Oh Tiger...Where art Thou??

They say that the lessons of life are best learnt the hard way... And our trip to Ranthambore churned out more learnings than we were prepared to handle.

Having had our fill of the mountains we decided to head towards the sandy forests of Ranthambore in search of the elusive Tiger. I am not a big fan of the desert but was motivated by the experience of an acquaintance who met Sher Singh up close. I got the heebie jeebies just recalling his experience and it seemed too tempting to resist.

The First Mistake

 Having missed a couple of opportunities for getaways on long weekends me and the Mrs decided that we couldn't miss the holi opportunity. Having never tried travelling on holi and having spent the last 6 odd years in the South of the country where holi is (almost) irrelevant I wasn't really prepared for what awaited us. We were warned upfront by people (my dad will be nodding furiously if/when he reads this) but the bookings had been done and we had decided to start our journey at the unearthly hour of 4 am in order to avoid any incidents. 

We felt safe and had an uneventful journey till around 10 am after which the fun started. As soon as we crossed one of the toll plazas on the state highway we found a roadblock manned by a team of youngsters armed with flimsy looking sticks. Since I had never experienced something like this earlier and was accompanied by 2 ladies, I was alarmed and decided to turn back to the toll booth 500 mtrs in the opposite direction where I had noticed a police jeep. 

The cops were unhelpful and/or in cahoots with the Holi mafia and we were asked to register a complaint with the area police station who would then send another jeep. They too were kind enough to remind me of the mistake of venturing out on Holi (Dad! stop shaking your head). After waiting for a 10 minute eternity we were met by another Sikh couple who were travelling to Ranthambore with their 3 teen-aged daughters (and you thought I had it bad). There were other folks who were travelling on that day as well but they were the only ones who cared enough to stop. The couple and their caravan were coming from Jaipur and told us that they had crossed many such Holi toll booths along the way and a mere 20 bucks will get us through them. That gave us confidence and we followed them all the way to our destination crossing roughly 30 such Holi toll booths.
It was the Sikh gentleman's calm and tactful behavior while dealing with these groups that comforted us and honestly speaking this was something I can definitely learn and implement.

Lesson learnt: In the end we got to our destination safely, however given the mood of the folks on the roadblocks and my short-tempered nature anything could have happen. This is a mistake I am not likely to repeat in a hurry.

The Second Mistake

This happened on the way back from Ranthambore when we were speeding down a empty stretch of the highway and noticed a mini traffic jam at a distance. A bit of questioning informed us that there had been an accident and the villagers had blocked the road. Since the jam seems a little ominous we followed a person who seemed to know a parallel road running through the fields. The road was one of those very narrow lanes which separates one farm from another and are mostly (or only) meant for tractors. Anyway everything seemed to be going smoothly when a moments lapse of concentration (I was trying to see the traffic buildup on the highway) led the entire left side of the car into a mini ditch. 

It wasn't a totally lost cause since we were going really slowly on a really bumpy road but my Precious was stuck deep and I was nearly on the verge of tears. The partial saving grace was that we went down in front of a villager's house and he was able to summon a group of 10-12 youngsters who actually lifted the not so light Swift dzire from the ditch and onto the so called road. The real sigh of relief came when the car started and moved ahead without any signs of damage to the axel. 

One set of villagers lead us into the ditch (I played my part in it as well) and another set of villagers got us out. We offered them money in return for their help but they furiously refused to accept. By the time we negotiated the rest of the village road and got back onto tarred roads the highway had been cleared but the thought of being the idiot in that village had not quite cleared.

Lesson learnt: Stay on the ROAD and Keep your eyes on it at all times.


Dude!! but where is the friggin Tiger in all of this. I guess if you have been reading till now that is exactly what you are thinking.... aren't you? Well we did see the Tiger and we did have a relaxing time while we were there. 

The Place - Rantambore National park is located about 15 kms from the small town of Sawai Madhopur. The city area has nothing much to offer and seems pretty backward even though there are quite a few foreigners who come to catch a glimpse of he sun and Sher Singh. Mostly locals tend to stare at you as if you have landed from a different planet. 

The Hotel - We stayed at Raj palace resorts which is located at the outskirts of Sawai Madhopur. The hotel had a very nice garden and the rooms were really classy for the 1600 a night that we paid. The hotel has a decent sized swimming pool as well and being a water baby I was really thrilled. The crowd was a good mixture of families like ours from Delhi and other neighboring cities with a generous helpings of foreigners. The only sore point of the hotel was the food they only serve buffets for all meals which are (very) excessively priced. We had most of our meals outside the restaurant since we as usual wanted to enjoy the local cuisine of dal baati churma etc. 

The Safari - We took the early morning safari and weren't really prepared for the biting cold that was waiting for us. So if you decide to go in the winters then...... All the best. Living in concrete jungles we city dwellers generally get really fascinated by even the most common of animals or birds. And the park has a large amount of peacocks, wild boar, spotted deers, sambhar etc.

Among the more exotic kinds we saw the kingfisher, herons, blue bull, crocodiles, and baby crocodiles. The tiger was elusive during the safari, although we came close to crossing paths on a couple of occasions. We did see the tiger that afternoon when we visited the Rantambore fort, the road to the fort goes from within the park and that is when Sheru was kind enough to show us his posterior. He was lazing below a bush just 10 feet away from the road and as a consequence there was a sizeable queue of paparazzi's trying to get a piece of the action, apparently Sheru's behind was as popular as JLO's. 

The Route - We referred the blog from Ghumakkar and used route 1 on our way there and route 2 on our way back. Its a little difficult to catch route 2 on your way out of Delhi unless you know your way around Daruheda. Our experience on route 2 was marginally better due to lesser traffic and better roads. For details on the routes refer the blog.

In conclusion, the travelling spirit was shaken but still lived on to travel another day.

The 'clouds end' but the magic doesn't ...

The trip to Clouds End, Mussoorie was a long awaited one for me and the Mrs. We hadn't been on a getaway for sometime and the long weekend was too hard to resist.
Sharing some of our bitter-sweet experiences from the trip.

The hard facts:

- How far is it? - Mussoorie is roughly 280 kms from Delhi. And clouds end is around 10 kms from Mussoorie.
- How to get there from Delhi? - The route we took is Delhi - Modi Nagar - Meerut - Muzzafarnagar - Rorkee - Dehradun - Mussoorie.
- Where did we stay? - Clouds End forest resort.

The sweetness of it:

The Snowies

The property - The best part about Clouds End forest resort is its location. Its located on a 400 acre forested area which is around 10 kms from the (Mussoorie) city center. The property is a refurbished villa from the colonial era and is ideally located with a clear view of the snow capped himalayan peaks.

Sunrise

The views & sounds - The views from almost any place were breathtaking the best being the views of the snow capped peaks, the Sunrise and Sunset. One of the interesting facts that we learnt on the trip is that the South facing side of a mountain is always more barren than the North facing one. The reason for this phenomenon is that the south facing side tends to get more direct sun hence less hummidity (and less germination) hence less growth. Whereas the North facing side gets less SunThe peace and quiet of the hills with the distant (and not so distant) calls of various animals is something that still brings a easy calm to yours truly.

View of the barren & the lush green

The People - In my experience the people you interact with on the hills (locals not outsiders) are mild mannered and willing to go that extra mile to help you. I just love that about them and hope that we city dwellers don't (also) pollute this aspect of life at the hills.
The trek - There is a wonderful trek from the resort to the adjoining hill (with a temple on its peak) which gives a closer and awesomer view of the snow capped beauties. Although the view in the end is the best the fun is in the journey to the top especially since we took a slightly offbeat path to the peak which went through the less traveled paths with amazing views on the way. The wife had a field day clicking snaps and ran the darn camera out of battery.
The adorable puppies - There were these adorable puppies at the resort (around 8 weeks old) and being a dog lover I was thrilled. I've always wanted to own a pet but it'd be criminal considering that we spend most of the day at work and live in a apartment (with no open spaces).

The Naughty One

What was unique about this particular breed was their aggressive behavior with each other and also how their mother handled them. I have seen quite a few interactions between these animals but have never seen them play with such an aggressive intent. It was interesting to experience this trait which seems unique to this breed.

The bitterness:

The roads - The roads in our country are bound to feature in this section and the road to Mussorie is no exception. The only stretch that is worth anything is the one between Meerut and Muzzafarnagar, which provides a much needed breather. So if you are travelling make sure that you start early so that you are not pressed for time.
The jumping jack - The only other minor sore point were the kids of a couple residing in the room directly above ours. They seemed to be practicing for the 100 mtr dash at the Olympics while simultaneously practicing for the long jump event.

Side attractions:

This was my first real visit to Dehradun (the earlier visits were too far back) and I was amazed at the numerous schools and colleges that throng the relatively small town and the  vibrancy the young crowd brings to the equation. Also, given the population of youngsters it wasn't really surprising to find the large bouquet of brands (clothing, accessories, financial institutions, automobiles etc) lining up the congested lanes that criss-cross the city.

Thats all for now....more to follow soon....