Wildlife Pics

1) Tiger stalks across the road
2) WAAYYY too close to comfort
3) Monkey business
4) sparring sambar


So, we are on the road again, which means I am glad to be male. In the cramped compartments of public transport train travelling, females have two distinct disadvantages:

1) Young men stare at them, shamelessly and openly. My beautiful blonde-haired blue eyed sister constantly attracts a gaggle of obnoxious admirers, who do everything but drool. Sometimes we glare back and it helps for a little while.

2) Toilets. There are "Indian Style" toilets that are a glorified hole in the ground, western toilets that refuse to flush, a hotel room toilet that sprays water all over the room every time you flush... oh yeah, and in lieu of toilet paper you wash yourself off with a bucket. Luckily for me, if there's one thing you learn tree planting, it is to poo in less than ideal situations.

We are currently in fort-exploring mode. Ranthambore had a truly spectacular, vine-encrusted and monkey-filled fort straight from "the Jungle Book". Tempes to Hindu, Muslim and Christian gods cover the top, and fearless monkeys boldly snatch wreaths from the worshipperts.Jaipur is filled with old castles, palaces and towers which are covered in grafitti but still radiate thje majesty of the mogul hordes whcih built them. Jaipur is fairly touristy, which means the locals make a fine living off the exchange rate. However, if you are willing to drive a hard bargain (walking away works wonders) you can get some pretty cool stuff.

Perhaps the best part of the day was when our autorickshaw ran out of gas on the road, and the one with my mom and sister in it promptly slammed into us. Undeterred, the "Back" rickshaw powered us to our location, a local sitting in the passanger's seat and pushing ours with his foot. Ingenuity, hilarity and a little excitement (we dead this into oncoming traffic) all in one.

Sorrry to make this post so short, but I had to re-start 3 times and it's dinner time.