The Corbett Hideaway

This reserve forest was established in the year 1936 and was initially called the Hailey National Park. This wildlife park was later renamed as the Corbett National Park after the wildlife conservationist Jim Corbett who spent most of his life in the area and had a great understanding of the animal life and ecology of this region. This wildlife park was categorized as a Project Tiger Reserve in the year 1973, and there are approx. 50 tigers inside the reserve, plus numerous
other ...

... We watched the sunrise over the Indian grasslands and saw mother and baby elephants bathing in the water. It was a very scenic venture, with little animal sightings but plenty of spectacular views and interesting conversations with our guide. We returned to Dhikala around 8:30 am for some breakfast (more Maggi! they seriously weren't serving anything else) and then our guide took us back to the watch tower in hopes of spotting a tiger. He dropped us off and we waited ...

... it would be foolishness to visit Corbett with the sole intention of sighting the tiger. If that was what was needed, all one needed to do was head for the Delhi zoo! As we sat waiting interminably in the rain trying hard not to listen to the pitter-patter on the jeep's roof, Daboo, our driver-cum-guide tried to cheer us up. 'Not to worry, Sa'abji [4]. We will make up as much as we can.' Most were in no mood to settle for any consolation prizes, but he seemed ...

We've managed to upload some photos now - so have a look at the final Delhi entry for a few shots of New Delhi and the entry before this one for some of our first two days at Rishikesh. The day before yesterday we decided to try to book a guided trek (a shortish one to ease ourselves into a slightly more active life than we've been used to in England) through our hotel manager who assured us he could look after those kind of arrangements for us. So we told him ...

My turn to tell you the gory details of what we've done and how etc. (Rach is on tidbits and observations detail today). Our overnight train journey from Delhi to Haridwar was better than expected all round. The train left Old Delhi Station at about 10.15pm sharp and we blew the dust of that crummy old town like a couple of outlaws (inspiration and credit to the Boss). Our compartment was shared by a couple of Indian businessmen, a small family ...

... Such a glorious sight to look down to the banks of the sacred river and see children play fighting, people partaking in Pujas, squaling and squealing toddlers being dunked repeatedly by their mothers and fathers - LIVING. I recalled a photo taken of me when I was two or three, bawling my eyes out as my grandfather had placed me up to my knees in the Pacific Ocean at Qualicum Beach. I knew my Ashram was waiting and the Ganges, as Mothers and Grandmothers do, would ...

... India... Meeting the river for the first time on the bridge crossing over from the North to the South side of Rishikesh, I loved it! I loved seeing the people bathing in it. I loved seeing the kids thrashing around in it. Watching the nightly celebrations that took place on its banks, where people gathered in huge crowds to dance, sing, chant, light candles, and make offerings of flowers and fire to the river was life giving in itself. My early mornings were spent sitting on ...

... small offerings of flowers in what looked like banana leaf boats. And then there was this whole bit with fire. This part was a little confusing and for some reason we didn't really get clarification on it. But it was pretty much the main focus of the ceremony, so yep kinda embarrassed that we didn't really take that bit in. I was definitely a bit distracted by the event overall and all the people around us. It was definitely a sight and completely captivating. (M: The SUPER nice guy from ...

... teacher intones more instructions and the whole thing starts over again with odder images and less relevant questions until your strolling through some crazy brainscape with your 2nd grade teacher, a tin cup full of jam, and a 20ft monkey trying to put a bindi on your forehead. Maybe I don't want to empty my mind anyway, it's not that full to start with, and if I throw out the "filing cabinets" of my brain (as Stitham says), whose to say I'll get them back and the contents may ...

... picking up passengers or just stopping for no apparent reason; we (Michal and I) were then unceremoniously dumped on a pavement and told that our bus would collect us there - we were on an Air-Con bus, but had booked non-AC tickets. At that point another bus driver started a huge row with our driver - we couldn't understand a word of it, but the upshot was that we were bundled back onto the same bus and the journey around Delhi continued. At 12.30am I thought I recognised a ...