Nads talking now

Now a word from NAD
Namaste gang,
Oct 22. 6:30 am, ole man still sleeping of course, sitting on the rooftop of my hotel, just watched the sunrise, listening to the chanting in the distance from the Hindu temple, ah, India! But also had to step over the monkey doods as I walked up the stairs, on the lookout for attacking monkeys. We can’t have our breakfasts here on the rooftop, the guy says”monkey problem”, but dinners we eat up here. Mark, you’d enjoy it, the guy has a high powered pellet gun at the ready for monkeys!

Last I wrote we were in Udaipur. Finally got a lakeview rm, was beautiful. This is where they filmed the Bond movie Octopussy, a hotel right on the lake, so magical. Couldn’t go to the hotel, only for the $500/nite guests. But still the other sites were awesome, ancient palace, fort, Jain temple. It was as huge as a city block, all carved in white marble, 144 columns, no 2 alike.

We stayed there 4 nites, then on to Bundi by nite train. We heard on the news that a couple hrs after we got off the train it had a crash w/ another train! I guess if it’s not your time, you get off the train beforethings go wrong! Sure glad it wasn’t our time, would have made for a lot of paperwork for the family. 23 dead, I’m sure many more injured. We keep thinking of the family we shared the compartment with, Mom, Dad, 2 sweet little boys.
I pray they got out safely. We were sitting towards the back of the trainwhich was stopped and that’s where it got hit by the other train. The guy that was responsible, probably had fallen asleep and ran away so they were looking to arrest him. I think the police are still looking for him. Hard to believe, we got off about 1am, and there was one lone man responsible for the lives of thousands of people, I guess no computer system in the railways. Riding the trains at nite I’ve seen one lone guy with a dim kerosene lamp to signal the trains.

We were supposed to stay here in Bundi for 5 nites hanging out waiting to see if Kris is going to to meet us here, but that’s not going to happen. It’s a very small town, picturesque , with many homes painted a bright purple/blue. But dirty, no trash cleanup, as everywhere,open sewers. I guess I got spoiled w/ Shimla cause it was so clean there. We saw the fort yesterday, not much else here in the town. And especially no shopping! Of course that’s not John’s criteria for a good town or not, but it is mine! Last night was our second night, we’ve decided to leave this eve and go to a Ranthambore National Park a tiger refuge a 4 hr train ride away(train again!).
Should be something different, probably won’t see any tigers, they’re pretty rare. But the jeep safari should be fun.

The place we’re staying here is real funky, about $13/nite. We arrived about 1am, the hotel guy Chintu, was there to meet our train. He came on motorcycle but wanted to make sure we didn’t get ripped off by the tuk tuk (motorcycle taxi) drivers, which is a real problem anytime you arrive at a new place. His place was real hard to find, in the middle of the old city. I guess I got spoiled, this is the first place w/ no AC except Shimla where we didn’t need it. The rm was real dark, felt unclean, very stuffy even w/ fan, squat toilet, but also western one beside it. First time we used our sleeping bag liners on top the sheets. But actually in the light of day felt much better. This is a family run haveli, 450 yrs old. The family is so gracious, mother awesome cook, we didn’t have the heart to switch. We would have stayed here the whole time but I’m kinda glad we’re leaving. Feel bad, since we booked for 5 nites, we’re going to pay them for an extra day (remember, that’s $13!) In the 70’s when we were last here we never paid that much, we would have felt like we were in a 5 star hotel if we had, I’m sure. Today Chintu has booked a tuk tuk for us to go out of town to see a waterfall and these ancient water tanks they call baoris, should be able to get back b/4 our 5pm train.

As for Kris, he’s still having a great time in Menali. We’ve been able to chat w/ him online every couple days. He said he’s in a great hotel (I’m sure real cheap), the family there invited him to spend the Dewali festival w/ them (very big holiday, happy time, beginning of their new year. Other Hindu significance but don’t know what). The town is a real hangout for young westerners (guess they would be called hippies in our day). He’s made friends there so enjoying himself.
Today he starts a 3-4 day trek w/ 2 british girls. We’re going to extend our stay at Pushkar from 2 to 4 nites so he can meet us there, since he was the one who really wanted to go to the camel fair. That means we’ll stay 3 nites in Kanpur instead of 5 nites trying to track down Joh’ns old house, his grandmother’s grave. It should be enough time, and it’s just a big industrial city, not much to do or see. It’s not even in any of our guide books as not a tourist spot.
Don’t know how we’re going to find a hotel ahead of time, oh well.



Oct. 23
Holy moly, what a change this place is from Bundi! But let me first finish off my Bundi narrative. Before going to the waterfalls we stopped at another hotel we had lunch at the day b/4 to change money. We got our rupees, started talking about being on the train that crashed, and both of us walked out of there without our passports a guy had taken away to make copies of. Can’t believe it, two supposedly “seasoned travelers”doing something so stupid like that! Patti, as you say, veeery nar nars! We spent the day going to the countryside , never realizing. When we got back to our hotel we had only a couple hrs b/4 we had to leave for the train station. Fortunately, as we had our lunch the day b/4 in conversation we told the wife of that hotel that we were staying at Chintu’s place.
She remembered that, so called our place to tell them they had our passports, along w/ a $100 travelers check in John’s passport. We had just enough time to retrieve them!
I tell you, Bundi was a blessed place for us. Wasn’t too happy w/ the rm, but that was absolutely insignificant in the whole scheme of things. The people there were beautiful, so helpful and honest. Even at the train station there was this railway police guy, loaded machine gun and all, who started talking to us, no angle to hustle us for anything, just friendly and curious. He made sure when we got on the train that we got our proper seats, and came back b/4 his stop to say goodbye and wish us well. Bundi was definitely Kharmic for us.

1st class AC, that, that was the way to go man! So far we had only ridden 2nd class AC(cause the arrangements were made by our budget traveler son). Had a complete compartment to ourselves, seats that make into 2 berth, unlike 4 berth in 2nd class. But of course then we don’t get to meet other people.

A driver had been sent by hotel guy, Vishnu, to fetch us. Arrived about 11pm.Really nice rm, separate cottage, AC, although much cooler here. Green lawns, manicured gardens all around compound, first time for us since arriving in India! This is a whole diff Indian experience, feel like an English lady in british raj era, coming to view the tigers, 1 spectrum to the other. We’re going this afternoon for our 1st jeep safari, 3 hrs, $31 for both of us. Can you imagine how much something like this would cost stateside? Will close now and finish off after 1st safari. Boy’s bringing me lunch to my veranda, ho hum.

Oct 24. Ranthambore National Park is 1334 sq. km of wild jungle scrub, in the center is the 10th. century Ranthambore fort, the park was a maharajas’ hunting grounds until 1970. We did the jeep trip last evening but didn’t see a tiger but many spotted deer, Samba a large Indian deer, wild boars and crocodiles. This morning up at 5am and did a morning safari, this time on a “cantor” a truck like vehicle that held about 15 people, lots of kids aboard so not as quiet as I wished. Towards the end of the trip we saw jeeps in front of us stopped, there were apparently 4 tigers on the road and sure enough we did see one of them us they returned to the bush. It’s too bad we didn’t arrive just a minute sooner. A few kilometers on down the road another jeep had stopped, this time they had spotted two leopards, a rare sighting. Again we were a few seconds late, but at least now I’m a believer that these animals must be making a come-back from all the mismanagement I’ve read about.
Tommorow we have tickets for the night train to Jaipur where we will connect to Ajmeer and then on to Pushkar