Tigers!

Sunday was my birthday and I spent it at a really nice lodge outsiide of the park. It is supposed to be modeled on African safari lodges. The room itself (actually its own little bungalow) was gorgeous, and the service and food were fantastic.

There were only 4 other guests. Carolyn and Martin from Vienna. They were on the plane from Mumbai, and I suspected that we were going to the same place, but I didn't see them at the train station in Bhopal. Carolyn is a "TV presenter" and she had been traveling by herself in India for 5 weeks. Her boyfriend Martin is a cinematographer, and he had joined her for the last week of her trip. Ornella from Torino.  She had been on several safaris in Africa and came to India specifically to see the tigers. Paul from London joined us the second night.

The food:   For breakfast, chapati rolls, which are sort of Indian breakfast burritos. Made with a flat bread somewhere between a tortilla and naan, and stuffed with sauted peppers and onions and some sort of mashed potato mixture. For lunch on Sunday, excellent tomato soup, green salad, and chicken kabobs with grilled bananas and vanilla ice cream for dessert. On Monday, my favorite palak paneer (spinach with cheese) and fish curry and a bean salad. Also, a pretty gross buttermilk based drink that is supposed to good for your digestion. Rice pudding for dessert. For dinner on Sunday, fish and chicken cooked in the tandoor oven; yellow dal; many different kinds of bread. For dinner on Monday, chicken soup, a thali with four different dishes (lamb, spinach, some kind of dumplings in a yogurt sauce, and potatoes).

Always on hand:  awesome shortbread-like cookies flavored with either coconut or sesame seeds.

It was nice to be able to eat uncooked fruit and vegetables -- which I had been avoiding -- without having to worry about whether they had been washed in clean water.

The tigers:  in the mornings and afternoons, we went out to the park in 4-wheel drive vehicles. The park has the highest density of tigers in the world, and I saw at least one tiger on every trip. (Although just a leg the first time.)  It was really exciting. The whole forest was on alert for the tigers. Our naturalist taught us to recognize the "alarm calls" of the monkeys and the deer that the tigers eat. When the tigers moved, all of the animals were on alert trying to avoid them and all of the humans were on alert trying to find them. I could sort of see the appeal of hunting, except the killing part.

We couldn't go off road, so in the mornings, the park rangers tracked the tigers and we could ride elephants to get closer to them. This was awesome. Elephants are so cool because the underbrush is nothing to them. They just grab it with their trunks and break it off.

A brief word about my naturalist, Herendra. I had a huge crush on him. We would be driving down the road at 30 kph and he would hear a bird call and say "that's the yellow-wattled lapwing" or "the green bee eater."  I found this very impressive. Unfortunately, he's 22.

Saving the best part for last:  when we got back from the park at night we were filthy with dust from the dirt roads. But we returned to a nice hot bubble bath, already drawn. And a gin and tonic by the tub. All in all, a pretty good birthday.