Val here:
Keoladeo Ghana National Park near Baratpur, Rajasthan
We arrived in the afternoon light of Bharatpur and settled in the Birder's Inn. An American family (we have met very few Americans anywhere we've been!) travelling with four daughters 12 through 26 chatted to us about their trip so far and had many questions for us. We felt like such experienced travellers answering questions like "How do you get around? "Where do you put your valuables" "How do you find hotels", etc.
Outside the hotel is one bicycle rickshaw with a willing turbaned driver. We are told that only hikers, bicycles, or rickshaws are allowed into the park. Mann Singh of rickshaw #5 assures us that he is a wonderful guide - and indeed he is!
Perched on our rickshaw we went into the Bird Sanctuary expecting no vehicular traffic as we were promised -but, as always in India, there are loopholes, compromises, and individualists (notice I did not use the word cheaters). Automobiles and small trucks are permitted to drive to service the hotel which is about 800 metres from the gate. Beyond that, there were no motorized vehicles. Did I also mention the cows are let loose to graze in this national sanctuary?
In any case, our rickshaw took us to a little shop where I bought my invaluable Guide to the Birds of Northern India. Thus armed, we cycled on as Man Singh pointed out two types of owls, a green beeater, numerous lapwings, large and medium egrets, herons, and water birds of all sizes. Other birds we saw included black drongos, Indian robins, and lots of parakeets. There were also several antelope, one very friendly and tame who liked to lick the salt off our sweaty arms as
well as several spotted deer. As dusk descended we saw evening storks and pelicans and rare cranes.
Man Singh made certain that before we left we went to the small temple far into the park. It is necessary to honour this beautiful space and to pray for good luck and good health. In all we spent 3 hours in this peaceful sanctuary admiring the setting and the wildlife. We returned at dusk after seeing the evening storks, a rare crane, and pelicans reflected in the lake water. Keoladeo Ghana Park was certainly a highlight of our visit to India.
Rathambhore National Park
Early in the morning (6 a.m.) Arieh and I joined one Spanish couple and one French couple to view the tigers of this National Park in eastern Rajasthan. We bounced across rocky, treed terrain in our jeep, cameras (quite an array thanks to our travel companions) and binoculars at the ready. First, we saw a group of antelope which look like large deer with lovely striped ears, then some spotted deer, a lone bluebull in the clearing (a large elk-like creature who wanders all alone eating leaves and grass). Another vegetarian in a country of vegetarians.
Enough excitement! We settled down to park under some trees with some other tourist jeeps near a hill - and - if you scrunched your eyes, you could make out the profile of a tiger. Believe me - the camouflage of a tiger's stripes is very effective (though not effective enough to save it from becoming endangered by poachers - including in India). So - we scrunched our eyes, focused our telelenses or binoculars and determined that yes, there were two tigers (though our guide insisted there were three) - large and lovely animals up on the craggy hill just above us. We waited about 40 minutes for movement. In that time we got a yawn and a paw lick viewed through thick grasses - and then the tigers resumed their immobile rest. The jeeps moved away a few metres in the hope that Mrs. Tiger and her cubs would walk in front of us across a path she sometimes chose. No such luck.
But all was not lost - at least for me. On our return trip the guide pointed out the beautiful Indian Kingfisher perched over a stream, a crimson parakeet, and a stunningly green beeater.
Ranakpur
Our third sanctuary was near the town of Ranakpur. All these parks are in Rajasthan, southwest of Delhi. First, we went with some new found American friends to see some interesting wildlife on our walk to the nearby lake. Here we saw a lazy crocodile on its shore as well as many (brave?) shorebirds. Nontheless we battled the powers that be to go to the local national park: it's too wet, too early, the jeep isn't available, etc. Off we went despite the excuses and there was little new to see - some antelope, a bluebull a long-eared hare loping over the dry, rocky terrain (apparently their long ears cool them in the dry, desert habitat). We went through some villages - saw women and girls in replendent colours working on the farms, carrying firewood and water on their heads. The young boys, we could only assume, were at school, the men - not sure!
The best part of the park was the top of a 200 stair climb where we could look over the cultivated, hilly landscape to the mountains and watch the parakeets cavort at eye level. Then - to our lovely hotel.
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We met a lovely couple in our comfortable hotel in Ranakpur. They were sitting by us having dinner - outgoing Arieh invites them to join us. What a lovely evening we had with them. Charmi and Tushar are a young couple who are from Mumbai, but live in Dubai. He works in the diamond industry, she in human resources. We spent the next morning with them - they were soon to be off to visit family in Mumbai - and went to a gorgeous Jain temple near Ranakpur. This 14th Century stone temple was large and gorgeous - well, words can't desribe its beauty, you'll have to go there! What was extra special is that Charmi is a Jain and described the ceremonies with such enthusiasm. She has such appreciation for her religion as well as Hinduism, her husband's religion. Thanks to Charmi and Tushar, the experience of visiting the Jain temple was much enhanced. We were invited to visit them in Dubai - and, if you'll read later - we did indeed go to Dubai to visit them and share their enthusiasm for their adopted city.
Another interesting couple we met were Cindy and Harry Recht from Newport Beach, California. We met them in Ranakpur and later in Jodpur and so very much enjoyed hearing of their past and present journeys.
Val here.India is wonderfully described in two sections of Sarah MacDonald's insightful, often funny book on India entitled Holy Cow! (Bantam Books 2002) It is difficult to sum up India better than she does.
As follows:
It's a bizarre scene - full of foreigners attempting to figure out India. I'm beginning to think it's pointless to try. India is beyond statement, for anything you say, the opposite is also true. It's rich and poor, spiritual and material, cruel and kind, angry but peaceful, ugly and beautiful, and smart but stupid. (p.123)
I feel guilty for not giving these women money and guilty for knowing it wouldn't be enough. I feel guilty for being in a position where I'm privileged enough to be a giver rather than a taker and I feel guilty for wanting more than I have and taking what I do have for granted. At times I feel angry at the injustice. But most of all I feel confused and confronted. Why was I born in my safe, secure, sunny Sydney sanctuary and not in Kesroli? India accepts that I deserved it, but I can't. (p. 127,128)
May 3, 2007Muscat, OmanArieh here. Upon arriving at the Muscat bus station (a 5-hour bus ride from Dubai) I did a good deed and was rewarded twofold almost immediately! The good deed? I helped a lady (Fatma) remove her luggage from the storage under the bus (while the driver sat on his butt waiting). The first reward? The lady's son-in-law (Zayid) came to meet her, she told him of my good deed and he then offered to help Val and I find a hotel, which we accepted. We eventually found something and all turned out well. The second reward? A good joke about Oman told to us by Zayid, an Omani himself. "Oman has two seasons", he says, "Summer and Hell. Welcome to the beginning of Hell."So began our shortened visit to Oman. I say "shortened" because we detoured to Dubai before we went to Oman. Why? Because we met a very nice Indian couple in Ranakpur, India who are working in Dubai. They convinced us Dubai would be worth a look and, with the cooperation of Air India, we re-routed ourselves to Dubai from Delhi. And so we spent 3 days in Dubai, the commercial capital of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.).Dubai is a fairly "green" city. Whomever said "oil and water don't mix" got it wrong. If one has enough oil and not enough fresh water (as is the case in the UAE and Oman), the solution is quite simple. Spend the oil revenues to make fresh water through desalinization plants. And that's what happens in Dubai and Muscat. Dubai is surrounded by desert, has about 5 million people and uses 75 cubic metres of water. Only 1/4 of that amount is fresh well water; the remainder is from the desalinization plants. It is used to keep Dubai looking green, flowery and looking like a well-watered city.The on-going building in Dubai is tremendous. 5-6 story apartment blocks for living, taller office buildings, even taller hotels, and gorgeous villas. Easy to build highways here--just flatten and compact the sand; no need to blast through any mountains or cut down trees. Many of the buildings incorporate a dhow sail as the motif, the dhow being the local fishing boat. Many of you may have seen pictures of the huge sail-like twin tower hotel being erected in the middle of the sea. And don't forget that Dubai is home to an indoor ski-hill.Dubai is a magnet for foreign workers, mostly from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Of the 5 million residents, 4 million are foreign workers and 1 million are citizens of the UAE. Many of the FW are in the service and support and construction industries, while many, many others are in IT and banking. And here is an interesting fact for those who are uneasy about Jews and our ability to obtain immediate citizenship in Israel. #1: Anyone can become Jewish, move to Israel and become a citizen of Israel. #2: Non-Jews are and can become full citizens of Israel, while remaining non-Jewish. For non-Jewish immigrants it may take a few years to become a citizen of Israel, but it eventually happens. The UAE has a different system. A foreign worker can NEVER becomes a citizen of the UAE. The children of a foreign worker born in the UAE are not citizens of the UAE and cannot become citizens of the UAE. Oman has a very similar system. In fact, we were told that an Omani marrying a non-Omani (without special permission from the Sultan) is in danger of losing his passport and being sent to jail. So don't forget these little facts when defending Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and it's citizenship system, thank you very much.Oman (Muscat) seems to be very different in many ways from Dubai. For starters, the ratio of Omanis to foreign workers is 4:1, not 1:4 like in Dubai. (Total population of Oman is about 2.5 million) The architecture is mandated to fit in with the environment (like the stone-facing in Jerusalem) and is mujch more pleasing to the eyes. White or beige-coloured low rise residential buildings; not the modern style structures of Dubai. Oman also is a lot bigger than the UAE and I believe it has a tremendous range of physical landscapes from treeless mountains in the north to tree-covered mountains in the south to a very interesting shoreline on the east to a vast desert on the west. In both cases we only met friendly people, only observed polite, reasonable drivers and felt welcome as a guest in both countries.Oman has been a relatively wealthy country for a couple of centuries or more. Frankincense (which is located in the south in great quantities) was a big commodity and worth more than gold at one time. The British has an equal-nation trading relationship with Oman in the heyday of Imperialism. Now the wealth is oil and the current Sultan is quite enlightened and much of the money is spent on infrastructure and citizens. One of the benefits of Omani citizenship is 700 square meters of free land to build a house. If you cannot afford to build a house the Sultan will give you a pretty nice-looking apartment instead. Citzens do not pay for water, electricity, medical care or income taxes. Oman seems to be a good place to live, especially if you are a citizen.
We did manage to have some fun in Dubai and Oman as well as some interesting cultural touring. The snorkelling was pretty good near Muscat, the dune bashing was fun (although the driver got stuck) and the great mosque in Dubai was very impressive. Non-Muslims are allowed in on certain days and we went for a guided tour. There was also interesting names for one of the bakeries we came across.
