I’m writing from Sawai Madhopur, just outside of Ranthambore National Park. After Jodhpur I continued east to Ajmer and the small Brahmin town of Pushkar, a longtime ex-pat haven with little to do but sit around and take in the hippies and German tourists. I had something like the flu for a few days there and did more sleeping than anything else, and was not terribly attracted to the city – it is a ‘holy’ city, where devotees take a dip along the ghats and pray in one of dozens of temples. It is also, like perhaps many holy places, overrun by opportunists taking payments to pray for a families happiness, or giving a good luck flower to put in the lake, only to ask for a significant charge for the right to do so. There was far more begging, and far more signs in English than I’ve seen anywhere else in India, including Delhi. It was a fine place to be laid up as I was more interested in waiting out the time than I was in wandering around. I did enjoy a few walks outside of the town, but mostly I just slept and felt lousy. I did have a small insect run-in (Cliff bar, ant colony), and a malaria scare (head cold, one mosquito) but otherwise the stay was fairly uneventful. Pushkar is a bus ride away from the nearest train station in Ajmer, and on the 19th I hopped the train to Jaipur, where I ate lunch at the Pearl Palace – the hotel I had stayed in before – before taking a thoroughly enjoyable train ride into Sawai Madhopur and Ranthambore.
The sun was setting as the train drove south and I had a front row seat – I took a number of photos of that, one or two of which turned out. I had noticed that Radiohead had released their newest album on a Times review, so I listened to ‘In Rainbows’ on the train. The last trainride Radiohead I listened to was a duet of Thom Yorke and Bjork from ‘Dancer in the Dark,’ which I heard on a train into Salzburg in 2001. ’15 Count’ knocked me out – and I felt like I was going where I ought to be going at just the right time. It was a welcome feeling after the flu in Pushkar.
Almost immediately after arriving at the Tiger Resort Hotel in Sawai Madhopur, I met Chris and Christine, with whom I hoped to share a tiger safari the following morning. I was excited to see them and catch up – we shared dinner and early this morning (6AM) we set off to go tiger spotting.
The ‘safari’ was relatively uneventful – as in, no tigers. We heard warning calls from deer, but did not see anything hunting. We did see some lovely wildlife including spotted deer, wild boar, peacocks, and lots of magpies and monkeys. The vegetation was fun to see as well – and the landscape of the park was stunning. Unfortunately we were not allowed out of the jeep at any point, so photos were limited to quick stops and jerky snaps on the extremely bumpy road. I tried to capture the rock formations around the 10th century fort in the center of the park, along with some of the ‘walking trees’ – so named for their dropped roots. It was disappointing to not see a tiger – I considered it my one shot at seeing a tiger in the wild, but the trip was worth it to me.
The hotel in which I am staying – the Tiger Resort Hotel, is swanky; it reminds me of the resort in Tunsia a bit, and it is a comfortable spot for a night or two – even though it is well beyond what I’ve been paying (25$ rather than 4 or 5 per night). There are many other tiger seekers here, and I found a train buddy for the trip to Bundi tomorrow (in addition to Chris and Christine – who are also going there!). I will be riding first class with Jessica, a woman from Holland. It will be my first train journey in first class, and I am looking forward to it. Apparently we get a lunch! Here are some photos – after the photos, I rant for a while about the desperate international situation. Enjoy the photos!
And, finally, I would be remiss and not entirely myself if I did not shoot my mouth off a bit regarding the latest round of events in the Arab world. Egypt was all over the news for weeks (though much moreso on National press than the Pioneer Press or Strib), and seems to be on a track to secular self-governance, provided the military lessens its grip on the economy. I read a great deal about Egypt, both because of my interest in social revolution and because I had just been there and know people in country still. A bit of news that struck me, posted in Al Jazeera English online magazine (which I HIGHLY recommend), was that CNN did a poll of US citizens to gauge awareness and opinion regarding the events in Egypt. Opinion was predictably divided along party lines, with more ‘conservatives’ voicing concerns about the uprising and more ‘liberals’ supporting the overthrow of our ally Mubarak. What struck me was that Egyptians were paying attention to how much we paid attention. This shouldn’t have been a surprise – we have been funding Mubarak and the Egyptian military since they recognized Israel in 1979. IMHO, this might be behind some of the concerns (voiced by Beck et al) that Cairo 2011 is just another Tehran 1979 – where populist sentiment quickly turned vehemently anti-American and anti-western (and not without cause, Mossadegh). Cairo has not turned anti-western; indeed everyone from Suleman to the Muslim Brotherhood has acknowledged that maintaining peace with Israel is important to Egypt’s future. But I digress – Egypt noted how much (or little) their revolution registered on our Neilsons – and the rest of the Arab countries will be no different. I can’t begin to understand the complexity behind the US’s official position (we support (FINALLY) the dissidents in Iran but call on Bahraini officials to create reform? Why so slow to let go of Mubarak?), and I have not agreed with much of it lately. I can however, pay attention and start conversations about it. I assumed travelers would be finger on the pulse concerning global politics but most of them are so unplugged that they are just catching up on Egypt. There are currently significant uprisings (often accompanied by repression) in almost ALL arab countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lybia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq and Iran) – my limited knowledge of history cannot turn over a more wide-spread series of major changes other than the 1989 fall of the USSR, or the concurrent revolutions in the US and France in the late 1700s. Somewhat ironically, Morocco was the first country in the world to officially recognize the US in 1789. Perhaps, in our way, we can return the favor. Thanks for reading!
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