[SS-Traveller]

We love travelling in the winters - it's just my work that does not let me take long vacations around the time of the year when the mercury plummets. Yet, that travel bug continues to bite - and we end up taking short breaks when possible. The New Year break is certainly not the preferred time for us to travel though - everyone else is travelling too, all places are overflowing and expensive, and we hate boisterous revelry to ring in the New Year.

The New Year of 2012 was over a perfect weekend - and that was more the reason for us not to travel. Until, that is, a friend came up with the suggestion of spending the New Year weekend at Ranthambhore, sometime in mid-December. I need to thank gd1418 here for facilitating the bookings, because without his inputs and help, I would not even have bothered to explore the options!

Now just because I mentioned Ranthambhore & Sariska, please don't drool all over your keyboards. I think threads like these must bear the statutory warning first started by .anshuman...

Originally Posted by .anshuman

If you are looking for some Tiger pics, you are in the wrong thread.

No, we did NOT see tigers. But yes, we got a feel of Ranthambhore, moved on to Sariska at short notice, and would go back later to explore when the place is not overflowing with foreigners and tour operators are not trying to rip everybody off.

[SS-Traveller]

30 December 2011

Mahipalpur, New Delhi, Delhi, India to Ranthambhore Forest Resort - Google Maps

We decided to take the longer way out, because of the constant feedback from different people about the stretch between Dausa and Lalsot being in bad condition.

We did account for and expect the fog we encountered in the morning. I consider myself to be competent to handle driving in fog safely, but every time I venture out into the invisible, the drive is anything but routine. 2 days before, I was almost rear-ended by an over-speeding WagonR on NH58 early in the morning, and thought the Scorpio needed a brighter rear lamp in fog to reduce the chances of something similar happening later. So I installed this red LED strip (basically a brake lamp) to run as a high intensity rear fog lamp, when the front fog lamps are switched on.

Here are a few glimpses of the NH8 as we saw it that morning.

And somewhere in that fog, H-4® crossed this milestone

[SS-Traveller]

Closer to Jaipur the weather cleared, but we ended up being stuck in a traffic jam. It was tempting to go off-road and bypass the jam, but the other car was not a 4wd


Toilet for the ladies? They were not quite thrilled with the suggestion!


Elephants near Amber Fort


Patch of rough (about 5 km) after turning off from the Kota highway. gd1418 says this is Viratnagar, I just don't remember


Stopped to admire the mustard fields






Rough patch through Lalsot




Lovely smooth road from Lalsot to Sawai Madhopur. Rs. 35 is the toll amount payable

[SS-Traveller]

Jungle Lodge: It was a new hotel we stayed at, owned and run by a fellow called Guddu Qureshi. Given the fact that gd1418 knew him & had stayed at his other property, the Jungle View Resort (Welcome to Jungle View Resort Ranthambhore National Park, Jungle Lodges, Wildlife resort, book a hotel in Ranthambhore, Hotel Booking in Ranthambore), and that he promised a special price to promote the new hotel, our expectations were on the higher side. It was a big letdown once we arrived there.

What he had promised to be the best two rooms in this hotel, turned out to be bare-basic rooms with rickety beds and tiled floors, no television in one, no way to call someone except to step out and climb downstairs, with toilet doors that refused to lock properly (though the toilets were spick-and-span, and even included ceiling fans! )

As for climbing up and down, this was a queer arrangement of stairs, steep and awkward.

Parking was available, Guddu said, only he omitted to tell us it would be on the road

The basement served as the dining hall (more like the dinning hole) - dark, dingy and smelling musty.

All meals were included in the tariff, but it was extremely basic - although I must say the cook, a local lad called Manraj, did an excellent job of whatever he served up. I would have loved to have him cook for me on a regular basis!

Want to know the best part of the hotel? A view of the swimming pool in the hotel next door, from our windows!

Oh well, never mind. We could find another hotel... or could we? All decent hotels in Ranthambhore were full, a couple of half-decent hotels were asking for astronomical prices, and here we were, staying at an empty but poor quality hotel where the owner was selling rooms to tourists making casual inquiries, at almost half the price we were paying. We decided to cut our trip short by a day, from the 3 nights originally planned, and move on to Sariska on 1st January. Once that was taken care of, we had a very good night, with a beautiful moon shining in the sky.

[SS-Traveller]

31 December 2011

Morning:

We didn't have a safari booking - Guddu had told us that nothing was available, we were too lazy to go out and check ourselves, and we wanted to visit the Ranthambhore Fort anyway. So off we went on our own, and here are the pics.

Views from the fort








When you go visiting the Ranthambhore fort, make sure you've got comfortable shoes on. There are over 300 stairs to climb, but the view from the top, as you can see!

All those stairs

Layout plan of the fort

A short history of the fort

[SS-Traveller]

Parking lot below the Fort, teeming with monkeys. I was a little worried about the antenna on the roof (there were a couple of other cars with roof antennae the fellows were tugging at), but found everything fine on our return.

Some more photos at random from Ranthambhore Fort...

Remembering and deifying the practice of sati

In memory of the punishment meted out to one of the king's generals, for betrayal - ears and nose chopped off

[SS-Traveller]

A collection of photos of the scenery & fauna on the road to the Fort

[SS-Traveller]

On the road from the gate to the fort, a checkpoint stops you and asks you to produce a valid pollution under control (PUC) certificate, before you are allowed to carry on to the fort in your own vehicle. Quite a few vehicles were turned back because of this.

And on that road, you start building up some expectations of spotting the tiger, when you come across this signboard. It says Be careful: a tigress and her cubs prowl around this area.

And a picture of a crocodile with blood dripping from its teeth vaguely reminded us of the creature suffering from periodontitis & bleeding gums; the Roald Dahl poem also came to mind...

The Dentist and the Crocodile by Roald Dahl - YouTube

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

...his other property, the Jungle View Resort (Welcome to Jungle View Resort Ranthambhore National Park, Jungle Lodges, Wildlife resort, book a hotel in Ranthambhore, Hotel Booking in Ranthambore)...

So we decided to check out the Jungle View Resort on our way back, because we were supposed to visit this place for the New Year celebrations to be organized here that night.

That's a nice sandy track that any car would negotiate with a little care

It rained so hard in the evening, the bonfire went out. The music system packed up (and wasn't I glad that it did, putting an end to the high volume noise!), and the buffet spread had to be moved into a shaded area after being half-drenched. The lights in the garden short-circuited leaving us in darkness, and the subsequent peace and quiet that prevailed was the best New Year party I have ever been to. It was another matter that the sandy road you see above turned into a slushy rivulet, and having 4wd made for a smooth drive back to tarmac.

Bonus view: A nilgai (blue bull) caught in the headlights, standing stock still for some time, before trotting off behind a hillock.

[SS-Traveller]

31 December 2011

Afternoon:

Guddu had promised the Canter would pick us up around 2:30 PM. In the event, it arrived at 3:15 PM. By the time it entered it's allotted Zone 2, it was already 4 PM. A queue and traffic jam was the order of the day, since the whole world was here to spot tigers. And the icing on the cake was an ignorant tour guide who thought he spoke English better than the Brits. Sample this: The crocodile is a cold-blooded reptile (and he was the warm-blooded one I suppose!); or, When the deers are here, the tigers are here (this was an unwanted rejoinder when we were discussing amongst ourselves that the deer appeared to be quite unperturbed while grazing, so the chance of a tiger being close was slim).

Here's the Canter and the view from aboard

And here's our guide for the next hour or two

Never mind the guide and the disappointment of not spotting tigers, it is always a pleasure going into the jungle - although we spent only a short time there due to the initial delay in getting in. Here are the other creatures we met...

Sambar - not found near Dausa, but roaming around idly

Cavorting fawn - YouTube

Crested serpent eagle

Cold-blooded reptiles!

The Rufous Treepie - aka the Tiger Bird, or the tiger's dentist(!!) because it feeds from the tiger's mouth, and does a great prophylactic service for the tiger!

[SS-Traveller]

Even if we did not spot a tiger in the jungle, we did watch a tiger being born... from the paintbrush of an unsung artist with admirable skills.

The next day would be the first day of 2012 - and we drove from Sawai Madhopur to Sariska to begin the year!

[SS-Traveller]

1 January 2012

Morning:

Goodbye Ranthambhore, for the time being. It was more like a RAIN-TAME-BORE visit for us this time, but we promise to be back again, at a time more suited to relaxed explorations into the jungle, when tourists do not overrun the little town of Sawai Madhopur.

The bother about going to Sariska from Sawai Madhopur is the section between Lalsot and Dausa. We took the longer route on the way out just to avoid this stretch, but here we were, needing to go that way - unless we wanted to increase the distance and time of travel by a large margin. So here was the route we took: Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India to MDR 27 - Google Maps.

The road from Lalsot to Dausa

[suhaas307]

Note From team BHP Support: Thread moved from Assembly Line to Travelogue section. Thanks for sharing this wonderful compilation of photographs and text, SS-Traveller.

[SS-Traveller]

On the way to Sariska are a couple of interesting little places called Bhangarh and Ajabgarh. It should be worth exploring these places over a lazy winter weekend, and listen to the local legends. For now, a few pics from Ajabgarh.

The rest of the road after Ajabgarh is not too good either

Arrival at the RTDC Tiger Den Resort

Soon enough, our guide and gd1418's good friend Hari Singh was there with his Gypsy and driver Rajendra Prasad.

We were on our way to search for tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve.

[gd1418]

Very interesting and some nice pictures. Guddu needs a toungue-lashing and will get one in due course of time.

Bhangarh is the "ghost' town and boasts of the famous haunted fort where one is not allowed to stay after 6 pm.

When will you proceed from the Sariska gate to inside the forest???