Our Rathambore Haveli was quite special. Very few guests and hotel staff only too happy to help us.
I think that they must cater for tour groups in the busy season - people that rock in and rock out just for a safari. The meals were buffet style and so odd and bland. We managed to negotiate our own food - aloo gobi etc as we were basically the only other guests bar a 3 family groups on an intrepid tour - who didn’t seem to mind the eclectic mix of food on offer.
Our safari was superb even though we didn’t see any tigers. We knew going in that the chances of seeing one during the monsoon was next to zero. We were hopeful and scanned to forest and grasslands until our necks were so sore. We did see a sloth bear, a very cool dude. There were all sorts of different antelope and deer species, wild pigs, peacocks etc. The landscape was stunning.
Ranthambore is surrounded by little communal type villages. Wealthy they were not! Most folk appeared to be shepherds - watching and caring for their herd of goats. These are the people who would once have been tiger hunters or at least at risk of tigers attacking their stock. We went walking one morning and a couple of village people had a laugh, at our expense, telling us to watch out for big tigers! (It did make you think though...we were only a kilometre or so from the park boundaries...and tigers can easily jump the 2m fences). The local villages have no running water - you see the women going to the communcal wells to collect water which they carry on their heads in copper urns. Where are the men? Hmmm - at the tea store I think. The women seem to tend the fields - this is a very green lush place with corn, green leafy veges all over the show. Maybe the men negotiate the sale or use of the veges...or maybe not. Like a lot of India and SE Asia there are men hanging around in groups chatting and socialising - possibly unemployed. Its hard to tell.
Mr Singh our driver has very little English. He has enough to converse about cricket and facts of the places we go. His taste in music is dodgy - we drive to that classic Indian sound.
Driving does not happen in a straight line anywhere over here. You just get tootling along and you have to slow to go around 1,2 or a herd of cows. Mr Singh asked “ do you not have cows on your roads in NZ?
We are now in Jaipur - we are loving it! We visited the Amber Fort - beyond stunning. Our hotel is like an art gallery with mosaics and intricate art work on all walls and ceilings.
I think that they must cater for tour groups in the busy season - people that rock in and rock out just for a safari. The meals were buffet style and so odd and bland. We managed to negotiate our own food - aloo gobi etc as we were basically the only other guests bar a 3 family groups on an intrepid tour - who didn’t seem to mind the eclectic mix of food on offer.
Our safari was superb even though we didn’t see any tigers. We knew going in that the chances of seeing one during the monsoon was next to zero. We were hopeful and scanned to forest and grasslands until our necks were so sore. We did see a sloth bear, a very cool dude. There were all sorts of different antelope and deer species, wild pigs, peacocks etc. The landscape was stunning.
Ranthambore is surrounded by little communal type villages. Wealthy they were not! Most folk appeared to be shepherds - watching and caring for their herd of goats. These are the people who would once have been tiger hunters or at least at risk of tigers attacking their stock. We went walking one morning and a couple of village people had a laugh, at our expense, telling us to watch out for big tigers! (It did make you think though...we were only a kilometre or so from the park boundaries...and tigers can easily jump the 2m fences). The local villages have no running water - you see the women going to the communcal wells to collect water which they carry on their heads in copper urns. Where are the men? Hmmm - at the tea store I think. The women seem to tend the fields - this is a very green lush place with corn, green leafy veges all over the show. Maybe the men negotiate the sale or use of the veges...or maybe not. Like a lot of India and SE Asia there are men hanging around in groups chatting and socialising - possibly unemployed. Its hard to tell.
Mr Singh our driver has very little English. He has enough to converse about cricket and facts of the places we go. His taste in music is dodgy - we drive to that classic Indian sound.
Driving does not happen in a straight line anywhere over here. You just get tootling along and you have to slow to go around 1,2 or a herd of cows. Mr Singh asked “ do you not have cows on your roads in NZ?
We are now in Jaipur - we are loving it! We visited the Amber Fort - beyond stunning. Our hotel is like an art gallery with mosaics and intricate art work on all walls and ceilings.
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