India 12

We slept well; we slept in. Oh, but for an interruption from an exuberant Fairmont employee who proactively decided we needed breakfast before 8:00am ... after much beckoning at the door "service, service" Bob got up and said through the door "we are sleeping" to which the reply was "your breakfast"; then "we are sleeping"; "your breakfast"; "we are sleeping"; and then things were quiet. After packing to leave we sat for a bit in the floor lounge and then departed for the airport with Ashok. Our approx 22 hrs of flights and transfers went very well from Jaipur-Delhi (Jet Air flight); Delhi-HongKong (Air India flight); and HongKong-Sanya (Hong Kong Air flight). By the time we arrived in Sanya it was the next day (March 9th). We are going to miss India. We made friends and wish we could stay longer in some places. We look forward to going back. It is difficult to parachute in, connect with people and then leave. We need to resolve this gap in experience.

India 11

Today, Bob fed lunch to Ms. Rangoli (32 yeas old, so at mid-life) and Yolanda fed Ms. Gauri (18 years old, so a carefree, joyful teenager). We were there with these two elephants a couple of memorable, relaxed hours and then went back to the hotel (Fairmont Jaipur) for afternoon tea and some blogging. In the morning time, after a bit of searching, Huseem and Ashok helped us find an ATM that accepted our debit card and then we went to the waterfront to photograph Pelicans and the Jaipur Water Palace (Jal Mahal).

The daily flower market was next, where everyone gathers garlands, petals or blossoms for their shrines, good luck talismans for their vehicle front bumpers, or wedding mosaics and other embellishments. We again photographed the sugar cane crusher cart and Huseem described how his favourite delicious beverage is made by the cart men with crushed mint leaves and lemon halves, which are juiced in sequence after the canes in the rolling crushers. The flower market was colourful and smelled wonderful! The cost for blossoms is about $.20/kilo but goes up to about $1.00/kilo in wedding season, which continues right now.

Huseem told us many stories in our travels with him today, including one about an uproar from the wives of a recent king, as they wanted to get out of their sequestered palace to see the street markets, so, as kings do, this one commissioned a multi-story set of apartments, which we visited, with a view to the markets below. The wives could thus look out to the street but still not be seen.

Our next stops were City Palace and the Jantar Mantar Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was created for calculating astrological / astonomical alignment for determining birth names, predicting the monsoon, and preparing for battle strategies. There is even one sundial that is correct within 2 seconds.

After a visit to a block print workroom, where Yolanda picked up meterage of fabric, we went for a unique and special visit to the Elephant farm that has been in Huseem's family for eight generations. What a wonderful last tour day in India!

India 10

Our third to last day in India and today Bob saw the female tiger and her three cubs in zone 6 of Ranthambore National Park. Everyone he tells the story to let's him know he is very lucky! He also saw a crocodile and two more brown-bucks.

We left the Sher Garh Hotel in Ranthambore at about 11:00am and arrived in Jaipur at about 2:30pm. There we were met by Husseem, a good pal of Shanoo, and taken to another step well, a Krishna temple dedicated to Ganesh (recognized by his elephant head), and the expansive Mughal palace-fort influenced by Persian design, Amber Fort. The Fort is surrounded by hills and in a ring around the fort along the hill crests is a 12km "grest wall".

We are staying our last two nights at the Fairmont Jaipur, and watched a beautiful sunset from the patio looking towards Amber Fort and it's 12kms of surrounding walls, which we would like to walk sometime, and maybe be in Jaipur on January 14th to witness the annual kite festival along the wall and see the sound and light show at the Fort.

India 09

4:45am we arose for our 6:00am departure to Soorwal Reservoir to bird watch and photograph. Again, we were treated to new types of birds, including Spoonbills, Indian rollers and Franklins. Our guide was gentle, unrushed and knowledgeable.

We found him on-line via an .in site for Ranthambore National Park (versus .com or .org sites of the same name). We were back just before the breakfast packed up (10:30) at Sher Garh Hotel and then went to our room for some rest before our afternoon tiger tour.

After a very bumpy ride in a jeep, we arrived at a spot in zone 6 where there was reportedly a female tiger with three cubs in a gully, but she would not come out (wise girl).

We did see a few other interesting mammals and birds and Bob signed up to go out again in the early morning when it is not so hot and the animals might be out a bit more. As it would be another very early morning, we did not post our site photos, and determined we would do so in Jaipur.

India 08

A travel day today, including our first train ride in India, we went from Bharat Pur and Keoladeo Ghana Bird Sanctuary to take in Ranthambore for two tours, including one in a tiger reserve.

We really enjoyed the train and found it more relaxing than being in the back seat of a small car negotiating traffic complexities. The accommodation in Ranthambore is a stand alone cabin with both outdoor and indoor shower.

Our train was about 45 minutes late, but our hotel driver must have known as he pulled up with a "Robert McDougall" sign just as we had arrived at the platform exit and had been approached by children asking for rupees.