Ranthambhore

I’ve uploaded the final installment of my little India Trilogy. This time it's wildlife in Ranthambhore National Park in the midst of Rajasthan's heat and dust. Ranthambhore is a huge park dominated by a 10th century fort that gives the park its name. It's loaded with wildlife. Langur monkeys are prevalent as well as two species of deer, Sambar and White Spotted, and some Indian Antelope are present in smaller numbers. But the big draw in the park is the Tiger. It's one of the best places in India to see them, though sightings are not guaranteed and sometimes very far away. With that in mind, I was hopeful that in five days I would manage to get at least a sighting or two, but I was quite fortunate to have sightings on 4 of my 5 days there, and a couple fairly close.

You can watch the embedded version of the video in my website, or see it directly on my Vimeo channel at www.Vimeo.com/fishtales/ranthambhore.

Enjoy!

Cloud Bound

This is the second of my three little India videos. In this episode, I'm cloud bound high in the Himalayas on the border between India and Nepal. Actually, quite a bit of this was filmed in Nepal, but India was just on the other side of the trail. Since I was besieged by clouds that left me in a whiteout for a few days, the only option I had was to shoot some Time Lapse scenes of the clouds flowing up the valleys below and over the ridge tops. This part of the world looks remarkably like my home turn in the Oregon Cascade Mountains. Just a little bit higher. Much of this was filmed at an altitude that would be about 1000 ft above the summit of the tallest mountain in Oregon. In the end, I did finally have a couple hours of clear skies in Darjeeling and was able to see the section of the Himalayas I had come to view. The tallest of the mountains in those scenes is called Kangchenjunga, and is the third highest mountain in the world (behind Mt. Everest and K2).

You can see the video in the Travel tab on this website, or directly on my Vimeo Channel at www.Vimeo.com/fishtales/darjeeling

Sacred Ganga

I've just finished three short videos of my Indian Subcontinent transit. I've split this into three parts because each region is so vastly different from the others. I'll upload them, one a day, over the next three days.

This first video covers my visit to Varanasi. The Ganga River (Ganges for westerners), India's most sacred river, flows past Varanasi and is a pilgrimage destination for Hindus. They come to bathe in the Ganga, and they also come, if they can manage it, at the end of their life to have their ashes spread on the waters. A series of stone steps, called Ghats, line the river frontage and early every morning crowds come to pray and bathe in the sacred waters.

You can see the video in the Travel tab on this website, or directly on my Vimeo Channel at www.Vimeo.com/fishtales/varanasi

Calcutta

I took an overnight train to Calcutta that was supposed to at 2100, and miracle of miracles, it actually did pull out exactly on time. Even more surprising, it actually arrived in Calcutta only 10 minutes behind schedule. That’s the first train I’ve taken in India that wasn’t at least 2 hours late. One of the things that I was going to visit was the famous “Black Hole of Calcutta”, but as soon as I arrived at the train station, I mentally checked that off my list. I figured, why bother, can’t be any better than this. The street my hotel was on is in a fairly nice part of town. The street outside the hotel wasn’t terribly grungy for at least a couple blocks. Then it becomes a junkyard, quite literally. Vendors have taken over about a quarter mile of the sidewalk to sell all kinds of used car parts. You can barely walk through the hub caps, radiators, suspension parts, transmissions and towers of used tires (spelt tyres here). Then as suddenly as it started, it switches into a few blocks of fancy little girls dresses, then a stretch of men’s underwear. Mixed in amongst all of this are dozens of little naked boys begging for coins. Then occasionally, in the midst of all the chaos, you come across some nice neat little shop selling something normal like birthday cakes.

Obviously no zoning problems with city officials. This sidewalk has literally been converted into a junkyard. on one side they are boilng out old radiators, on the other side boiling lunch:


Here you can buy used tires of all shapes and sizes and get a snack too:


I’m not touching the street food here. I don’t really even trust the restaurants:


Here’s a drive-in fruit stand Calcutta style:


In the category of “I can’t make up stuff this good”, this politician is suggesting that farmers should collect their urine to water their crops that are dying due to the current drought conditions. Well, I guess if everybody pitched in, instead of peeing in the streets, it might be a drop in the bucket. I’m sure the farmers, who are committing suicide in record numbers do to crop failures, really appreciate a rich politician in Delhi telling them to just piss on it:

Darjeeling

You can see mountains from Darjeeling too. But the agent that made my arrangements for me has put me in Kuersong, halfway back down to Siliguri! I express my displeasure and he agrees to move me to Darjeeling the next day. The place I’m staying in Kuersong was once the British Viceroy’s summer home during the colonial times. It’s perched on a ridge (see a trend here?) high above some of the Tea Estates. Did I mention that I’ve drank more Tea in the last 4 days than in the previous 4 years (except for ice tea, that doesn’t count).

The next morning, my guide and driver pick my up and we drive back uphill another hour to Darjeeling. The first stop is Tiger Hill to look at the mountains. Nope, still cloudy and no mountains to be seen. No Tigers either. I will concede that it was a hill.

Then we stopped at Batasia Loop to watch the Darjeeling Toy Train pass by. The Toy train is a tiny narrow gauge train actually runs all the way down to Siliguri. What is a 2.5 to 3 hour drive by road, the train can do in just 6 hours. The long run is done with a tiny diesel engine, but local “tourist” runs are done with little Steam Engines. They still have 3 operational. The train is really cool, but when it passed by they had the engine hooked up backwards pulling the cars from it’s nose so it didn’t photograph well. What do you expect, it’s India? Did you really think they’d hook the engine up the right way?

My guide dropped me off at my new hotel, which is….

wait for it….

perched on the top of a ridge.

My room has a view of the mountains. At least it would have a view if it weren’t for the clouds. This is 5 days of clouds now, and it’s the “best time of the year”.

Darjeeling is a little like a combination of Shimla and Manali on the western side of the Indian Himalayas. It’s very steep like Shimla, but a bit grungy like Manali. However, it’s much bigger than both of those combined. Since this is some of the world’s most famous Tea Country, there are Tea sellers everywhere. I decided it might be nice to buy some Darjeeling Tea to take home as gifts so I went into one of the bigger shops to check it out. I explained to the clerk that I was an American and hence I knew less than nothing about tea and wanted to take some back as gifts for friends and family who knew even less than I do (I’ve at least seen Tea plantations on two continents). He proceeded to get two packets of tea out, opened one and had me sniff it. To be honest, it smelled like lawn clippings from the top of a compost pile. Then he opened a packet of “the good stuff” and gave me a whiff. It smelled like lawn clippings from the bottom of a compost pile. I said “uhh, thanks, I’ll think about it” and walked out. Later I tried another Tea seller and gave him the same intro to my Tea IQ. He picked up a package and said “Here, this is want you want. Anything better would just be a waste of your money”. I said gimme four of those puppies.

On my last morning, I woke up at 0630, looked out my window and OMG, There are Mountains! So I scurried up to a pedestrian walkway that has scenic lookouts and had about an hour and a half before the clouds finally reclaimed the view.

Darjeeling Toy Train Steam Engine:


Uhh, guys, you have the engine hooked up backwards:


Darjeeling is much cleaner than other parts of India (I think Lebong is where they smoke Leweed)


I’ve been jealous of my son ever since he got his Space Gray AppleWatch. Well I’ll show him! I found one of the rare Gold Editions and it was far cheaper than they are in the US. That Jony Ive is a design genius:


Yes! After 5 days I have finally confirmed that there are actually Himalaya Mountains. It is not a myth. The tallest one in the middle is Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.

Into The Clouds

After a 19 hour trip from Varanasi to New Jalpaiguri, I spent a night in Siliguri waiting for my guide to pick me up for the next leg of the trip. It involved a 3+ hour drive to Chitray in the foothills of the Himalayas which is the furthest that a regular vehicle can drive, and then a switchover to a Colonial era Land Rover jeep for another hour to Tumling. We spent the night at Tumling in a small guest house. Tumling sits on the crest of a ridge and is actually located in Nepal. You can look one direction at India and the other direction at Nepal. This area wasn’t damaged by the massive earthquake the occurred three days earlier, but they did experience strong tremors. We should have been able to see mountains from here, but alas, we had heavy clouds moving through the valleys and over the ridges.

The next morning, it was still cloudy as we boarded another jeep for the final climb up to Sandhakphu which is at an elevation of about 12,000 ft. After three hours of steep switchbacks and multiple crossings back and forth between India and Nepal we arrived at Sandhakphu in the middle of the clouds. By this time they were rain clouds and you couldn’t see more than a few meters. Sandhakphu is also situated on a ridge that is the border between India and Nepal. On one side of the road are tiny guest houses in Nepal and on the other side of the road there are Indian guesthouses. I stayed on the Nepal side again. Better facilities and I like Nepalese food more than Indian:<) That night the rain cloud we were in turned into a snow cloud so everything, sky and land, was white in the morning. But the Safron Fried Rice was yummy, the best thing I’ve had since Dubai.

The next day, there was a brief time that I could see all the way to the next ridge about 500 meters away. Still no mountains. For the lack of anything at all to do, I filmed some time lapse scenes of clouds flowing up the valleys and over the ridges.

Next morning, up at 0500 to see if it cleared. Nope, still a white-out, so back to bed under thick quilts. Did I mention there is no heat up here? At 0900, still in a white-out, we started the long journey back down to Darjeeling without the slightest glimpse of any mountains.

This large concrete pillar is the border between India and Nepal. At the moment I was standing in India, looking at the guest house that I was staying at in Nepal. Most of the time I was in the clouds and you couldn’t see this far:

Ranthambhore National Park

I’m about halfway through my visit at Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan India. I scheduled 8 safari drives in the Park to increase my chance of seeing a Tiger. Sightings are not guaranteed since the park is very large and only 20% is accessible. There are 58 Tigers in the reserve, but only about 20 in areas that you can get to. Even then, they are solitary and like to hide out of view. I didn’t see any on my first two drives, but I saw one yesterday afternoon and a mother with two nearly full grown cubs this morning. The one yesterday was pretty far away, about 70 meters, just barely in 500mm range. Today, they were closer, resting about 30 meters away, then VERY close as they came to get a drink at a stream a few feet from the truck. It was actually freaking our guide out a bit because I was sitting sideways with my feet over the side on a running board for stability. As they approach, you can hear the guide on the video saying urgently “feet in the vehicle Mr. Steven, quickly, feet in the vehicle”. As I look at the video now, it does seem like a very large out of focus tiger definitely is eying my Nikes:<) The cubs are about 95% the size of their mother, but still inexperienced in hunting for themselves. But soon, they will be off on their own.

The park has lots o other interesting wildlife too. The only trouble is getting the guides to stop for it. They seem to be on a Tiger mission all the time, which is a shame. There are two species of Deer, two species of Antelope, Langur Monkeys, Mongoose, Wild Boar, lots of Peacocks and other birds.

A Banyan tree at one of the park gates:


Lots of Banyans in the Park:


Flame of the forest trees and a small herd of Sambar Deer:


A young Sambar Deer Buck:


A Spotted Deer Buck:


A Peacock in a tree:


A Langur Monkey and its baby:


A stalking Tiger sees something interesting:


It’s a pair of Sambar Deer, but the Tiger decides they are too far away and not worth the effort:


Resting tiger cubs:






Momma Tiger and one of her cubs:


Momma Tiger and cubs get a drink:


Momma Tiger (really close now):