Shawn's email 2

Hello Family and Friends!
My latest adventure continues for just a couple more weeks and it has
already been several since my last update. We are currently located
in Bangkok, Thailand and have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves in
our first few days out of India and in a new country. Our plans here
are to be a bit more mellow with less sightseeing and more relaxing up
in the mountains near Chiang Mai and then with a hop south to Phuket
and Krabi. I'll let you know how it all went once we've landed back
home-sweet-home in Barcelona (in an apartment where I've yet to live,
but in a somewhat familiar town).

My last statement was that we were about to jump a nice overnight
train Class AC 2 to Udaipur, the white city. That was far from what
happened. The train was cancelled due to "unrest in the north"
according to the train station help window 29. They told us to see
the station manger at door 12 or so down the way. He was quite
uninterested and told us to go away, to the train station window ...
28. Mr. 28 then told us politely that a refund was possible, but only
to the travel agent that had done the booking for us down in
Mammalapurum. Then the tuk tuk driver that had been following us
around for half and hour trying to sell a bus ticket said "i told you
so." thanks, buddy. BUT, then the tuk tuk rushed us away not to the
bus station, but to his buddy or cousin's office or something, where
we paid some nice money, but not too much for an overnight sleeper bus
leaving in... FIVE MINUTES! They made some phone calls, took our
money, flagged down a bus, we got a stamp of approval from someone on
a motorcycle chasing the bus around downtown Ahmedabad, and voila,
we're off on a bus to Udaipur, arriving at 430am. After lots of
bouncing we finally fell asleep and awoke for breakfast at 6am. We
were, well, 100km north of our stop as no one had awoken us or
informed us that our destination was not the final stop, and each
person was responsible for jumping ship when their heart desired (or
their ticket required). No problem, we stood on highway at sunrise
drinking masala chai until we flagged down another bus back to
Udaipur, checked into the Dream Heaven Guesthouse and had a great
time in the mountainous city of lakes and magnificent white palaces.

I got a small stomach bug on the way out to Jodhpur. Maybe it was the
stop we made just to let monkeys on board to eat everyone's leftover
peanuts... maybe it was just something anything I ate. Maybe it was
the Jodhpur air pollution downtown... Anways, we booked a room near
the train station, got on the waitlist for the 6am to Jaisalmer, and
went on a trek to tour the blue city, clock tower and giant hilltop
fort of Jodhpur. They even had a nice clean tourist restroom at the
top of the hill.

The train to Jaislamer was great. It went all the way there and we
even got our waitlist seats on a confirmed reservation before
boarding. We met a nice fellow on the train who took us directly to
his new hostel... so new the top floors were still under construction
and the electricty only worked a few hours a day, but it was a great
deal and he directly booked us our camel safari. We went with the
ride a camel into sunset in the desert, and then after dinner show
with traditional rajasthani dances and food in the desert camp, with a
return to the hotel late at night option since we were still a bit
under the weather. Txell's camel, Mr. Rocket was an aspiring racing
camel, and even beat mine, Mr. Johnny Walker in a race, despite
carrying the extra camel driver on board. Granted, I'm a less
experienced camel racer than he and may not have been as active in
whipping with my camel rope, but still lost. Besides, racing a camel
isn't something you should do without warming up at first, and if so,
not for so long! It hurt for a few days, but was a great experience.

The next day at 4pm we caught ourselves an overnight train all the way
to Jaipur, arriving at 5am. We bargained our way into a reasonable 3
hour tuk tuk tour of the monkey temple and main attractions of the
capital city of Rajasthan. The monkey temple was great. Our
volunteer guide monk tour giude may have managed to get a 100 rupee
tip for blessing us with a peacock feather and a Hanuman chant and an
old watch as a tip, but Dubi was well worth the extra price. He
explained to us all the details of monkey temple monasticism, and the
monkey problem living in a tiger cave up on the hill. The capital
city was politely deserted and/or closed for the rest of the tour and
we were off to Sawai Madhopur and Rathanbore National Park before the
traffic and pollution got in to full swing.

Despite a valiant effort, we did not manage to book a tiger safari
that night, but made arrangements successfully for 6am the next day.
Instead we got our hotel room and booked a 3 hour tour of the ancient
(1500 years old this time) ruins of the Rathanbore Fort in the middle
of the National Park. Our guide was a good birder and Txell was quite
excited about the new species about the area. At 630 am the next day
we were off to TIGER SAFARI!!! Before we even entered the park
proper, I managed to spot a leopard in the distance and early morning
light. The vague cat shape, three spots, tail, and monkey warning
calls all confirmed the sighting. Txell just missed the vague shape
and three spots part before it disappeared again behind the bushes.
We spotted numerous deer, antelope, chinkgara, birds, owls and eagles,
but no tigers for the rest of the safari. Good try, but we were back
to the hotel for brunch and then off to Bharatpur to visit the
Keoladeo National Bird Sanctuary.

The train again was an adventure. We booked a general boarding pass
and there was simply no way to fit on that train! People were pusing
others into the train from a crowd of 50 or so in front of each door,
and it looked like the train would leave with hundred hanging from the
windows! We ran for the 2AC nice compartment to try and bribe our way
aboard for an "instant upgrade." When the police weren't looking we
manged to get on and hid with the help of the linen service guy. He
took our money and closed some curtains, but we were later acosted by
the true owners of our bribed seats. We made friends, and peace, and
sat on the upper bunk while that ate below, eventually making better
friends, and sharing their buffet lunch and having a great time!

Bharatpur was great! We got a great place to stay, with free pickup
at the railway station. The guy's brother was a naturalist bird guide
who took us and a dutch couple on a bike birding tour (a dangerous
combo, especially when spotting a couple dozen new species in a
morning) for 4 hours the next day. We found nightjars, green pigeons,
and three species of owls, including the gigantic dusky eagle owl! We
found out there were restrictions on moving about the place because a
tiger was visiting from Rathanbore. He was spotted in town and at the
park entrance the next day and made the front page of the local
newspaper! We decided to stay there and day trip to AGRA and see the
Taj Mahal.

Finally, we moved up to Delhi, where we stayed with a nice German
couple we met at the boat tour in Ft. Cochin in southern India weeks
ago. We toured ourselves a bit the forts and Sikh temples and
palaces, spice bazaars, and shopping markets. We even met the son of
the former mayor of Delhi at the Nourgarh, a district of old Havelis,
the finest examples of private homes in India. He invited us in for
tea and cookies and then gave us departing gifts and business cards in
true India hospitality.

Wow, that's a long email. Now were in Bangkok and tonight off to Chiang Mai.

all the best,
Shawn and Txell