Typed up: East West Medical Center in Delhi Posted from: Hotel Vivek in
Delhi
From
Bharatpur we took a train to Sawai Madhopur. It was our first 2nd-class
train ride in India, and really the facilities were fine. The only
problem was that we had a middle+aisle seat, while the woman in the
window seat had two small children with her, who didn’t have tickets.
The 3 of them squeezed into about a seat and a third, leaving less than
2 whole seats for Danielle and me. The seats were very slightly roomier
than airplane coach seats, so that really was not enough space. During a
few stretches I was able to pick an empty seat somewhere else in the
carriage, but I spent plenty of time with one leg in the aisle.
In Sawai
Madhopur we were picked up compliments of the Tiger Safari Hotel, where
we’d booked a pricey (for us) room. It was not worth it. The room was
big, but despite this it still had the regular minimum of furniture, and
no floor or wall decorations. The common areas of the hotel were nice,
though, and so was the restaurant. The front desk was very helpful in
organizing half-day safaris into the park. There was nothing really
wrong with the hotel, it just wasn’t worth the money.
We went on
two half-day safaris. Our first one was in the afternoon in a canter, a
largish open vehicle with seats for 20 passengers. We picked up more
people at a different hotel, and entered Ranthambore. The main
attraction here is the chance to see a tiger but, the guidebook says,
the scenery alone is worth it. We did not see a tiger, and I was pretty
sceptical that many people do. Our guide continuously hammed up the
tiger theme, which was just annoying. We did see a lot of sambar deer
(tiger dinner) and blue bull antelope up close. We also got a good view
of an eagle (tiger of the sky) and a pair of crocodiles (water tigers).
Monkeys were seemingly everywhere. The scenery certainly was nice, but
driving through a canyon with 19 other tourists was not the way to
appreciate it. Going hiking in this area would have been great.
Our second
safari was in the morning in a gypsy, an open jeep with room for 6
passengers. It felt much more like going on a real safari than driving
through a wild animal park. Partly this was because we saw a lot less,
and partly because our guides appeared to really tried to find us a
tiger. We saw some footprints, but no actual tiger. As we were leaving
our part of the park, the guard told our guide that a tiger was spotted
just off the main road. We raced towards it, and arrived to a small
crowd of canters and gypsys. After a little while we glimpsed a tiger
just a few meters away, walking through some bushes. Then it disappeared
but it reappeared 15s later. I couldn’t find it, though, and didn’t
catch it until it walked off for good 15s after that. Danielle did see
the tiger who was apparently looking right at us. Tiger camo is too good
for me, I guess. At any rate I don’t feel like I really saw a tiger.
In the
afternoon we walked to the small downtown area so I could buy a book for
the upcoming train ride. Again I was struck by the huge gap between rich
and poor. We walked down a street where on one side was a store selling
men’s suits. On the other side of the street people lived in make-shift
tents, weaving baskets to try and make ends meet. As a rule I don’t give
to beggars because I do not want to encourage begging, but shortly after
that I gave a little to two children. (Those children were almost
everywhere as well. Invariably their clothes are dirty, they have black
streaks on their faces, and they don’t wear any shoes.)
Walking a
bit further down the street, I decided it was time to try some local
food. I walked over to the candy shop and pointed at a few random
things. Before I had the chance to pay we were surrounded by a dozen
street children, including the two I’d just given some money. They
followed us for an uncomfortable 5-10 minutes, all the while asking for
candy, money, pens, and tugging on our shirts. Even a few locals who
yelled at them on our behalf didn’t seem to have much effect.
Then it was time to go again, back to Delhi to spend some time with my
friend Abhijit. The train ride was just long enough to read the copy of
White Tiger I’d bought the day before. The print quality was horrendous
and 8 pages were missing, but I did enjoy the story. It definitely got
me thinking more about poverty in India, and then I got another
first-hand view as the train passed several slums on the outskirts of
Delhi.
