Today, we left Gurgaon for Bharatpur. It was a looong drive over, and on the way, we ran into a few obstacles [where was Ganesh when we needed him?]. We got a flat tire, which was changed at super-speed by our drivers. Then we got stuck in a traffic jam, waiting for a train to cross. Blair & I had been talking about our major cravings for bananas, and there just happened to be a man taking advantage of the train crossing to sell produce to stopped cars. Our sweet driver, Ranjeet, made our day by buying each van a bunch of bananas.
men in a diner [blair stirek]
safe-looking fire extinguishers at a gas station [blair stirek]
traffic jam
the train [jonathan dipratna]
blair & i with the bananas from ranjeet [blair stirek]
We FINALLY arrived at our hotel in Bharatpur, the Udai Vilas Palace, where we were greeted with marigold leis. We left soon after for Keoladeo National Park, which is a bird and wildlife sanctuary built around the 250-year-old Keoladeo Temple. We were given the option of taking the tour by bike or rickshaw, thereby aligning ourselves in our "gangs" for the remainder of our trip [our group was so big that we had to split in two at most tourist attractions]. Landin & I rode bikes, while Blair rode in a rickshaw with Tiffanie. We later coerced Blair over to the bikes gang [bikes up, rickshaws down!]. At the park, we saw many varieties of birds, and a lot of other animals, too, like cows, spotted deer, jackals and turtles. Much to our disappointment, we didn't have a sighting of the elusive park tiger. But it was great to be surrounded by such beautiful, natural settings - a nice break from the noisy bustle of New Delhi.
me & landin before our bike ride [blair stirek]
tiffanie & blair with their rickshaw driver
map of the park
tranquility
cranes
mounds
does being territorial [joel kraut]
our wonderful guide
Our final destination on the bike ride was the Keoladeo Temple, where we were blessed by the crazy priest. I was attempting a conversation with him, when he tricked me into looking down into a well near the temple. When I leaned over the edge, a bunch of pigeons flew out of the well at my face. Terrifying! The priest laughed hysterically at me. Not funny. We climbed a flight of stairs to an observation tower to look out at the beautiful view of the wetlands. By the time we got finished looking around, it was almost sunset, so we had a bike race back to the entrance of the park. As we sped back, our sweet guide tried to be slick and tell me that I have a smile like Katrina Kaif, a famous Bollywood star. I had no idea who she was, but later found her on the cover of GQ India. He was definitely sweet-talking me, as she is incredibly gorgeous and we look nothing alike. Apparently I need to move to India, because the men there love me.
the temple and the priest [joel kraut]
our guide, amandy & colleen on the observation tower [joel kraut]
the view from the observation tower
the priest & blair [blair stirek]
our guide & landin racing the sunset
What better way to end a long bike ride than with a papads and beer tasting? When we got back to the hotel, we sat by the freezing cold pool and enjoyed a variety of papads, or "beer bread", which is basically very thin, crispy, fried yumminess made of lentils, chickpeas, rice, etc. We also sampled a few vegan Indian beers, which, honestly, all tasted somewhat like Bud Lite. As a side note, one really cool thing India has going for its vegetarian population is the labeling of veg-friendly products with a symbol [a green dot enclosed in a green square outline] to show that those products are safe to eat for vegetarians. I think America should adopt a more uniform system of labeling vegetarian and vegan products. It would make grocery trips so much faster. No label-reading necessary! Also, while vegetarianism is very common in India, veganism doesn't really exist or at least isn't widely known. When you try to explain it to most Indian people, they don't quite comprehend it at first, as dairy seems to be a pretty big staple in their diets.
papads and beer [jonathan dipratna]
part of the group at the beer tasting [jonathan dipratna]
an example of the vegetarian symbols [blair stirek]
The "tranquility" photo is lovely! Justin & I were cracking up over the pigeon attack.
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