Little time - Sasan Gir
17 juli 2016 - Jaisalmer, India
We're 11 days in and time flies. We've visited three more destinations since leaving Vadodara and even changed plans. But the things we see and do are rare. We've been to Sasan Gir, Jodhpur and Jaiselmer and are now heading to Jaipur. Today you'll learn a bit more about the three places we've been. (Actually that was the plan - say something about all three places, but change of plans I guess)
Sasan Gir,
The plan would take us to Diu and Sasan Gir (Lion park) but... Plans are ajustable for various reasons. Just before we went to Sasan Gir we found out the Lion park is closed during the monsoon season in this area. We decided to still go and have some relaxing time. Taking a long - Non Ac - sleeper bus there, wasn't too comfortable. But it was fast and cheap. During the overnight journey we didn't sleep much. Basically you're in this tiny cabin (1.20 meter x 1.80 meter is my guess) in a moving bus on a bumpy road with two people. I'm almost two meters and my travel companion is Dutch as well, so you can imagine that squizing in this cabin isn't the most fun thing to do, especially if your plan is to sleep a bit during the ride and do stuff the next day. As expected we didn't sleep much and the temperatures made us sweat. It was the little too cozy way of travelling, but it adds to the full Indian experience.
Strange enough we felt quite okay the morning we arrived. The hotel people picked us up, but it was a bit of an odd setting, I'll get back to that. The people of the hotel were friendly, they made us breakfast. Masala scrambled eggs with toast and showed us the room(note there's no hot water, this also lacked in Mumbai and Vadodara). The odd part of the hotel setting was the owner. He was a bossy, like a little general, he order his personal in a harsh way. It felt a bit shady and strange. He commanded his employees to do stuff, had a gernaral like face and a persuasive voice.
After breakfast and freshing up we took a 'lion' safari at 1500 rs (€20,-). First on the track was the 'zoo', an enclosure of 7 hectare where lions were freely kept. Unfortunately the entrance fee was €35,- (note Indian pay about 200 rs/ €3). Because the zoo like feeling and the unfair pricing we decided not to do it. The safari went on, we drove through the country side of Gir, to spot lions. We stood in the back of an open jeep and watched around the field as our driver raced around the small streets and sharp corners. After a while we ended up a a railway crossing. Stunned we saw that the gates were locked with a simple hang-lock - the way you would lock the gate of your porch - which us least to say a but different from our automatic ones in Europe, also note that it''s not much more that an average garden fence. After sometime the train passed and the guy with the keys opened the gates, one by one, both sides, taking his time. As soon as the gates were open traffic started rushing over again. We were on our way to spot the lions!
Lions here, lions there, lions everywhere, that's what I expected from the stories they told me, even our guide showed us some photo's of him and lions. I was confident that we would see them, but... to cut the crap, we didn't see the lions. But we saw a temple. It's nice as well, but just a little different, right? Nearing the end of this so called 'safari' there was this big party tent for the monsoon festival. It looked like a 6 year old birthday party, badly executed, or probably the Indian way. It looked cheap and half finished, but okay, it was not ours to enjoy. However we rode on the back of a camel car for about 200 meters, it was odd and boring. We ended up on these came bacause the driver was friends with a friend of the camel owner. The camels were at the festival.
If this all want enough, we got an addition of Indian threats. The interview. We, forgeiners in Sasan Gir - which is probally not even known to Indian tourist - had to be used in every single way. The conducted a - yes scripted - interview. This is actually were it comes back to the shady part. The owner told us to be all positive and complain about the high prices of the safari(big difference between local on tourist rate) And we had to say that we especially came for the monsoon festival. More or less bad propoganda. It was something we weren't enthusiastic for after this long day, but we - the cheap Dutch kids - played our part and earned two Haywards 5000 - Strong beer between the 5.25% and 8.25% - which tasted tremendous after all the hard work.
The day after we planned to go to Diu, but decided not too. As you can image we over-enjoyed Sasan Gir and had spend another night. This might also be due to the fact to one of our busses was cancelled and we had to change some plans. We managed to book a train from a place nearby sasan to Ahmedabad and a sleeper bus to Jodhpur from Ahmedabad. We had confirmed places on both. Hard to image, but it's a satisfying feeling if you're able to book a train a day ahead of your journey and end up with confirmed seats. It's like winning the lottery. It's impossible, yet one in a billion times it happens. Plan B was set-up and ready to be followed, I felt content.
After booking this train the day went rather fast. We played some cards, drink some chai, hiked around, met Frits, our snake, played more cards, ate and drunk beer. The food is something which was delicious. It was more or less the traditional Gujarati Thaly with patatos, vegetables, rice, dal, some sweet stuff and roti. Accompanied with the beer we enjoyed this relaxing day a lot.
Unfortunately we're running a bit late at the time of writing. Jodhpur and Jaiselmer will be saved for another blog, wich is good because both of theses cities are our opening to Rajasthan and the desert life and this one is running a bit too long
Lots of love, good night
Maurice
Sasan Gir,
The plan would take us to Diu and Sasan Gir (Lion park) but... Plans are ajustable for various reasons. Just before we went to Sasan Gir we found out the Lion park is closed during the monsoon season in this area. We decided to still go and have some relaxing time. Taking a long - Non Ac - sleeper bus there, wasn't too comfortable. But it was fast and cheap. During the overnight journey we didn't sleep much. Basically you're in this tiny cabin (1.20 meter x 1.80 meter is my guess) in a moving bus on a bumpy road with two people. I'm almost two meters and my travel companion is Dutch as well, so you can imagine that squizing in this cabin isn't the most fun thing to do, especially if your plan is to sleep a bit during the ride and do stuff the next day. As expected we didn't sleep much and the temperatures made us sweat. It was the little too cozy way of travelling, but it adds to the full Indian experience.
Strange enough we felt quite okay the morning we arrived. The hotel people picked us up, but it was a bit of an odd setting, I'll get back to that. The people of the hotel were friendly, they made us breakfast. Masala scrambled eggs with toast and showed us the room(note there's no hot water, this also lacked in Mumbai and Vadodara). The odd part of the hotel setting was the owner. He was a bossy, like a little general, he order his personal in a harsh way. It felt a bit shady and strange. He commanded his employees to do stuff, had a gernaral like face and a persuasive voice.
After breakfast and freshing up we took a 'lion' safari at 1500 rs (€20,-). First on the track was the 'zoo', an enclosure of 7 hectare where lions were freely kept. Unfortunately the entrance fee was €35,- (note Indian pay about 200 rs/ €3). Because the zoo like feeling and the unfair pricing we decided not to do it. The safari went on, we drove through the country side of Gir, to spot lions. We stood in the back of an open jeep and watched around the field as our driver raced around the small streets and sharp corners. After a while we ended up a a railway crossing. Stunned we saw that the gates were locked with a simple hang-lock - the way you would lock the gate of your porch - which us least to say a but different from our automatic ones in Europe, also note that it''s not much more that an average garden fence. After sometime the train passed and the guy with the keys opened the gates, one by one, both sides, taking his time. As soon as the gates were open traffic started rushing over again. We were on our way to spot the lions!
Lions here, lions there, lions everywhere, that's what I expected from the stories they told me, even our guide showed us some photo's of him and lions. I was confident that we would see them, but... to cut the crap, we didn't see the lions. But we saw a temple. It's nice as well, but just a little different, right? Nearing the end of this so called 'safari' there was this big party tent for the monsoon festival. It looked like a 6 year old birthday party, badly executed, or probably the Indian way. It looked cheap and half finished, but okay, it was not ours to enjoy. However we rode on the back of a camel car for about 200 meters, it was odd and boring. We ended up on these came bacause the driver was friends with a friend of the camel owner. The camels were at the festival.
If this all want enough, we got an addition of Indian threats. The interview. We, forgeiners in Sasan Gir - which is probally not even known to Indian tourist - had to be used in every single way. The conducted a - yes scripted - interview. This is actually were it comes back to the shady part. The owner told us to be all positive and complain about the high prices of the safari(big difference between local on tourist rate) And we had to say that we especially came for the monsoon festival. More or less bad propoganda. It was something we weren't enthusiastic for after this long day, but we - the cheap Dutch kids - played our part and earned two Haywards 5000 - Strong beer between the 5.25% and 8.25% - which tasted tremendous after all the hard work.
The day after we planned to go to Diu, but decided not too. As you can image we over-enjoyed Sasan Gir and had spend another night. This might also be due to the fact to one of our busses was cancelled and we had to change some plans. We managed to book a train from a place nearby sasan to Ahmedabad and a sleeper bus to Jodhpur from Ahmedabad. We had confirmed places on both. Hard to image, but it's a satisfying feeling if you're able to book a train a day ahead of your journey and end up with confirmed seats. It's like winning the lottery. It's impossible, yet one in a billion times it happens. Plan B was set-up and ready to be followed, I felt content.
After booking this train the day went rather fast. We played some cards, drink some chai, hiked around, met Frits, our snake, played more cards, ate and drunk beer. The food is something which was delicious. It was more or less the traditional Gujarati Thaly with patatos, vegetables, rice, dal, some sweet stuff and roti. Accompanied with the beer we enjoyed this relaxing day a lot.
Unfortunately we're running a bit late at the time of writing. Jodhpur and Jaiselmer will be saved for another blog, wich is good because both of theses cities are our opening to Rajasthan and the desert life and this one is running a bit too long
Lots of love, good night
Maurice
