The Junglebook

Trip Start Aug 29, 2009
1
26
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of India  , Rajasthan,
Friday, November 6, 2009

The whole point of going to Ranthambhor was to see tigers.  Let me you start out by saying that we saw no tigers.  We took 3 safaris, two of them at the ungodly hours of 6:30 am, and we saw no tigers.  We saw many other animals like monkeys, pretty birds, and various species of antilpoes and deer.  But let's be honest.  I have parakeets living in my backyard and the odds of me hitting a deer in Connnecticut are rather high.  I was not too impressed by the creatures displayed before me.  I wanted to see a wild tiger.  After 3 safaris, I could not tell which was more injuired: my bum or my level of cheer.  Sitting in the back of a safari jeep for a total of 9 hours seems to have the same after effect of a brutal gang bang.  If I was going to get physically broken, I wanted to see a tiger.  But that never happened.  Do I sound bitter?  Just a bit.  Granted, the landscape was awesome and seemed to be the places that have inspired Kipling.  The place was a varied spread od thick jungles, mountains, and dry Savannah-like plains.  Kingfisher with a fish
Kingfisher with a fish
 Sitting in the back of an open-top jeep and taking in the breathtaking scenery would have been really enjoyable, if the prospect of seeing wild tiger wasn't hanging in front of you like a carrot in front of a mule.

Nevertheless, the camp we stayed at was very quiet and we were finally able to rest.  We spent the time between safaris eating, reading and napping.  having gone non-stop since we arrived, it was really nice to chill out and refuel.

On our last day, being totally defeated by the lack of tiger, Jay did the unthinkable.  He pulled through.  He brought us to this fort in the middle of the jungle where the biggest Ganesha temple in India was located.  We walked up the fort an hour before sunset and had a really great time.  There were only Indian people there going to the temple.  We saw maybe 2 other tourists.  We mingled with the Indians, drank tea with the people there ad played with the local children.  After that, we watched the sun go down over the ruins, where a bunch of monkeys were hanging out.  Watching that sunset with my dad in the middle of these 1000 year old Indian ruins totally made up for the fact that there were no tigers.  The place just seemed to have crawled out of the jungle book.  the Trip to Ranthambhor was not a waste of time after all.
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