted from this full day,
Varun and I decided to head back to the hotel for some rest. We
ordered a couple ice cold Indian beers to the hotel room and sat down to relax. Turns
out we needed that rest because we were in for one rough train ride that night
to Jaisalmer.
Jaisalmer: Day 6 The Deep Desert!
We arrive around 5am and struggle to wake up as
we pulled ourselves from the general seating train car we rode in to town
on. The train was packed and incredibly overheated. We got on and
were sitting on crowded benches opposite each other, and even when the bench
finally had room to lay down on a few hours into the ride, it was very bumpy
and not meant for sleeping. However this is what you get when you go
for the cheapest tickets and is just one of the expected sufferings of budget
travel. I believe this was the only train option for traveling to
Jaisalmer that night so really it’s just a matter of working with what you can
get. This city never has been an easy one to reach since it is in the middle of the desert and all.
When we arrived Varun
was able to negotiate another deal with an auto driver to take us around for
the day and since we arrived so early we decided to start the day with a
sunrise desert camel ride. After dropping our bags at the hotel, which
sat right below the fort walls, we hopped in a jeep and took off for the deep
desert. We rode for about an hour and I watched out the window as
the environment became more and more desolate. We started off
passing dry land with occasional small trees and buildings but as we went
further the trees became more seldom and the dry land turned to sandy hills
that eventually were only sand dunes stretching off into the distance. After
what felt like an endless drive we finally pulled into a small village just as
the sun was coming over the dunes. In front of our jeep there was a
small three walled hut and outside the hut were three men sound asleep on
wooden cots they had pulled out under the stars. I guess there is
not much worry for rain in the desert, so may as well sleep outside. As
we pulled in one of the men awoke, looking fairly startled at such an early
arrival. He drowsily pulled himself from the cot to begin his work
day.
Our camel’s arrived
about 15 minutes later. This was just after the sunrise. I didn’t mind not being on a camel for it, it
seemed amazing just to watch it rise over the dunes at all. And what
a bright sunrise it was. Maybe it was the yellow sand that amplified
the light but it seemed like the sun was larger than normal and as bright as I
had ever seen it. Granted though, I am rarely awake for a
sunrises to compare it to.
Riding our camels over
to us were two boys about 10 years old each and what I assumed was their
grandfather walking along behind them. The camels sat down and the
old man motioned on me to come over to one of them. The camel
disagreed and grunted loudly as I swung my leg over the saddle. This
pattern of disagreement continued with the camel who seemed to disagree with
almost everything I did, including trying to pet him, by giving an
agitated growl at each new action. I must have gotten the grumpy
camel I guess.
The boys lead the camels
into the dunes with Varun and I bouncing along on top.
We rode for about an
hour and stopped out on a dune for maybe 15 minutes. When I got down
I noticed the sand was much finer than any beach sand I had ever
experienced. It almost even felt soft and as tired as I was I
actually took a short nap laying on the dune in the still cool morning
air. It was only about 30 degrees C (maybe 70 F) at this time which
was remarkably cool compared to the average of over 100 F which I had been used
to seeing. I got up a few minutes later and brushed some of the sand
off of myself (I was still picking it out of my hair a day later though).
The much needed nap was really nice!
Another interesting
thing we saw while in the desert was an old border fence. It had
since been torn down and all that remained were red posts dispersed across the
landscape, but it once marked the edge of the Pakistan border when they had
captured some of the desert territory a few years back. The area all
along the Pakistani border has been in dispute for many years and is still a
very militarized border. The border now sits across about 100km of
desert west of where we currently were.
Anyway we concluded the
camel ride in a new location where there was a different small desert village. Breakfast
was provided there and consisted of a few flat pieces of bread and some spicy
sauce to dip it in, and of course some chia tea which is everywhere. My
stomach has still not adjusted to the spicy everything yet…I mean spicy dinner,
spicy lunch, spicy BREAKFAST!! EVERYTHING IS SPICY!!! AHHH …And
before this I claimed to like spicy food…!
After scarfing down just enough necessary sustenance we rode back to the
city to begin the rest of our day.
Honestly at this point I
even stopped having time to write in my physical travel journal which I try and
update each day. So the details of the rest of the day are a bit blurry
but I am going to try and fill in what I can. It is amazing that
even though the entire city blew my mind with awesomeness and senses overload,
I still am having difficulty remembering the order and details of things. That
is just another cost of traveling. No matter how amazing a place may be,
when you are surrounded by things that blow your mind each day, some of the
splendor is lost and what would be a memory of a lifetime remains tangled in a
mass of recollection that blends into a picture where occasionally a small
detail will emerge when I am reminded of it at some unforeseeable moment in
time. But often it is all about living in the moment and just enjoying the
beauty in which is around you. This is why I try to write each day,
however, this senses overload is also exhausting so this is at the same time
why I often fail to write every day.
So despite my lack of
records I believe the next stop was the fort. Now when I say fort
what I really mean is a giant castle perched on the top of a cliff that rivals
any castle I had EVER seen in Europe. Up until now the most bad ass
castle I had seen was the Scottish Edinburgh castle. This one blew
it out of the water! It is not only bigger but looked like it was
built to withstand anything! It contained 4 gates, each one
strategically placed in a corner so that elephants, Yes Elephants! could not get
a running start at the gates. Each gate is about 25 foot tall and
coated in deadly spikes, again to fend off elephant brigades. 
The one thing that
really struck me as unique about this fort… is that it is not a museum. It
is still being lived in! There are about 5000 residents living in
this ancient battle tested structure and once inside it really felt like just
another part of the city. Our guide even lived inside the fort and
said his house is a few hundred years old. He showed us around a few
of the hot points of the fort including an ancient Jain temple with intricately
carved statues and towers, and a great view point from the outer castle wall
where an old cannon still was planted. It seemed odd how naturally
this ancient fort has blended into the everyday lives of the people living in
it. The cannon looked as though it had been sitting there for
centuries as just another feature of the environment without anyone paying
anymore notice to it than to use it as a bench to sit on and see the view.
I wonder to myself if it still worked as a cannon?
After the fort we spent
some time walking around the streets of the city. Jaisalmer was once
such a major city along the Silk Road since it is the last desert outpost
before a few 100km of sand. This resulted in a few very prominent
families in the city who each displayed their wealth by building large ornately
designed houses. We stopped at two of these houses, the first is
still occupied by the same family, and the second had only bats as residents. We
explored the second a lot more since it was empty and we could walk around at
will. From the top it offered a prime view of the fort and the city.
We had seen most of the
city and decided to go for lunch. I still wasn’t up for a big meal
but had some type of rice and sauce, and tried a special Indian drink called
chacha. Drinking chacha is like drinking a very liquid sour cream
that is actually shockingly refreshing. It taste a bit funky at
first but then you suddenly realize that the desert heat aint so bad after all
and you take another sip!
We finished up dinner
and took a short ride to the lake which despite the water looking a bit funky
was still incredibly tempting to dive into. It is some type of holy
lake though so swimming is frowned upon. There is a small temple
standing in the middle and another on the other side. We walked to
the temple on the other side and saw a small pack of wild dogs resting in the
shade of it. I think even they were too hot to be aggressive and
they continued lying in the shade eyeing us as we walked by.
We left Jaisalmer on a
train that afternoon where we had booked a general sleeping car which basically
means a first come first serve car with bunks to sleep in. We found
a nice car with some empty bunks and plopped down for our 5 hour ride. Since
it was early afternoon at this point Varun and I sat on the bottom bunk and
chatted with the three other guys in the car with us for a few hours. They
were all from the Indian army and were very talkative and friendly. It
was at this point that the heat really started to sink in… I found out later
that the temperature had been over 50 C or over 120 F and any water we had been
drinking tended to turn hot within minutes of opening it. I don’t
think I have ever been so close to suffering heat exhaustion and was feeling
pretty crummy until one of the army guys offered some cold water to put on my
face and cool me down. This made all the difference and instantly I
began to feel better. I enjoyed the rest of the ride watching the
desert sun slowly disappear as we rode east to our next stop. The blue
city of Jodhpur.
Jodhpur: Day 7 - The Blue Desert City
About 10:30pm we rolled
into the station. Both of us were completely exhausted so started
instantly to look for a hotel. The first one we stopped at did not
allow foreigners so we kept looking and found another one that also did not
allow foreigners but was kind enough to look the other way for the one night. We
unpacked our bags in a nice air conditioned room and near instantly passed out.
The next morning we
awoke to a bright sunrise, clear blue skies, and yellow desert buildings gleaming out
our window. After a slow wake up we decided we should probably go see the
city so off we went.
Just a camel in a parking lot decorated in jewelry...no big deal.
Another feature of the
castle that really caught my attention are these few rooms that are
illuminated by bright pieces of stained glass which made the entire room appear
bright and rainbow colored. Of course the bright velvet, ivory, and gold
furniture also helped this illusion. Once I reached the top of the ramparts the view took my breath away. You could see way out into the city and far beyond. Jodhpur is known as the blue city and for great reason, many of the houses are painted a light indigo which creates a beautiful contrast to the red rock desert surrounding it.
Next stop was the city market. Now I havent really talked much about the markets in India, mainly because I just hadnt gotten a chance to really walk around them much yet. This one really had it all though. There were stalls with endless spices of every color, strange snacks and candies I had never seen, and fruits and vegetable stalls everywhere. Of course it wasn't all food, there was also clothing, electronics, toys, and anything else you can imagine. And all of it was being shielded from the sun by sheets tied over top of the alley way
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| These are why my stomach hated me |
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| Just thought this was kinda cute, a family each with a larger bag on their head. |
We had one final stop in Jodhpur. The city palace. This is a huge palace sitting in the middle of the city that actually is still the home of the current royal family. Well part of it is. There is also a part for a museum and the main part of it has been turned into a hotel. Top room costs only about 10k USD per night according to our tour guide.
Jodhpur was fun but it
was time to catch our train to our next stop, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. To
get there we needed to find a way to Degana where we had a train ticket booked
that would take us to the reserve, the only thing was we could not pre-book a
ticket to Degana. We were able to buy a general seating ticket for
an express train that should take us there with 30 minutes to spare but the
train ended up being over an hour late! We had no other option and
made our way onto the crowded train anyway.
*Sidenote on the general
trains* Varun had told me it would be a fight to get onto the train and
when it arrived I realized just how literal that statement was. People
would grab the door handle before it stopped and once it did were literally
clawing their way over each other, pushing and elbowing in a mass mob of people
all fighting to get on first so they could get a seat. Fortunately
Varun and I made it on early and both got a seat.
Our reserved train had
already left but somehow by the grace of God the very last train out of Jaipur
had not left yet when we arrived at the station at around midnight. We
found a seat on a top bunk, which some other passengers were friendly enough to
share with us, and we stayed up talking for the 3 or 4 hours it took for our
final leg of the journey. The trip was really not all to bad though. On our first train we sat beside some really friendly Indians and had good conversation the entire way. And I tried some type of snack food that a greasy guy with a basket was selling. And it tasted great!! I call that a win!
And Finally we arrived....out of the desert and into the jungles.
Day 8: Rathambore- Tiger Territory!
We pull in around 4am and
as the train approaches I see a group of monkeys running across the platform to
the overhanging trees. I thought I may have been imagining them from sleep deprivation but then was warned to eat the rest of my snacks to keep the monkeys from attacking. I had a chai tea to wake me up, anyway.
We found our way to the
jeep safari headquarters and got into our 6 person jeep around 6am headed into
the wilderness. We drove down a dirt road for about 15 minutes as we drove deeper and deeper into the jungle. The mountains were really quite beautiful and would make great hiking ranges....you know if the tigers wouldn't eat you or anything.
We passed a variety of animals including more monkeys, deer, antelope and wild peacocks! Finally we came to a small outpost with a single guard sitting on the second floor balcony smoking a hookah and a sign above that read Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.
We passed a variety of animals including more monkeys, deer, antelope and wild peacocks! Finally we came to a small outpost with a single guard sitting on the second floor balcony smoking a hookah and a sign above that read Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.
There are no fences
distinguishing the area, it was more just an area known as tiger
territory and a sign marking that you had reached it. There had actually been an attack just DAYS before, on a guard who made the mistake of walking out alone! The guard was
killed but our guide asserted that it was the guard’s fault and not the tiger’s
since he should have known not to go out alone. I heard a different
story a few days later in Jaipur that it was actually a hunter but I do not
know which story was true. Either way the tiger was defended as not
at fault.
 |
| We watched this peacock for 10 minutes as it did a mating dance that actually attracted a hen and they disappeared around a bush for some "privacy" |
We drove for another 15
minutes down bumpy dirt roads until we found a couple jeeps stopped in the road
looking off into the jungle… There, sitting in the shade of a few
bushes, just 40 yards away, were two tigers! They were cubs only a
year old but looked full grown to me. Both of them seemed to be
huge, even from a distance, and both had definitely noticed the jeeps parked nearby
watching them. They watched us as we
watched them, but neither really made a move.
Eventually one tiger got up and walked off into the jungle and soon its
sibling followed.
We found momma later hiding in the bushes waiting for some prey to get to close. Some peacocks began to creep close but just as the tiger began to notice a group of monkeys sounded an alarm from the treetops and the peacocks wondered away slowly. Can you spot Momma hiding in the bush? If you can't see her in the first then the second pic is zoomed in and a little easier. Ill give you a hint she is left of center and in the second you can see the white over her eyes as she glared at us.
We found momma later hiding in the bushes waiting for some prey to get to close. Some peacocks began to creep close but just as the tiger began to notice a group of monkeys sounded an alarm from the treetops and the peacocks wondered away slowly. Can you spot Momma hiding in the bush? If you can't see her in the first then the second pic is zoomed in and a little easier. Ill give you a hint she is left of center and in the second you can see the white over her eyes as she glared at us.
We lucked out and witnessed one final tiger encounter before we left. We found the cubs again only this time they were stalking a wild pig as it went over the hillside. Unfortunately they disappeared out of sight before we saw any action.
So that is the tiger experience. We came, we saw tigers, we survived, and we left. Safari accomplished.
After all of this Varun and I were both exhausted since we had not slept at all yet but we still had to catch a 4 hour general ticket train back to Jaipur. We sat on the floor for most of the trip in a half stupor kind of state.
When we got to the city we looked around a little bit until Varun had to catch his flight back home to Bangalore. (Thanks for an awesome week Varun!! Can't wait to do it again.) From this point on I was on my own again....
And since this blog has lasted forever long...Imma call this the end to chapter 2. India at this point has proven to be a crazy, amazing, wild place full of animals I had never seen in the wild, ancient history, beautiful scenery and most importantly some really amazing people. Yet these 8 days had been exhausting, sickening, and insanely hot. I had another 12 ahead of me and honestly had mixed feelings about my sanity in continuing. I had hoped for some culture shock in coming to Asia, for Europe didn't really seem to give very much. I mean it is a western culture which is what I am use to. However....I now understand what culture shock is all about....It is challenging beyond words and rewarding beyond imagination. And...If you survive then it makes some great stories to laugh at later. Anyway, I digress.
The next and last chapter of India, part 3, will sum up the last 12 days I spent in the country. I didn't have any plan for how to proceed so I slowed down quite a bit at this point. I had planned to have no plan so that I could plan a plan as I wanted to plan it! If that makes any sense....Really I couldn't decide what to do so I figured I would make it up as I go and see what felt right at the time... Turns out what felt right were elephant rides, monkey temples, a week in the Himalayas and a few days exploring the capital city of Delhi!...But that is all for chapter 3 so come back and read some more!!
Until next time world! Its Friday here in China so Happy Friday and stay awesome!!
