So, I'll pick up where I left off. Seeing the herd of lumbering elephants lumbering around in the forest was pretty cool. We stopped for a few minutes to just watch them walking, and continued on our way up to the jungle "hut," where we would spend the night. The rooms we were put up in weren't half bad. They didn't have sealed windows or doors, so we had a fair amount of spiders, mosquitoes, little beetles, and other insect roommates, but there was bed for each person, drawers to put our packs in, a water heater, and a lockable gate at the front door to keep tigers, monkeys, and government officials out. After getting set up the four of us; Kumar, Sagar, Chase, and I, went to the balcony above the rooms too see the stars, drink the last of the Badam Milk, eat some nuts & masala chips, and chat. We told Kumar and Sagar about american camping traditions, like telling scary stories around a campfire, tin-foil dinners, and s'mores. Do you have any idea how hard it is to explain a s'more to people that have never heard of or seen a marshmallow? You try it.
The next morning we got up at 4:30, which was Kumar's horrible idea, to see if we could catch some wildlife before the sun came up. We drove a kilometer or two up the road, and saw an elephant a ways into the forest. It looked like we could get closer, so we parked the car on the side of the road and walked down to it. As we approached we saw that it wasn't just a lone elephant, but five in an elephant camp. Bamboo huts were scattered around the area showing signs of waking up. A few fires were kindled, with men huddled around them cooking. Evidently elephants like an early breakfast, because at 5:00 a man was outside one of the bamboo huts heating some kind of malt mixture while the elephant stood patiently nearby munching on a stick of bamboo the size of my leg. You don't typically think of elephants as graceful, but when this close it looked like every movement was very controlled. One of the elephants was bobbing his head around, making a small bell around his neck jingle. I don't know if head-bobbing is a regular activity for elephants, but this one seemed to enjoy making some music while eating his bamboo.
We tried going by the park office to register for an elephant ride, which had been booked for days ahead of time. Instead we were able to get seats on a safari bus going into the jungle. We spotted several types of monkeys, none of which I could name, peacocks, deer, and wild boar. I thought I caught the unique smell of sandalwood trees in the forest, but it may have just been that the woman in front of me was wearing sandalwood talc. Sadly, we didn't see any of the jungle's more carnivorous; the tiger or the python. For being a tiger reserve, the area appeared sadly devoid of tigers.
We grabbed lunch at a restaurant on the top of a hill overlooking a river where elephants were being bathed. After lunch we sat on the balcony for a while, enjoying the smell and sounds, catching a pair of wild boar cross the river below us. Feeling that we had seen most of what the jungle had to offer us for the day, I suggested we start the 5-hour journey back to Bangalore, and see if we could find a place to swim en-route.
After a few hours of driving, listening to music, talking about India, and helping the malt farmers crush their stalks, we got out to swim at a river we had stopped at on the way out. About a dozen people had already pulled on swimsuits and jumped in, so we joined them. The group was really welcoming, we had a few contests to see who of all of us could hold their breath the longest. Kumar got right into the water, although Sagar took a lot more convincing. He has next to no swimming experience, and was at first terrified, refusing to let go of my arm, and then clinging to Kumar for a few minutes until he realized that he was not going to drown in the 3' of water. The group of guys invited us up on the bridge to have some fish they had caught and cooked. There was a pile of freshly roasted, spiced fish sitting on aluminum foil we were circled around, using our fingers to pull out a piece, pick out the bones, and pop it in our mouths. I have to admit, these boys made some really good fish.
After a bit more swimming, I got out and let myself sun-dry a bit. While standing on the dock, a short fat guy came up to Chase and I, rap music playing on his cell phone. Obviously drunk, he was dancing to his rap, and trying to get everyone else to. We rap-danced with him for a bit which he thought was great fun, while his friends recorded us on their cells. There's probably now a movie on Orkut somewhere of the group of us dancing to rap on a bridge with this drunk guy, in our swimsuits.
Toweled off and changed into dry clothes, we got back in the car and started the last leg of the journey home, stopping for a few minutes after dark in an empty field to look at the stars, which in Bangalore are rendered invisible by the city lights and pollution. Kumar was kind enough to drop us off directly at our doorstop, and I crashed into my bed. Falling asleep immediately. Great weekend, exhausting, but as everything else has been here, a fantastic experience.
-Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment