Silly Postscript

One more thing just for a laugh. 10 questions about our trip, well 11 actually the last one is a given.

Question	Kristy	Matt
What was the best thing about the holiday?	Seeing Tigers	Too hard to say, seeing Tigers, Varanasi at dawn, the Taj, I could go on.....
What was the worst thing about the holiday?	Rude tourists and coming home	The heat
What did you miss most about home?	The dogs and talking to my family on the phone	The dogs
Would you change anything about your holiday if you could plan it again?	Stay longer so we could have spent more time in Nepal	Stay longer
What was the most annoying thing about the holiday?	Rude tourists	Late planes, but you come to know that this is all just part of it after awhile
What was the funniest thing?	The monkey stealing a kid's corn corb at Elephanta Island or looking back, the airport security in Nepal (which wasn't at the time)	Kristy nearly shitting herself when the tiger came up to the jeep and hissed at her and yes I was laughing at the time or the fact that she kept getting a sore finger from taking way too many photos. Or maybe the monkey that kept lifting and looking up Kristy's skirt.
What was the biggest dissapointment?	The B&B in Delhi. Location was great but the bed was horrible. Getting sick	Not trying an authentic vindaloo
What was the best thing you ate?	Pepper Lobster at the Taj President's Thai resturant	The lamb curry at Varansi (real shame I can't remember what it was called though as I would love to try and cook it)
What was the worst thing you ate?	Plane food	McDonalds but it was pretty good at the time!
What was the most enjoyable thing you did?	Not working and not using a computer for 6 weeks! Too hard to answer there were so many things. Feeding wild monkeys even if I did get scratched, talking to the local people, going back to the hotel room and finding a birthday cake at 10.30 at night and quality time with Matt.	Everything and what Kristy said! Having a romantic private dinner for 2 on the hotel lawns in Aurangbad. Eating fantastic authentic food for 6 weeks and not having to cook it!
Would you go back?	Yes becuse we would go to different parts of India and it is so diverse it would be like visiting a different country	Most deffinatlly

The End

Well like all good things sadly enough our trip had to come to an end. We are home now and I am even back at work, but I thought I would add one more post just to finish things off.

Firstly I will say that although I wasn't at first convinced about blogging (as Andrew said - "you are now super gay") but I am certainly a convert now, it really was a great way to keep people "in the know" about where we were and what we were doing. I think eventually this may even take the place of postcards. It does take time and depending on where you connect to the net can even end up costing a bit of money but it is just so easy, and one of the best things about it is that by doing this we will be able to remember more of our trip than if we hadn't kept a diary of what we did while we were away. It did make it easier once we had a laptop with us you can then write up blog posts offline and quickly cut and paste when on the net.

It is interesting (but I guess human nature) that one of the first questions you get asked is "What was the best thing about your holiday?" Well to be honest with you that is one question neither Kristy or I could give really true answer to. It is funny while we were away and we got further into our trip we would ask each other that very question. You thought you could honestly pick one thing but then a few days later you weren't so sure. India is just so diverse that you just can't pick one thing about even the tiny piece of the country that we saw and say that it stands out over everything else. I must admit though that for both of us seeing wild Tigers that close is pretty hard to beat, but then again the nature side of things is just one small part of what we experienced while we were away. The cultural aspect of the country is truly huge and it is hard to appreciate the diversity unless you actually experience it. Varanasi was spiritual and in a way magical (for want of a better discription) while Aurangabd and Khujarho showed the depth of history that the different religous and ethnic groups have. People rave about the architecture in Europe and how amazing it is, well I can't comment on that as I have not seen any of it, but I would bet that a lot of the Indian architecture is just as good if not better (read Taj Mahal). It really is just way to hard to say "well I think this bit was the best", but if I had to rate things, then I guess yes the Tigers first and probably Varanasi next but I would just be kidding myself.

There are a couple of phrases that we heard before we left for India, the marketing one Incredible !ndia which I will deffinatly agree with and another that our GP (who has been to India twice before and is on his way back later this year) uses TII - This is India, which after spending 6 weeks floating around the country is really apt. As I have said earlier there are some down sides to travelling in a country like India, but then there is a down side to travelling anywhere, I am sure Australia included. The poverty can be depressing and the hawkers annoying but it is part of the experience and if are expecting to travel in a country like India thinking that this won't be something you will have deal with then you shouln't be going. But Kristy and I both agree that the good things far outweigh the bad things in India. The food is amazing, the people are really warm and friendly, even the ones trying to sell you things, yes it is hot but if you plan your day to include air conditioning and swimming pools it isn't too much of an issue. (If you plan your travel to be in a cooler time of year even better). The depth of the culture is quite amazing, the people's religious beliefs are fascinating and the history of the country is very very interesting.

India is a huge country and changes radically as you travel between areas and we really saw next to nothing in the big scheme of things, it would be great to get back one day and see different parts of the country. Even talking to the local people it is clear that as you move between parts of India it is more like travelling to a different country than just a different state within a single country. One of the things that we have deffinatley proven is that most people really are unware and I guess to a degree ignorant (harsh I know) when it comes to India. When we began planning this trip a few years ago so many people would just say to us "why do you want to go there?", including a travel agent. The thing that annoyed us the most with the travel agent is that he wouldn't even give us any information about India, needless to say we never went back to them. Yes it is easy to have a uninformed opinion on places like India (or any country I know I am guilty of doing it) but really unless you experience things yourself you really can't make that judgement. India is an incredible and beautiful place, yes it makes you appreciate what you have but travelling to any country where a majority of the population is below the poverty line but as I have said if you are traveling to a country like this it is a part of the country and you need to be prepared for this sort of thing. I honesty think that it is a good thing to experience the bad things (if that makes sense) seeing this sort of thing and how people live like this and in many cases actually deal with it so well can actually make you look at yourself and really rethink some things. But like I said the country is wonderful and we really did have a great time. Six weeks was quite awhile to be away but looking back now we probably would have been just as happy to have spent 6 months there.

If anyone has any desire to go to India one day and would like some tips, you know where to come. We had a fantastic travel agent in India who we would highly recommend. Yes we had a few dramas at the beginning working things out but once we had it sorted and were there they were fantastic, very professional and really invaluable when we had some unexpected cancelations and delays. The same goes for the Taj hotels if you ever have the chance to stay in any of their hotels - do it. Their service is second to none, the heritage properties are beautiful and the staff are really amazing.

We will certainly have a lot of fond memories from our time in India but it is time to say farewell but hopefully not forever. And lastly the ultimate question - did we like it? I think that that question has been already well and truly answered. A resounding NO. We loved it!

KL for a couple of days stop over.

KL was certainly very different from India and Nepal. It is not that much different from Sydney, big cosmopolitan and from the looks of things pretty wealthy and very clean. We really didn't do too much at all in KL other than eat. Spent a little bit of time fighting our way through the China Town markets and haggling (very hard) for a couple of last minute pressies and things. We spent a bit of time wandering around 2 of the biggest shopping centres we have ever seen. We had thought Bondi Junction was big and then we saw these places. Unlike most of the shopping centres that we are used to which have jewellers that stock all sorts of watch brands like Tag, Rolex, Omega, etc... these places have individual shops for each brand. There is a Tag shop and next door to that there is a Rolex shop and next to that an Omega shop and next to that a Prada shop with a Channel shop next to it and yeah you get the point. Although the shops aren't overly cheap (some a comparable with Australia others are cheaper) KL is certainly a shoppers paradise, if you wanted to find something (anything) this would be the place to start. I think Kristy wants to come back here one day for their yearly sales, apparently they are ridiculous. We also walked over to KLCC and the twin towers (which are very impressive) but most of our time was spent lazing around for the few days we were in Malaysia as we were pretty buggered after 6 weeks on the go and the last couple of days had been huge with very late flights and very little sleep.

The food here is fantastic and the variety that you can get is endless. The food in India was just as good (but different so hard to compare) but in KL you can get pretty much anything you want the variety is almost endless - the Malay food is really great, and cheap. Oh and for all you people out there that rave about Krispy Kreme donuts, they don't even come close to J.CO Coffee and Donuts. J.CO beats Krispy Kreme by a mile, absolutely no comparison.

The biggest spin out in KL was going to a groccery shop. (we were looking for spices) A groccery shop you would think - no big deal which it wasn't it was just like Coles or Woollies except for the fact that we were in Malaysia and they sold of all things Cassegrain wine! We were having a look at the bottles and one of the staff memebers came over to see if we needed any help and we explained to her that we were from the place where the wine was from, she actually got quites excited about this and called a couple of her work mates over to tell them. We were celebreties for about 3 seconds. This was one thing that we certainly wouldn't have thought we would find in KL.

Kuala Lumpur is a really nice city and was a great place to stop for a few days on the way home, just to relax a bit, I am glad we didn't have too much spending money left cause that was probably the only thing that stopped Kristy going ballistic in the Prada shops!

Our last day in India and first day in Malaysia

Our last day in India wasn't overly exciting we spent the morning finalising our bags which we starting to feel a bit heavy again and then spending 5 hours in the car driving from Agra to Delhi. The drive was ok we were in a good car and the scenery was interesting, but it wasn't the most exciting way to spend our last day in India, but I suppose it had to happen. We ended up arriving to the Delhi airport almost 6 hours early, we should have gone to a coffee shop the Delhi international airport is a bit of a tragedy at the moment that doing huge amounts of work in preparation for the 2010 commonwealth games so it isn't the best place to hang around for that long and once you go through the door there ain't no coming out. They have armed guards at the door and they will not let you out ever!

We went and checked in when they finally opened the check-in counter and surprise surprise our luggage was too heavy. Being the nice guy that he was he said to us just put your hand luggage on the scales as well and see what the total is and you maybe ok. Little did he know we had already stuffed our hand luggage fuller than a turkey at Christmas and all I could think was that they weren't even going to let us on the plane! Well it didn't quite come to that, they gave us an option pay for excess luggage or get rid of some of it. I asked the obvious question how are we supposed to get rid of stuff? The answer - that is up to you. Good answer. The next question how much? The answer - $10US a kilo. How much were we over? Almost 20kg with our hand luggage. So we sighed and said ok we will pay, they ended up saying that they would only charge us for 5kg over as we had a camera and a laptop that they wouldn't include. We went to the supervisor credit card in hand. Kristy explained to the guy that we had been told we could have 60kg together when we left Sydney (thinking about it later we were actually wrong they told us we would be fine with 50) They also wanted to take my credit card out of the airport to process it the transaction and I said ok that's fine but I will carry it for you. Which he balked at. In the end they didn't charge us anything, we aren't sure weather it was just too hard to get me out of the building with the credit card or if it was Kristy explaining about what they (sort of) said in Sydney when we left.

So after that little drama we had about a 4 hour wait for the plane, which of course leaving from India was late although by now we were accustomed to planes never leaving on time. It was a crappy flight to Malaysia leaving after midnight and then being woken at 2am for breakfast(?) so we didn't much sleep on the way and were pretty buggered when we arrived in KL. We got to the hotel about 10am and decided that we would check some things out before going back to the hotel and falling asleep at 4.30 in the afternoon and waking up at midnight. We watched tv for a couple of hours before sleeping till almost 10!

The Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

Our first view of the Taj Mahal was from the hotel, having a suburb view from our room. From our vantage point, the skyline is just dominated by the immense structure it is absolutely huge. We were up early for what would be our last formal outing in India – a trip to the Taj Mahal followed by a look at Agra Fort. Agra itself is a sprawling industrial city of about 2 million in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Other than the fort and the Taj there is really little else here, which is why the tourist buses arrive by the dozen and leave just as quickly. A majority of the population these days rely on the tourism and it is pretty obvious once you set foot outside your hotel, the entrance fee to the Taj itself is no exception to this costing foreigners just short of $25 US each to visit. Residents of India are charged the equivalent of US 50 cents. This is not uncommon either nearly all the sights and monuments in India have two prices, one of foreigners and one for Indians, even the official tour guides who run around waving their laminated cards under your nose trying to drum up business have 2 prices!

We got a bit of friendly advice from our driver on the way there telling us to get the bus from the car park and not the tuk tuk as it was cheaper and not to let anyone tell us that you must have a guide to enter. Agra once the capital of India is fairly polluted so they have put into place some fairly strict rules around the Taj Mahal. polluting vehicles for example can only go within a certain distance of the monument and after that only electric vehicles can carry people to the entrance. From our hotel window early in the morning there is a really distinct haze you can see in front of the Taj which burns off as the day progresses and heats up.

We arrived at a pretty good time, just after 6 in the morning which is when the Taj is opened to the public, although there was still quite a few people around the tour buses only start turning up after breakfast so none of them were around. The Taj Mahal is often described as the most extravagant monument ever built for love and I think it goes without saying that this is true. It is also the most visited monument in the country, by foreigners and nationals alike and it really is a masterpiece. The Taj was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his second wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. Construction of the Taj began the year she died and was completed 22 years later. A year later Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son and imprisoned in Agra Fort until his death in 1666, after which he was buried along side is wife in the Taj Mahal. Around 20000 people work on the building including specialist brought in from Europe. The tour guides take great delight in telling the tourists that visit the Taj Mahal that all 20000 people that were involved in the building of the Taj as a reward for their efforts had their thumbs cut off so that the building could never be replicated – bit harsh although this has never actually been proven to have happened.

Well the Taj Mahal certainly has a wow factor to it. It really is a masterpiece. We got our car down to the car park which is about 1.5km from the Taj itself where you then have to get into an electric vehicle for the remainder of the trip, it is the Indian government's attempt to reduce the amount of pollution that the Taj is exposed to – which is good. Not sure how long ago it was but the Taj has undergone heavy restoration work, including scrubbing off the remnants of acid rain (and some graffiti). The building is huge and like the tombs in Delhi it is pretty incredible to think that this building is nothing more than a grave, although that really is over simplifying it a bit. The Taj Mahal stands on a raised marble platform at the end of an ornamental garden with a backdrop of only sky and it is a pretty amazing site as you walk through the entrance gate.We didn't worry about the guide but we were cornered by one of the caretakers who escorted Kristy around the entire site showing her the best places to take photos. Apparently most of the shot she took are the ones that are used for postcards which was pretty cool. Without wanting to detract from the visit and the significance of the building, in away visiting the Taj Mahal was like going to a really good movie after everyone else has seen it and hyped it right up and you finally get around to seeing it and you come away thinking yeah well that was really good but... Don't get me wrong it is an incredible building and a beautiful place to visit I just wish that everyone we spoke to about it hadn't told us how amazing it was before hand, maybe we should have gone there first!

Kristy didn't make it too Agra Fort she was really tired and couldn't face the heat again so I braved it myself. And yes by the time we had got back to the hotel after the Taj and had breakfast it was about 36 degrees (I think that was 9.30). Agra Fort is the twin of the Red Fort in Delhi and was where the Maharaja that built the Taj Mahal spent the last 7 years of his life after his own son overthrew him. I didn't spend too much time at the fort it was just way too hot but it is about a 2km walk around the site and had some more superb views of the Taj as a bonus, I unfortunately had to battle my way around with a number of bus loads of tourists, standing in the sun waiting for them to get out of the road so I could take photos and being generally annoyed tourists are (I hope we aren't like that) so that detracted from the visit a bit. It was enjoyable enough and I did get to hand feed a squirrel with chapati which was cool. Back to hotel we lazed around the hotel having lunch and packing feeling very sad that tomorrow was to be our last day in India.

Agra and the wedding season

We arrived in Agra late in the afternoon for what would be the last few days of our stay in India. We planned an early start to go and see of course the Taj Mahal. The plan was to get an early night as we were getting up at 5 for an early morning visit to the Taj. Unfortunately the early night thing didn't quite happen the way we had planned. They really take weddings and the associated celebrations seriously here in India and the month of April is one of the more popular months to get married, this was a good thing for us but also not so good a thing for us. It was fantastic to see the celebrations that happen around the wedding receptions, with processions in the streets as the groom arrives and the fireworks that accompany the party. I even got to sit on the back of an elephant for a photo. The problem that we had is that one of the wedding receptions was in the grounds of the hotel we were staying at in Agra so the street out the front of the hotel was going ballistic from about 6 at night till well after midnight. The street we were on is also one of the main roads in Agra and there must have been a dozen weeding processions come past during the night, the last coming past at about 11. They are so loud with music blaring the whole time and accompanying bands and the processions were stopping about every 50 metres or so for some dancing, and then of course traffic jams occur and as soon as a traffic jam happens everyone is on the horn so the noise gets even louder. We were four floors up here and the noise was still really really loud, making it pretty impossible to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. I ended up killing time by going down stairs and standing in the middle of the street taking photos and riding elephants

Agra is completely driven by tourism and this hotel seems to have a huge turnover in guests with bus loads turning up seeing the Taj Mahal, staying one night and then leaving again so the hotel has been pretty chockers for the 2 days that we stayed. Coming back inside from the late night photo shoot on the street was really funny. Looking up at the hotel almost every window of the hotel had a least one or two faces with noses glued to the windows trying to see what was going on down on the street. This must be what it feels like to be one of those Tigers at Ranthambore. There have been weddings going on the entire time that we have been in Rajasthan and it really is serious stuff. Some of these receptions have up to 2000 people at them and can cost $60000 US, slightly different than in Australia. Kristy was talking to someone the other day and they were really surprised when she told them that we only had about 100 people at our wedding.

Chokhi Dhani

On our last full morning we visited the government run emporium in town and contrary to popular belief not all shops like these are dearer than the markets. The prices here were really quite reasonable and without the hassles of haggling with shop owners and being followed like shadows as you look around a shop, we picked up a few souvenirs here before heading back to the hotel to make sure our luggage didn't weigh too much, which of course it did. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon packing and unpacking bags and getting them weighed trying to work out how we could fit everything in. We couldn't. We ended up having to send somethings home by courier, apparently the postal system is quite up to our standards and other than letters and postcards it is not recommended that you send to much via Indian post, so courier it was. I am not even going to tell you how much it was to send things home, but I will say it came as a bit of a shock.

We went out to a place called Chokhi Dhani for our last night in Jaipur. Chokhi Dhani is about a 45 minute drive (a distance of 15km, yes 45 minutes to drive 15km) from Jaipur city and is a reconstructed traditional village with all sorts of entertainment including traditional and tribal dancing, gymnastics – a young boy does tricks on top of a 4 metre pole and folk music and to finish the night off we ate an authentic Rajasthani thali dinner, even sitting on the floor and joined by a really lovely Indian family. The place is really popular with Indian families, the guy that drove us out there was telling us that during the cooler months of December and January you have to park almost 2 km away from the entrance. This was a very different experience for us and was very enjoyable even doing the ultra tourist thing and getting dressed up in Indian outfits and having our photo taken. It was a really enjoyable way to spend our last night in Jaipur.

Monkeying around

Galta is home to the Temple of the Sun God otherwise known as the Monkey temple. and is a little way out of Jaipur. As you arrive you are offered fruit and peanuts to the feed the monkeys with so we obliged, buying a bag of peanuts. The temple is at the top of a rocky gorge about 200m up. We made it about half way before a monkey snuck up behind Kristy and ripped the bag of peanuts out of her hand and took off up a rock wall a quickly scoffed the lot. The ones that fell out as the monkey took off didn't last much longer either.

As you climb the stairs toward the top and the temple there are a number of pools terraced up the hill. One for men, one for woman and as we found out on the way back down one for the monkeys. There is a natural spring which flows into the pools from the mouth of rock in the shape of a cow. It is said that the water flows out of here 24 hours a day 365 days a year. At the top, other than the temple is a family of monkeys and it wasn't long before I was trudging back down the steps to get a replacement bag of peanuts. This time they went safely into the bag for the trip back up. There is a man that is a sort of a care taker here who looks after the monkeys in a way and actually helps tourists feed them and get some great photos. Kristy and I had a really great time with the family of monkeys although there was a couple of times when it got a bit hairy as the big dominant male got a bit toey but the guy that was with us sorted him out pretty quickly. Although wild, the monkeys are very friendly and are really quite gently eating directly from your hand. Holding a peanut clutched in your hand, the monkeys will even open your fingers to take the peanut from inside. We had a lot of fun feeding the monkeys for about half an hour before making our way back down the steps back to the bottom. In the bottom pool there were even more monkeys swimming. We had never seen monkeys in the water and it really interesting to see just how human like their behavior can be. The run and bomb dive each other push each other in the water and even trying to hold each other's heads under the water. And they are really quite good swimmers disappearing under the water and popping up 4 or 5 metres to the left or right.

We had a really fun time with the monkeys and it was quite cool at Galta and very peaceful, there were very few people around and only one other tourist. We didn't do too many of the sights and touristy things in Jaipur but this was a welcome change to the forts, markets and palaces.

Jaipur again

We arrived back to Jaipur amidst some grand fanfare the hotel put on a great show for our return, actually it wasn't for us it was for the Ferrari team but we got there in the middle of it so why not? We decided pretty early on after getting back into Jaipur that we probably weren't going to do too much here it was just way too hot and after almost 5 and a half weeks the motivation for more markets and forts wasn't that high. In the afternoon on the day after coming back from Ranthambore we took a trip down to the old city to have a look at yes the markets, it was pretty hot even at 4 in the afternoon and there were heaps of people around so it wasn't that much fun struggling through the crowds and dodging traffic. We ended up meeting a couple of local guys who we had tea with and a chat and they suggested that we go and see Galta which we decided to do the next morning.

Luck at Ranthambore

Everyone including our guides and all the hotel staff told us on a number of occasions just how lucky we had been to see so many Tigers in such a short period of times and we certainy were not going to argue. It truly was an incredilbe experience that neither Kristy or I will forget in a hurry, I think we will have those memories forever, especially Kristy given she thought she might get eaten at one stage. This would cetainly be something I would recommend people do if they ever travel to India. These animals are truly magical and seeing them in their own habitat is really something that will be hard to top.

Final safari & Ferraris

We had another very early morning this morning having a final game drive before heading back to Jaipur. It was Kristy's turn to go with the guide and draw out the zone for our final safari and she was lucky enough to get zone 5. Although we had already been through this zone it is supposedly one of the best so the guide was pretty happy, although he was hoping for zone 2 as we had already been to zone 3 & 5. It was a pretty bumpy trip back into the park this morning but seemed to be a little more comfortable than yesterday morning as the jeep was a bit newer. We had a full jeep again this morning sharing the jeep with an Indian family from Chennai. As it turns out we ended up being 3 for 3 on our drives, although we only saw one Tiger this morning, but we were happy with that, some people come to Ranthambore and do 5, 6, 7 or 8 safari drives and don't see a single Tiger. Even the guides can go for weeks without spotting one. They might find lots of pug marks (Tiger tracks) but not see any of the animals themselves as the tracks that the vehicles are allowed on only cover about a third of the total area of the park and knowing that make or trip to Ranthambore all the more successful. Even though the heat was exhausting and horrible it heat 45 later in the day it was a good time to come and sight Tigers and the water isn't as plentiful as other times of the year and the jungle at other times is much more dense than during the hotter months so Tiger sightings are even more difficult.

Yesterday saw the arrival of a couple of Ferraris to the hotel a group from Ferrari motor company. Ferrari a looking at teaming with Tata in Indian car company owned by the same group that own the Taj Hotels. They have been driving around India for nearly 3 months stopping at the Hotels on the way round. Knowing nothing about cars I don't know what type of Ferrari these 2 were but they were nice and I am sure worth a fortune. The manager of the hotel was telling me that the is only one Ferrari that is Inida and is owned by Sachin Tendulkar but he can't really drive it much. Not sure if that is because he gets mobbed every time he tries to go out or is more to do with the traffic issues in India – possibly a combination of both. Their next stop was also Jaipur and as there is only one road from Ranthambore to Jaipur we didn't know how they were going to go getting there. These cars sit about 2 or 3 inches above the ground and the road they were going to have to travel along has potholes deeper than some in ground swimming pools. They left about 2 hours before we did and arrived at Jaipur about the same time as us. We actually thought we might have even caught up and overtook them and it looks like we might not have been far away from doing exactly that.

Back to the national park

After returning from our first successful safari, we had an late breakfast and a quick nap before having launch and getting ready to go back to the park for our afternoon game drive. It was very hot when were picked up by our driver and guide up around the 42 mark so we made sure we had plenty of water with us for this afternoon's adventure. We didn't have our hopes up too high as we probably wouldn't top what we saw this morning although we were still looking forward to the drive all the same. We were sharing with 4 others this afternoon so we were a little bit more squashed in this time. We arrived at the gate again this time at least prepared for the bombardment of hawkers and the chaos with the guides and their "lucky dip". We thought the guide would only be a couple of minutes as we were already late and most of the canters and jeeps had been and already gone through. We waited and we waited some more not sure what was going on, other than the fact that the conversations at the lucky dip stall was getting more heated and more heated by the minute. Finally after a lot of shouting and phone calls and then even more shouting our guide came back with a big grin on his melon and we were ready to go.

He explained on the way in that he didn't agree with the lottery system as it wasn't fair as too many of the guides bribed the people that were doing the draw, so he just flatly refused to do it and demanded that we go to zone 3 which is supposedly the best zone of all as it it has the most water in it which the Tigers tend to head for pretty regularly at this time of year. Which was good and we were glad he had done it if it really was as good as he thought, but a bit of warning would have been nice rather than just leaving us sitting there for 20 minutes. Anyway the drive into the park this time was much easier and a lot smoother having sealed or at least cobbled roadway for about half of the trip. Driving up past the fort and through the main gates lead us into zone 3 and within about 5 minutes had caught up with a couple of other jeeps in the same zone. Zone 2 and zone 3 back onto each other and there were a number of vehicles on the other side of the boundary parked with their occupants craning their necks and standing on toes, which meant that there was something worth seeing not too far away, so we parked as well.

We weren't to be disappointed either, within five minutes of parking a second Tiger (there was one laying around just out of sight in zone 2) came wandering toward our jeep and the water we were parked beside for a cool off. It turns out that it was the mother of the 3 cubs we had seen earlier today. She lay down in the water too cool of and stayed there for as long as we were prepared to stay there for. The female Tiger wasn't going anywhere soon so we waited for a little longer and decided to go for a drive to see if we could spot anymore Tigers and then come back here on the way out and see if she was still around.We didn't have to drive too far before spotting another just laying on the grass, although it was a fair way away, it would have been interesting to see this one up a bit closer as it look big even 50 or 60 metres away. The guide seemed to think it was the biggest male in the park. We took a couple of more pics and moved on spotting some deer (there are heaps of them in the park - Tiger food) and some Kingfisher and other birds as well. We didn't have anymore luck looking for Tigers, although we did see a small crocodile so we decided to go back to the female we had seen originally.

The Tiger we had seen earlier was still around but had moved out of the water and jumped up on a small monument that was in the area, I think it was an old temple. We watched her for awhile longer before leaving for the afternoon. It seems strange that we would just sit and watch a Tiger laying in a creek or lolling around on a lump of concrete but this is something I don't we will ever witness again and there is something that is just peaceful watching wild animals free within their own habitat. I think it would take a long time before you truly got tired of this.

Did we see a Tiger???

We were up very early this morning around 4.45am for a 5.46 pickup from the hotel. Bleary eyed I managed to get coffee made and Kristy out of bed and dressed by 5.30am,just managing to get the coffee down before the phone rang to hurry us up - the guide was getting impatient. We didn't realise at the time but it was very important to be on time because of what goes on before entering the park. We were riding in an open top jeep that seat 6 plus the guide and driver so on the way to the park we stopped into to pick 3 more people up, they were from the UK and had been at Ranthambore for 8 days and had seen about 16 Tigers so we were pretty hopefully as we headed to the park entrance.

As we arrived it was absolute pandemonium at the gate with hawkers trying to sell hats, t-shirts and all sorts of Tiger related souvenirs to anyone that would look sideways at them. As it turns out the reason why the guides are so keen to arrive on time is that the park which is around 1350 sq km is divided into 5 zones and during each morning and each afternoon session only 15 jeeps and 15 canters (20 seater trucks) are allowed into the park. To divide up where each of the vehicles go during the 2 daily sessions a lottery is held where one of the passengers in each of the vehicles draws a number out of a bag, the number corresponding to the zone that you travel in during the drive. We didn't have a clue what was going on until after it was all over. We ended up with zone 5 for our first drive which was one of the better zones, but not the best. Zone five is a fair way outside of the park proper and takes a good 20 minutes to half an hour to get into the heart of the park and the same on the way out which reduces your real time in the park from 3 to about 2 hours. The track was pretty bumpy going in and it was warming up quickly. We had been driving around for about an hour and a half and we were getting pretty bored to be honest with you (Kristy, although I don't know how while we were moving actually nodded off a couple of times). Being very dry we ended up parking across from a man made water hole and just sat there which is where we figured we would stay for our last half an hour or 45 minutes that we had left before our time was up. We were pretty certain that by this stage we weren't going to see a Tiger this time round and would have to hope for the best later in the afternoon when we had our second safari. We were a bit disappointed but knew that this was all a matter of chance and we still had 2 drives to go before we left.

We were about to leave when the lady sitting behind us tapped Kristy on the shoulder (who was falling asleep again) and told her to turn around. It actually scared the crap out of poor Kristy who wasn't expecting it. Walking down the track were three 18 month old Tigers. It was an amazing site they really are magnificent animals especially when you see them in their own environment. The three of them were slowly walking down the track making there way to the water hole. It is incredible how they just down care about a bunch of crazy tourists standing in the back of a couple of 4WDs going mad with their cameras. Two of the three Tigers headed pretty much straight for the water hole and plonked themselves into it to cool off.

While the third did the same thing it took a bit more time in arriving. For 18 month olds they were pretty big animals, the female being almost fully grown. All 3 were about the size of their mother but the 2 males still have a fair amount of growing to do. It was really great to watch these animals as they just lazed around in the water having a drink and just relaxing. After about 10 or 15 minutes, and god knows how many photos, one of the Tigers decided it wanted to have a closer look at all these strange people hanging around and made (slow) beeline for our jeep. It came within about a metre and a half from our jeep and lay down and just stared at us for awhile. I think it wanted to prove itself cause at one stage it half got up and staring straight toward Kristy started hissing, although not quite like a tabby. A few people in the jeep (including Kristy) were a little nervous by this stage and even the guide had to tell everyone to stay perfectly still and keep very very quiet. The Tiger must have decided it had proved its point as shortly after that it just got up and wander back into the jungle, shortly followed by the other 2.

That was our queue to leave. The ride back was even bumpier than the one in as they had left it until the last minute to leave and had to hurry, but no one seemed to mind as everyone was on a bit of a high, that sort of encounter really does leave you feeling fairly exhilarated. The group from the UK said that that was by far the best experience they had had out of all their sightings, the previous ones had been at a fair distance, even the guide commented on how rare it is for them to come that close. Even though they are very used to seeing people and the vehicles they are still a little cautious and usually don't come that close.

All the staff at the hotel were very excited for us telling us how lucky we were to have seen three Tigers in one trip. As hot and tired as we were we were looking forward to our return in the afternoon.