Tiger Moon Resort Sawai Madhopur

... so eventually he yawns, stretches and has a wee, and moves down toward us and across the road he was at his closest about 10 metres away from us absolutely incredible. 5 minutes later the female follows, she gets closer and she does a pooh right in front of us, and then moves in to the forest after the male. WooHoo.

We saw loads of other things Spotted Deer, Sambar Deer, Black Faced Hanuman langurs (monkeys to me and you ...

... air. The previous times, there was animal life everywhere but now it is impossible to spot anything. We find fresh footprints, and not a single one but several than run parallel to the road we take. A short while after, a Simbar deer emits an alarm noise. There is a tiger nearby but we still can't locate it. We drive a couple hundred meters and in front of us, just 20 meters away, lies an adult male (220 kg) hiding in the low grassland and getting ready to hunt its next ...

... her scent and they dispersed. It
was a little disappointing not to see a kill, but watching her stalk
them through the grass was amazing. After she sloped off into the shade
again we headed out of the park to return to the hotel. On our way back
down the road outside the main entrance the driver stopped the car as
he heard the panic call of monkeys. He told us that this was a leopard
hunting ground, so we started ...

... moving, after 15 minutes we view the first animals of the day -a couple of deers grazing, we go for a closer look and when we wanted to get down from the jeep to take some snaps we were informed that it is not allowed, infact some rules have to be observed in the park. Vehicles must follow their designated path and maintain their time. Loud noise and playing music is prohibited, it'll disturb the animals. Smoking and drinking within park premises is ...

... 30 mins or so, then an official came down to the gate and started handing out some form, the gist being, they are not responsible if you get eaten by a Tiger or Leopard, please sign your life away on the dotted line. Fine, but had no ******* pen, so left line with form to obtain pen. Get back and wait some more, its been about an hour and the amount of people around me has increased, someone mentioned to me that it is the holiday season in India too, for some reason I ...

... and the guide points at some paw prints on the ground alongside the trail. Tiger prints! They aren't fresh, guide says, but aren't that old either. "Looks like someone's been out with the paw-printing stick," says the Frenchman, bitterly. We halt again, for a loo break. I want to go and am pointed in the direction of some trees behind the forest ranger's hangout. There is a muddy patch, scattered with toilet paper and flies buzzing about. This must be it. I ...

... gotten started. It definitely looked like a good time. Since we've been in India we've seen countless temples and shrines, the workmanship in some of these just defied the imagination. We've also seen two forts, Jodhpur and Jaipur, that just have to be seen to be believed but I really haven't written much about them. Back in one of my first posts I wrote that we would see sights, but that's not really why we're ...

... The key is also brass and is attached to a brass bell which we have to carry around. This afternoon we went to a women's cooperative - Dastkar - where rural women from all over can come to be trained to make handicrafts which are then sold there in the store. It is way out down a dirt road - the women are all so beautiful here with such beautiful saris on. I bought 2 beautiful hand painted bedspreads from the women who had made them and got to take her picture. We

... of the first groom struck us as "really young" so we asked our hotel's friendly staffers (watching the processions right beside us) if they knew how old the groom was. The answer was 15. Imagine our faces when we heard that our favorite hotel waiter was married at 12!!! He is now at 22 and celebrating his 10-year anniversary!!! (We'll talk about child marriage and child labor in another blog). "It is still so in old towns", our ...

... to do with tigers in flesh and blood (pun unintended). This safari, that took us to Zone 5, was generally pronounced a let down...if tiger spotting were to be the only yardstick of a successful safari. The park is, incidentally, divided into five zones. Once you have driven past the Fort and through the doorway near a 200 year old banyan tree, the forest sprawling in front of you is demarcated zone-wise, with the area on your ...