Mar 2008

So far this travelling caper hasn't been too bad. I've been guided or have been with someone local most of the time. But it's to get a little more real soon.

At a local travel agent I book a flight to Kochin, Kerela flying from Delhi. And from Trivandrum in Kerela. I am to fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 6th.

I must say goodbye to my Uncles, Aunts and everyone before I leave. In the Indian tradition I'm given money my them. It can be a little difficult sometimes to accept money, but at the same time I shouldn't offend people by ignoring tradition, although it is polite to refuse.

My flight is to be at 9:45am the following morning, but I am to have a demanding journey to Delhi airport. It starts at 7:30pm. I've still got Lallit as my bodyguard. We get on a basic bus/coach for the first time; there's not much room and if you're over about 5ft 10' I'm not sure how you can sit with so little leg room. After about an hour or so we arrive in Chandigargh. We now have to take a tuk-tuk/auto/3-wheeler to the next bus stop. This is the first time I've been in one of these, it's not to be my last. It's quite cheap to take the bus. It only cost about 60 Rupees to get to Chandigargh. We splash out about 250 Rupees on a 'Deluxe' bus for the 8 hour journey to Delhi. Unfortunately, this blasted bus has non-working shock absorbers on the back axle. The 8 hour journey is a pain in the neck - litrerally. In Delhi we have to take another tuk-tuk to the airport. There's always an element of bargaining with tuk-tuk drivers. Our driver tells us we are not allowed at the airport more than 2 hours before the flight and is willing to take us to a cheap hotel for a couple of hours. This is a complete lie. I wonder how many people he has conned before us.

11 and a half hours after the journey began I'm at Delhi airport. I thank Lallit for his help and send him back home. Thankfully, he is to have an easier journey back. I have to wait another 3 hours before my flight leaves.

Over these days I fall into a routine: reading a a book, going for a walk into town, taking in the sun and atmosphere, going to a cybercafe. It still feels a little surreal.

Also, I've come all this way to pick up a cold - I could have done that in England. It still beats having to go to work.

On Friday I hear someone shout out out my name in the street, "Chopra. Hey, Chopra." It turns out he is a friend of my brother and he recognizes me. I stop for a chat. He likes to visit family here every year. We exchange phone numbers, maybe to meet up later for a drink. I have itchy feet and will be moving on in a few days.

I've watched a bit of tv in the evenings too. It's amazing that one film star, Shah Rukh Khan, can be in so may tv adverts, movies, pop videos.

Cricket is a national obsession. Tv channels will show old cricket matches - who knows why they might be interesting now. And there's endless tv debate about the Indian cricket team and controvesy over matches against the Australian side.

We visit the Rock Garden in Chandigargh. Apparently, a man named Nek Chand single-handedly decided to he was going to build a rock garden, mainly from reclaimed items like broken crockery and old electrical plugs, etc, etc. And he started building it, at first, without anyone else knowing about it - a huge area with waterfalls and numerous little figures of animals. It is impresive, but if he built that himself ... well I don't believe it ! He's been recognized for his achievements and has had many accolades.

Later, we visit the zoo in Chandigagh and see wildlife, like Tigers and lions. And other animals I've never seen close up before, like Jaguars.

It's been an enjoyable day out today. We head back to Banga.

We wake up just before 5 am; a little bit too early for me. In the midle of the night a mosquito had decided to bite me on the bum. I hope I rolled over him or he dies a horrible death buried under a pile of elephant dung ! I haven't been taking my anti malaria drugs as I have had other tablets to combat other illnesses, like a cold and Delhi belly. I hope I don't die from being bitten on the bum, this would be too embarassing.

At 5:30am we're bought tea and biscuits to our cabin.

At 6:00am the jeep is ready to take us around the park. We drive around along tracks in our jeep with a guide for about three and a half hours. We see fresh tiger paw tracks on the ground and several times we stop, listen and look into the grass and woods hoping to spot a tiger. The guide hears a distress call of a deer from a distance. 'There's definitely a tiger in that direction", he says. We wait about 5 minutes. An excited guide starts pointing and whispering, "look, look ! It's a really big one - over there !" About half a mile away a tiger walks accross a little path. Unfortunately, I didn't see it. I'ts not my day.

We head back to the cabin and have breakfast.

Now another 4 and a half hour journey to Delhi to meet up with Sonia. The driver suggests we carry on to our next destination. He says he feels okay, so after a little rest we head back to the city of Chandigargh in Punjab.

We find a hotel in Chandigargh and crash out for the night. It's been a long day.

Today we drive to Jim Corbett national park. 6 hours and, a sore bum from sitting in the car for so long later, we're at the park. Jim Corbett was a hunter of tigers, maneaters I hasten to add, and the park was renamed in his honour. We're all (minus Sonia who wanted to see friends in Delhi) hoping to see a real life tiger in the morning, if we're lucky. Apparently, you only have about a 1 in 6 chance of actually getting to see one.

The accommodation is quite good. Early evening, we have a balcony view of the forest and hear hundreds of crickets in the background. It's very quiet other than the crickets and we see locals taking their live stock into huts.

We have big dinner at tables around a log fire. We seem to be the only 3 guests there, as 4 waitors hovver around us.

Our sleep is disrupted in the middle of the night by loud banging noises and shouting. I guess they're scaring off a tiger.