30 Oct 2013 Ranthambhore last safari then off to Jaipur

Our wake-up call was set for 6am, unusually this morning we were both awake early, 4:30. I hate wake-up calls!!!  So we were never going to be late for the safari.

We did our last bit of packing and were strolling over for tea and coffee with biscuits by 6:20. Just as we were 3/4 through our refreshments we got the call that our guide and car were ready, only to find out it was a false call, 5 minutes later we were on our way to Zone 1, and a much smoother ride than yesterday.  Alas, there were no tigers to be seen, we did hear the distress calls of the antelope near by,  indicating either a tiger or leopard were in their area. Our guide said it was probably a leopard  one had been seen in the area of the calls recently. The safari was a pleasant way to finish our time in Ranthambhore, the forest is very picturesque and peaceful (when we got away from the tour buses in our zone, of which there were 3 or 4).

We did manage to see the usual suspects – peacocks (lots), spotted deer (lots), antelope (a few), a crocodile (yes, only 1 small one), monkeys (a couple of tree loads) and all kinds of birdlife. I think the best time was when we were by a small lake, looking at the reflections in the water and the activity of all the birds in and around it, very relaxing.

We were back at the “camp site” by 10am, and after having our photo taken with a couple of elephants out in front of the hotel, we had an enjoyable breakfast to the tunes of our favourite in-house Indian musician.

We then took our time cleaning up and relaxing before checking out and meeting our driver for the drive to Jaipur. Munji, our driver said it would be about a 3 1/2hr drive to Jaipur, so we sat back and enjoyed all the colour and changing landscape of the drive. We arrived just about right at 3pm, and were greeted at the front gate of our hotel, The Rambagh Palace, where we were escorted to an old Pontiac (owned by the Maharaja’s family) and driven in style up to the front of the Palace. After going through the customary bag search and metal detector, we were showered in rose petals as we were shaded under an olde worlde umberella held by an Indian Footman. We were then escorted up into the hotel where we received  the customary Tilak and a flower lae. We were then escorted to our room, and on the way given a brief tour of the facilities. We have a cooking lesson in the local cuisine tonight at the home of a local Indian.

It turned out that instead of a cooking class as our itinerary states, it was more of a cultural experience. We were in the home of an Indian widow,Yogi and her daughter, her mother in law also came in and sat on the lounge (she couldn’t speak or understand any english). After some initial akward minutes (that felt like hours) we had a disjointed conversation with Yogi, while we waited for her daughter to finish her homework and join us. (She is in year10 at high school). Yogi employs a helper in the kitchen and he brought out a few titbits for us to have as an appertiser from the kitchen. After a while we were invited into the kitchen and she showed us how to cook a local eggplant dish with  a tamarind and sugar sauce. While that finished cooking we were given a tour of the house and to see how they lived. Their rooms were very spacious and Yogi and her mother in law both had their own Hindu shrine in their rooms, at which they prayed to their gods. I suspect that this is a wealthy family, and their situation is atypical.

Finally we sat down at the dining table and had a 7 dish meal, plus rice and bread. It was all very tasty, I especially liked the Ocra, thickly chopped and fried with cumin, cardamon and chilli. We finished the meal with a milk rice pudding, flavoured with ground cinnamon and cardamon seeds. Rice puddings are not Deb’s favourite, but she was very gracious and ate  much more than I though she would. 🙂

At about 8:50 we retired back to the lounge for some lively talk about cricket with the daughter (She was a typical teenage girl and tended to mumble and not really want to be there, but she dramatically came alive when we talked about cricket, their local IPL Team are the Suns (I think) the team Shane Warne plays for.)

We left at about 9pm, it was a different sort of night, but overall enjoyable.

Tomorrow we can sleep in, our morning tour doesn’t start until 9am. 🙂

Oh, we lost the cricket tonight, India won with 2 balls to spare. (Australia gave them a run chase of 351 to win)  our driver Munji was very happy, we listened to the last few overs with him in the car