Sawai Madaipur - Tiger Safari

We got up at 5:30am for our early morning tiger safari. After some chai and toast (for Mary, Josh's appetite wasn't back yet), the 20-person cantor picked us up at our hotel. We filled up the vehicle with tourists on the way to the park. It was surprisingly cold that early in the morning. We had our fleeces on and were still cold. Mary added her windbreaker after a while and was still cold. We drove around for a while, enjoying a nice sunrise over a mirror-still wetland. We saw lots of tiger-food: deer, peacocks, a lot of exotic brown birds, antelope, and monkeys. The monkeys were different than we've seen in Agra and Delhi, these ones had long gray hairs and black faces. Many were carrying babies that were all black. So cute! Sadly, the monkeys didn't seem to rank a photo stop the way the rest of the wildlife did. (In hindsight, this kind of monkey is all over the cities in Rajasthan.) The terrain was also lovely.














After a while we came up on a collection of other vehicles, and not surprising soon spotted the tiger they were watching through the trees. Or rather, heard that the tiger had been spotted. Not sure what we were expecting, but it wasn't much of a view. Some of the other tourists let us use their binoculars, which allowed us to verify for ourselves that there was really a tiger there. We tried to take some photos, but didn't really have sufficient zoom. On the agenda for Singapore: purchase binoculars and a super-zoom lens for the camera.



(There is a tiger in the dead center of this picture)

Later, we circled around and saw either a second tiger, or the same one from another angle.

In the afternoon, we'd thought about going down to the old fort in the park, where you can safely walk around on your own. But it was going to be 800 rupees ($16) for the jeep there and back, which seemed kind of crazy given that we'd pretty much already seen all the wildlife the guidebook told us to expect. Instead we tried to do some planning for the remainder of our time in India, and had a very frustrating time trying to get the rail website to take our credit/debit cards. Instead of selecting Visa/MasterCard/etc, in this country you select your bank. You know, Bank of India, Bank of Rajasthan, or whatever Indian bank you use. We spent a long time trying stuff (particularly the CitiBank gateway), but with no luck. Eventually we decided to make the 3 km trek to the train station, and got there right as the reservation window was closing. Josh was literally talking to the guy when he gestured at the clock and put up the closed sign. So, kind of a frustrating afternoon.

On the way back to the hotel, however, we saw along the side of the road a potato chip bag labeled "Lays American Style Cream and Onion". This really excited us and we crossed the street and found vendors selling the same. Score. They even tasted almost right, just a little less salty than normal.

We also stopped in at a craft market where Mary noticed a fine contra dancing skirt of the style we often seek at the Goodwill in the states and rarely find. They had a lot of patterns, and Mary chose a blue and purple one with peacocks on it. She also picked out a silk scarf while Josh was chatting with one of the shopkeepers about figuring out the train.

The guy explained that after you have your general boarding ticket, you should find a conductor as you are boarding the train and request an upgrade. The conductor knows where there are seats available and will tell you where to sit. Once the train is moving again, he comes by and takes the difference in ticket price. (It doesn't seem totally clear if this is the conductor skimming off the top, or if your money makes it back to the railroad.) This is how we are traveling to Jaipur in 3 AC class without reservations as I write this the next day. More on that later.

Overnight, Mary started to feel unwell, starting with having trouble getting warm at bedtime and then in the middle of the night being awake with severe lower abdominal pain, which she took at first to be a bladder infection. As it got worse, she woke Josh up and they Wikipedia-ed bladder infections (gotta love the free cell service on the Kindle), which started to seem less likely. We were discussing hiring a car and driver to get to Jaipur (where there is something like a recommended hospital) when the diarrhea started. It was a bit of a relief. Something we know what to do about and have medicine with us for! Anyway, our host at the hotel didn't think a car and driver could get us to Jaipur faster than waiting another 4 hours for the train. (Direct train route, no direct highway. Plus, see post from last week about traffic jams in this country.) Anyhow, Mary took some of the antibiotics before leaving the hotel and has been feeling considerably better, aside from one bad cramping spell at the train station.

With our upgraded 3 AC class ticket, we are now on our way to Jaipur. It's expensive: 250 rupees on top of the 50 rupee general fare. But it's comfortable and no one is feeling me up, and I feel safe and comfortable using my electronics. 3 AC is, I think, the closest thing they have in India to traditional European 3 facing 3 compartments (as you've seen in Harry Potter if you've never seen them in person). However, there is no actual compartment. On one side of the train are benches of 3 facing 3. The ones we are now sitting on are the bottom bunk, with the middle bunk down as a backrest. The top bunk is above our heads. On the other side of the aisle there is one seat facing one, with a top bunk overhead and backrests that come down to join one another in the middle to form the lower bunk.

Bharatpur to Sawai Madaipur - General Class on an Indian Train

After our 3rd night in Bharatpur, Josh claimed to be feeling better, so we hopped the train (last minute 'general' tickets) to Sawai Madaipur where we checked into Hotel Tiger Safari and booked a tiger safari for early the next morning before eating dinner and turning in early.

The car we found ourselves in with our general boarding tickets was officially a ladies car, but there were men there as well. Labeling indicated the seats were supposed to take 5 people across, but we packed in up to 8 across, plus many children and some adults (including Josh) up on the luggage racks. And people standing. My camera wasn't handy and it didn't seem polite to take a photo anyway, but several cell phones were pointed at us to take our pictures. Don't see a lot of white people packed in like that I bet. The trip was mostly pretty comfortable, except for worrying about our luggage, and the guy who was sitting next to me for a while who seemed (though I'm not sure) to be using the crowded space as an excuse to rub his arm against my breast in a not very innocent seeming way. Ugh.

Bharatpur - Sick Day

Spent the day waiting for Josh to get better. :(

Bharatpur - Keoladeo Ghana National Park

Our host fed us breakfast, packed us a lunch, and loaned us his binoculars before we walked to Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Bird Sanctuary) and rented a pair of very funky bikes. We ended up turning around after a bit and exchanging one of the bikes that was just too funky for another that seemed better but we'd previously rejected for not having a lock. Mary asked to have the seat adjusted on her bike, but the guys refused. When Josh asked, they agreed. We were hardly into the park when Josh pulled over and threw up. He said he felt fine after, so we continued on and enjoyed the birds through the binoculars, and wished we had a superzoom lens for the camera. A little later we had a picnic lunch, except Josh didn't feel like eating.



After we got back to the hotel, Josh proceeded to spend the afternoon and much of the next day throwing up, having diarrhea, and sleeping. Mary took the opportunity to sleep a lot too, figuring she'd be getting this any time. She also took some time to finish reading “Dracula.”

Post trip note: Bharatpur would top the list of “places we should have skipped.” We don’t know if Josh got sick from something here, or somewhere previously. We do know that Keoladeo Ghana National Park wasn’t worth the stop, let alone a stop the may have made Josh so sick for 3 days. We didn’t understand how Lonely Planet could speak so highly of it, yet seemingly fail to mention that it was evidently seasonal. Well, we finally got our answer in June when Mary’s parents met us in Europe with their May 22nd edition of "The Economist" in tow. There was a special report on water, and in the second paragraph of To the last drop: How to avoid water wars, Bharatpur is mentioned specifically: "One example is the competition for water in Bharatpur, a district of the Indian state of Rajasthan, which has led local farmers to cut off water supplies to the Keoladeo national park. This was, until a few years ago, a wonderful wetland, teeming with waders and wildfowl. Thousands of rare birds would winter there, endangered Siberian cranes among them. Now it is a cattle pasture." It's not the driest cattle pasture you've ever seen, but it certainly didn't seemed like the wetland we were expecting. Apparently with reason.

Bharatpur - Deeg Palace

We took an exciting bus ride where no one seemed to speak a lick of English to Bharatpur, and then tried to transfer to another bus to take us to the right side of town for the bird park. We found the right bus and many people indicated that it would work for us, but one particularly pushy tuk-tuk driver kept telling us that it wouldn't, and seemed to be making arrangements with the driver and ticket seller to prevent us from getting the ticket. He wanted 50 rupies to take us 4 km. With some effort we managed to talk a rickshaw driver down to 30 rupies, though he talked with another buy along the way (clearly about us and the fare--they speak the numbers in English even while speaking Hindi), and then asked for 50 rupies when we arrived, like his friend told him to do. After we got across town, we found out that the standard rate is 5 rupies, though I doubt a white person has gotten it that cheap in years. No wonder the bus isn't a typical way to do that trip. Even though we can afford it, these rickshaw rides do add up, and it is really frustrating to be treated this way.

Anyway, we only took the rickshaw as far as the park entrance and then walked the last half km to the Royal Guest House recommended by Lonely Planet, and checked into the nicest room we've had all trip, and for only 400 rupies ($8/night). It even had its own on-demand water heater (which made the water crazy-hot for like 3 minutes then shut off). Then went up to the shady rooftop restaurant for lunch. The food was a little overpriced, but whatever. At lunch we met Elsie from Scotland, who invited us to join her for her trip to Deeg Palace that afternoon. She's been traveling with a driver for a week and a half and hadn't had a moment away from him that whole time until the day before. She seemed very lonely for English-speaking companions, and also said her driver kept making her eat at very expensive restaurants--like 800 rupies for one person, compared to us normally spending 300 rupies between us! We didn't tell her that her "included" room here was probably only worth around $10/night. These tour companies charge around $100/day for transportation and lodging, so they must be making a bundle! Still, it’s probably a much more relaxing way to see the country.

We piled into her car: her and us in the backseat sharing two seatbelts (though the owner assured us we didn't need to use them because he was friends with the cops), the driver up front along with the home stay owner and his 8-year-old daughter in his lap. The owner gave us a very nice tour of Deeg Palace. He evidently has a regular IT job and just does the home stay thing on the side for fun and was taking the day off to show Elsie around. It was one of the nicer palaces we've seen, complete with old furniture inside, and one of the buildings was stolen and taken by ship from Delhi. Wow!



We had a nice dinner together back at the hotel where we learned about Black Salt, a pinkish salt mined in India with a particular set of impurities giving it a unique but familiar flavor. We also got to hear about the owner’s organic farm nearby where much of our dinner had been grown.

Mathura

In the morning, we took an ill-fated trip to Mathura by bus. Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna, and as such is a major pilgrimage site for Hindus. However, it seems to see few foreign tourists. This seemed like something to recommend it, until we got there. The moment we got off the bus we were surrounded by cycle-rickshaw drivers begging to take us to various places. We wanted to just stand there and get our bearings for a few minutes, but this was, of course, not possible. Mary spotted a "Mega-Mart" across the street and we dived in. They had a small array of groceries, including some plain peanuts (yay), and tea-biscuit things. We also browsed their everyday sarees (starting at just 99 rupies!), before eating lunch at the cafe inside. We decided to take the long route to our hotel to avoid walking past the drivers again, but overestimated how far it was (should have taken the rickshaw). We walked through a very crowded market, and through a very dirty and smelly street with lots of cows and begging children. Some of the children followed us, saying, "Money. Money. Money." We finally arrived at our hotel and checked in.

After a brief break, we walked to the Archaeological Museum, asking directions a few times along the way. We developed quite a following of little boys, who at first wanted to talk, then wanted chocolate, then money, then as we arrived they wanted us to pay them a dollar each for "guiding" us to the museum (except they hadn’t guided us at all—they’d followed us and some adults we’d seen along the way had given us directions). Fortunately they didn't follow us inside. It was definitely getting pretty uncomfortable by the time we got there.

The museum had nice carvings and castings, but very little information in English. Supposedly one of the best collections, but without an understanding of what we were looking at, it wasn't that interesting.

Next we went by rickshaw to the big Hindu temple on the site where Krishna was born. No photos as we had to check our camera and all our electronics—never a comfortable experience. It was very different from what we are used to in the West, with lots of bright colors (especially teal), and lots of little shrines containing figures that look more like waxworks than statues. It was beautiful though, especially the paintings on the ceiling. Also, there was a general discomfort of not really knowing the protocol of behavior inside a Hindu temple the way we know it in a European Cathedral. And I'm sure the art would have been more interesting if we knew the stories behind it.

After, we took a rickshaw back to our hotel, hoping to arrive in time to see the ceremony where they put all the candles out on the water. We seem to have missed it, or gone to the wrong place, since we waited a while and saw all the boats bringing back Indian tourists. We also saw a big wedding procession. I don't think the bride could have been older than 15.


After, we had dinner at our hotel. Josh had a lassi, while Mary passed on due to having a runny noise and sore throat (ugh, pollution). Later in the meal they brought us bottled water and dirty glasses to drink the water from. We passed on the water glasses, but didn't think about the implications for the lassi until 36 hours later when Josh started throwing up. Our hotel turned out to have no hot water morning or evening, and either didn't have or didn't use the generator backup mentioned on their sign. And the room was buggy, so we used our mosquito net to sleep under. In the morning when we paid our bill for the hotel and meals at breakfast, the guy took our change after we made it clear we weren't going to give him a tip right that second. And then two other employees asked for tips as we were trying to pack up and leave, one with a story about is daughter's throat cancer, but after having our change stolen, we weren’t in a generous mood. We took another overpriced rickshaw to the bus station (if one driver offers you a fare of 10 or 20 rupies in this town, another driver will run up to him and tell him to accept no less than 50, no matter how short a trip--and then you can either pay 50 or walk). So glad to get out of there. And we didn't even know yet how much we would wish we hadn't come.

Agra - Taj Mahal and Other Agra Monuments

Taj Mahal!

We've been seeing it for 2 days now, and yes, it looks like the photos, but bigger. The inside is pretty too, with incredible floral inlays of semi-precious stones in marble. Nearly as impressive as the Taj were the red sandstone gates, red sandstone Mosque on to the left, and an identical building off to the right, just for symmetry. You should go at some point.

After seeing the Taj Mahal we ate breakfast at the wonderful Taj Café. Then we walked to Agra Fort, which is big, and red. Also worth seeing. But not much to say about it -- we've seen a lot of awesome architecture by now.

Continuing on foot, we walked to/through Kirani Bazaar. This must be where the locals shop, as there were almost no foreigners there, but a bazillion people. We bought shower sandals and a sari (red and gold) for Mary. It was really crowded. Some silly folk even tried to get through on motorcycles.

Next we crossed the river as part of a rather long walk to Itmud-Ud-Dauluh, which looks like a miniature Taj Mahal, hence the nickname Baby Taj. This tomb predates the Taj Mahal, and appears to have been its inspiration. The inlays were off less valuable materials, but arguably prettier, and more intricate. There was also a lot of nice painting inside. And we met a guy inside who was working on stone inlay repair work for the tomb.

Finally we walked to Chini-Ka-Rauza because it was close. This tomb was probably pretty amazing when it was new, with this great blue work which is now almost gone. But let's just say, we could tell why they don't charge an entrance fee. It wasn't really worth the walk.

And all that was on foot. We opted for a tuk-tuk home as we were around 8km from home. We got stuck with 2 co-pilots, strangely, who tried to extort a commission from the cafe we were going to (which we've been visiting regularly) over the phone. Just in case they got through we walked to the hotel and freshened up for 15 minutes first. Now we're eating dinner. Yum -- we missed lunch.