Gir Forest National Park

Hi!

Today I’m going to tell you a bit about my second trip in India. On the last week of May, we went to Gir National Park, home of the Asiatic lion, which is the main attraction of the safaris there. We went there because it is not too far from here (some 6 hours); because it is in Gujarat, so we could do it in a weekend; and also because some of the lions will be taken away to another park, which means that there will be less and they will be harder to see. It seems that, as they are endangered, the Supreme Court of India has decided that they have to send some of them to another region, so that, if there is a fire, they get sick, etc., they do not disappear completely. Gujaratis are not very happy about that… but I think they are just being stubborn.

The trip started on a Saturday evening and we came back the night between Monday and Tuesday. We had to get to a bus stop, where we took a tiny mini-bus to bring us to the bus for Junagadh. When we arrived there, a car would take us to the National Park, an hour away. We arrived at 7 in the morning and could relax during the whole morning. The place was amazing. Our cottage was in the middle of a mango orchard, and so quiet…

Our cottage.

The mango orchard we were in.

Mango trees.

At 3 in the afternoon we had our first safari. Our guide was very nice and he could speak English… well… a bit of English… ;) We saw loads of birds, such as eagles, owls, etc. (there are over 300 species), deer, peacocks, and, of course, lions! Well, they were sleeping because of the heat… We also had a safari on the second day and we saw a leopard, which is quite impressive, as they seem to be very shy. We don’t have pictures of it because we saw it walking among the trees from quite far away, but it was very exciting. That day, in which the safari started at 6 in the morning, we also saw lions, and much closer. They were a young couple sleeping on a shadow, close to a fountain to have water when they wake up. You can have a look at the pictures.

An eagle.

A peacock.

A blue bird... but I don't remember its name!

A bunch of deers wondering who are the guys taking
pictures of them.

A stag.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps today...

A termite mound.

An owl, I'd say...

Another owl. This was quite far and it was really hard to see. Luckily, the guides know where to find them...

I don't remember the name of this animal, but I found it very funny, as
it seems it is wearing socks.

A couple of coyotes.

A pack of wild boars. There were around 20.

More fauna.

Deers drinking.

A lion track.

Lions sleeping on a shadow.

One of the lions.

Me on the back seat of the jeep.

In the jeep, I was sitting in the back part (because I had less problems to hear the guide) and it was quite nice… until, on the first day, we realized that it was 6 and the park was about to close… so we had to go very fast. I thought that I was going to end up flying away and eaten up by the lions for dinner. Well, I’m exaggerating a bit, I really enjoyed it! It was like a rollercoaster… ;) And, by the way (comment for literature freaks), I was all the time thinking about Francis Macomber…  J

As the safaris are 3 hours long, we had the rest of the time to relax, which was great. We could read, wander around the mangoes, eat mangoes falling at our feet and enjoy them in the shadow… Moreover, the people working there were very nice and the food… what we usually call Indian food… ;) It was delicious! Five or six dishes to choose from (we were eating a bit of everything, in fact), rotis, dessert… And all vegetarian. Except for one day; they cooked a dish with meat and we were a bit annoyed, because we think it was just for us, the foreigners (don’t forget that here being vegetarian is the common thing).

Here is where we used to have lunch, with a nice view.

More mangoes.

This wall was the only thing between the lions and us...

A huge ant. These you can find them anywhere, though.

And that is pretty much it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Next entry will be about another trip, to Udaipur, in Rajasthan. See you then! 

A mango tree that almost looks like a christmas tree.

Udaipur

¡Buenas!

Aunque tengo muchos temas en el tintero, voy a tener que seguir dejándolos de lado, ya que este fin de semana estuve viajando de nuevo y tengo muchas fotos que enseñaros. Esta vez estuve en Udaipur, en la región de Rajastán, al norte de Gujarat.

Con el agua hasta las rodillas.

El viernes por la noche cogimos un bus que nos llevaría hasta Udaipur. Esto no fue fácil, porque al monzón le dio por llover a cántaros, así que a las 9 nos vimos en medio de la calle, con unos charcos de 10 cm de profundidad en unos 15 minutos, con los rickshaws diciéndonos que nanai, que ellos no se movían del sitio con la que estaba cayendo… Al final uno nos llevó, y en cuanto llegamos a la zona de la parada ya apenas llovía… que es lo que pasa siempre. El bus llegó tarde, claro, y desde dentro podíamos ver a la gente con el agua hasta las rodillas y motos con las ruedas prácticamente cubiertas. Creemos que no llovería más de 20 minutos.

El exterior del palacio, de cerca.

Llegamos a Udaipur a las 5 de la mañana. El hotel no abría hasta las 6, así que buscamos un sitio donde sentarnos a ver amanecer sobre el lago Pichola, un lago artificial creado en 1362. Fuimos al hotel, dormimos un ratín y empezamos la visita. Lo primero fue el Palacio de la ciudad, que se empezó a construir en 1559. Dentro, pudimos ver tanto el palacio del Maharana como el de su esposa. Además, las vistas del lago son impresionantes.

Una de las salas del palacio.

La sala de correos del palacio...

Dentro del palacio.

Un lado del palacio, desde una de las cafeterías en los tejados.

Tras subir y subir, llegamos a la planta baja, donde hay
un jardín. Sí, no es un error; es que el palacio está
en una montaña.

La ciudad desde una ventanuca roja
del palacio.

Lake Palace, un antiguo palacio que se ha convertido en
un hotel de 5 estrellas. Sólo los inquilinos pueden visitarlo.

Dibujo en miniatura de un elefante (símbolo de suerte) en mi uña. 

Fijaos en las sutiles líneas doradas del manto.

Después comimos en una terraza en un tejado. Hay muchísimos restaurantes así, aprovechando las vistas de la ciudad, que son increíbles. Por la tarde estuvimos callejeando y de compras. La ropa es taaaaaan bonita… pantalones anchos, faldas, kurtis…. Además, un artista me dibujó un elefante en la uña con todo detalle. Fue una tarde interesante.

Vista de la ciudad.

Baile rajastani con fuego en la cabeza.

Para terminar el día, asistimos a un espectáculo de danza rajastani. Había, si no recuerdo mal, cinco tipos diferentes. En uno, las chicas bailaban con un cuenco con fuego sobre la cabeza. En otro, tres mujeres con 13 platillos por todo el cuerpo bailaban y tocaban de sentadas. Este fue uno de nuestros favoritos, porque era una mezcla de instrumento musical, baile y malabares. En el tercero, varias chicas bailaban y giraban con sus trajes tradicionales de colores. También hubo un espectáculo de marionetas que se movían al ritmo de la música. Por último, una mujer bailaba con vasijas en la cabeza, ¡llegando a tener  11 unas encima de otras! Si queréis, podéis buscar en youtube vídeos con las palabras Bagore ki Haveli (el lugar de la representación) y “dance”, aunque lo mejor sería que vinierais a verlo, ¡claro! ;)

Varias bailarinas con trajes típicos.

Baile tradicional rajastani
con 11 vasijas sobre la cabeza.

Al día siguiente, cogimos un barco a las 10 de la mañana que nos dio una vuelta por el lago y nos llevó hasta la isla Jag Mandir, donde visitamos los jardines y disfrutamos de la tranquilidad. Al volver, fuimos a un templo hindú y visitamos Bagore ki Haveli. Los haveli son mansiones típicas de la India y Pakistán, y ésta se ha rehabilitado en forma de museo, con algunas habitaciones de exposición y otras que muestran cómo eran anteriormente.

El lateral del palacio, desde el lago.

En la isla Jag Mandir, con elefantes tallados y los jardines al fondo.

Templo Jagdish, un templo hindú.

Una sala de Bagore ki Haveli
con una exposición de marionetas.

Turbantes en Bagore ki Haveli.

Empapada después de 5 minutos de lluvia.

Y para terminar, antes de coger el bus de vuelta a Ahmedabad, visitamos otro lago, un poco más al norte, Fateh Sagar. Para ir a la isla del centro, cogimos un barquito y, cuál sería nuestra sorpresa, que se puso a llover a cántaros en cuanto llegamos a la isla. Sólo duró unos 5 o 10 minutos y estábamos a cubierto, pero acabamos calados hasta los huesos. La verdad es que, como no hace frío, no es desagradable. Lo único que hay que proteger cosas como la cámara de fotos, los móviles, el pasaporte… y aquí con que esté en el bolso no basta cuando llueve así. En fin, fue muy divertido.

Esto es todo por hoy. Disfrutad del verano en Europa, que aquí ya no queda. Ha llegado (como habéis podido comprobar) la temporada de monzones, y algo pronto este año. Aun así, tranquilos, que probablemente esté haciendo más calor aquí que por esos lares… ;)

Log ghats, peldaños que llevan a un lago o río, se usan tanto para fines religiosos hindúes como para bañarse o lavar.
Aquí se lo estaban pasando bastante bien.

Mujeres lavando en un ghat del lago Pichola.

The transport

After the traffic, I have decided to go on a bit with the topic and talk to you about transport within Ahmedabad. As I told you before, we have several options, like walking (not used often), riding a cycle (a bit more, but not so much either), or going by bike (meaning motorbike), by car, by taxi, by bus and by rickshaw. I am mainly going to talk about the last one.

I have never used buses within the city, because I don't know the lines and, as I had explained before, I do not speak their language much to go around asking people…There is a bus with its own lane which must be quite fast and it seems that it is also cheap. I do not know if it is always like that, but when you see the buses, they look so old: no windows (quite normal, because it is hot here), they don’t seem to have air conditioning (which is a bit surprising, as they use it a lot), there are no doors and people hop in and out while moving...

Rickshaws in Delhi.

About rickshaws (in this case, autorickshaws)… there’s so much to say! First times you take them, you may think that they are not very safe, with so much traffic around and without doors or safety belt… And maybe they are not, but I still need to move around the city, right? Well, this is how it works: you talk to the man (I still haven’t seen any woman driving them) and tell him where you want to go. Sometimes they say no, but I have no idea why… Then you make sure that the metre is at 0. You hop in and, if you are lucky, they will take you to your destination. If they don’t know the way, they will ask you or people around how to get there. When you arrive, you ask them how much it was. This is the tricky part. They tell you a price and, if it seems expensive, you ask him to show you the chart with the prices. Then, you have to make sure that they are showing you the price for daytime (it is more expensive after 11 p.m.) and also that they are showing you what the metre says! Sometimes they want to get a couple of rupees from you, sometimes more. Anyway, it is quite cheap. Going almost to the other side of the city can be around 120 rupees, which is some 2 euros.

As always, they are never there when you need them… Sometimes the rickshaw is full (and by that I mean that, having room for three people, sometimes there are even four inside) and they still stop so that you get in… on top of the ones already in. They are mainly men, so it is not highly advisable for women. Sometimes you don’t need them but they still stop. One day not long ago, we said no to one and he literally got on our way. It kinda pissed me off…

Sometimes you need them, but you still want to kill them. When you go out of a train or bus station, even before getting off a bus, they are already there, waiting for you and stalking you: “Where are you going?”, “My rickshaw is here”, “Come this way”. And whatever you say, they will just stay there until you pick one.  It’s overwhelming.

Sometimes there are so many people in that you just see arms and legs everywhere. Four or five guys in the back, a couple in the front sitting by the driver or standing inside and with the rest of the body outside…

On a cycle rickshaw.

In Ahmedabad we only have autorickshaws, but in some other cities you can easily find cycle ones. They are much slower, of course, but they pollute less. The thing is that I feel guilty on them… I know it is their job, but for me it looks like slavery, I don’t know, carrying tourist with the strength of their legs. Western prejudices, I guess. Besides, they usually don’t have a metre, so you have to bargain. As I don’t look very Indian, they always try to con me…

And that is pretty much all today. Next time I will tell you about my trip to Gir forest. I hope you are not getting bored!

To go up the hill, we had to get off the
rickshaw and walk.