Incredible India
This is the tagline the Indian tourist office uses to advertise the country. Having been here 1,5 weeks, we can confirm that this is true on many levels.
First of all: don’t be surprised to see people pee or poop on the side of the road. It’s perfectly normal. Secondly, don’t be surprised that men are spitting constantly. At one point; a guy even spat in my face. Not deliberately, but he just sat in front of me in the safari truck, turned around and spat, cos they do so every half an hour or so. It was gross!!
Thirdly, don’t be surprised that when you go on safari in a truck, an Indian mother has no qualms about hanging her 3-year old son out of the truck, so he can pee and sprinkle Sid’s jacket and camera at the same time. Again, gross!! To add to that, an older Indian guy just stood up in the middle of the safari ride, and started to urinate out of the truck. And seriously, everybody thinks it’s perfectly normal.
Fourthly, don’t be surprised that whatever you have arranged (or: thought you had arranged with someone and had confirmed a couple of times just to make sure we all understood each other well - the Indians speak like they have 20 marbles in their mouth - and then find out that nothing has been arranged) whatsoever. Or: they have arranged something differently and subsequently raised the price with USD 30 without telling us and then acting surprised when Sid gives a flamboyant enactment of boiling milk!
Yet, India is beautiful. Ranthambore National Park was fantastic. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any tigers. The weather didn’t help; it was freezing the first few days and foggy and overcast. We did see sambar deer, spotted deer, Indian antelopes, a sloth bear (lippenbeer), crocodiles, wild hogs, and to me - a wannabe ornithologist - this was paradise! So many beautiful birds. Seven kinds of kingfishers (ijsvogels), serpent eagles, spotted owls, parakeets, bitterns, egrets, red-wattled lapwings, Indian rollers, shikra, grey shikes, brown shikes, hoopoes, etc.
The lodge we stayed at was right on the border of Ranthambore NP. The monsoon had washed away parts of the separating wall, so leopards occasionally visit the lodge now. Not while we were there, though. One afternoon, at sunset we walked out of the gate and saw 2 sambar deer crossing the wall, going to the little pond. It was a beautiful sight; you could only hear the birds and it was just the sambar deer and us two. (And then you wonder: what would we have done if it had been us two and a tiger or a leopard?)
Yesterday, 4th January, we went, after Sid got our USD 30 back, to Agra. A 6,5 hours drive to cover about 300k. And all along the way, as far as the eye could see, there were fields of mustard. Yellow flowers everywhere. Happy, the biologist at the lodge, said this is one of the most lucrative crops they can grow. And in the fields, kids and women clear out the cow dung (koeievlaaien) and literally beat them into patties to dry in the sun and use as fertiliser and/or bio-fuel later. Happy also told us that the province of Rajasthan has the highest number of illiteracy in India. We did a birdwatching tour with Happy and visited 2 small villages. Here, the people leave you be and are just happy you are interested in visiting them. Quite a contrast with the touts in the big cities.
Today, we will visit the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. Let’s see how we fare.
