Ramnagar

**video added 5/11, post complete**

The elephant ride was great.  I had wanted to do that for a while as I thought it would be cool to be riding an animal that large, into an actual wild area (read: inhabited by large carnivores).  To me, an elephant, the way it walks looks smooth, and steady.  When you watch their feet hit the ground as they walk, the foot comes down rather gently for a beast of its size, and the animal glides a bit forward to place the next foot.  They don’t stomp around like Snuffaluffagus (sp?) from Sesame Street.

Well, being on top of one, you notice the lurching and leaning.  After a bout an hour and a half, my head started to hurt a bit from what I would call sea-sickness.  It wasn’t major, but my main coping mechanism for dealing with motion sickness (like ascending and descending from the mountains), was picking the farthest place my eyes could find in front of me, and then keeping my eyes glued there until we arrived near there, and then I picked another similar point from the place I was currently.  And by doing this visual, fixed-position, leapfrog, I tolerated the switchbacks rather well.  Under the canopy (even though you are 12-15 feet in the air), your line of sight is limited severely, and finding something to lock on was difficult.  I didn’t get more nauseous than a few flip-flops of the belly, but my head hurt a bit afterwards.

The guide was trying to show me things, but it was a lot like doing one of those hidden objects games.  Where there’s a scene of some sort drawn often in black and white, and then there you’re supposed to find the banjo or the toilet plunger that are drawn into the scene.  The first half dozen times the guide would say something and point, I would keep asking “where, where?”.  Sometimes I would see it and other times not.  Towards the middle though, I would start taking pictures, and then look.  I figured, I would have my own game of hidden objects at some future date while reviewing the photos. 

We did not see any tigers, though we saw some fresh prints, and several old kills (of sambar; one by a tiger and one by a leopard).  The wildlife that I actually saw (personally, without a snap now find later) included wild parakeets (which have a long tail that you don’t find on the birds in petstores), peacocks and peahens (I thought they were all peacocks!), the shed skin of a cobra, some wild chickens, some langur monkeys, sambar does and a stag and a baby, some bulbuls and barpurs (birds [spelled phonetically]), and a jackal.  In addition to the cool gecko in my room and what sounds like a parrot of some sort outside.

Not much in the flower department as it is very dry here now, and about a month away from the monsoon, but there were some really cool trees that I shot that seemed to have a story.  One was probably several hundred years old judging from it’s trunk circumference, and another had 3 bee hives in the branches that were probably each the size of a large rubbermaid trashcan.

I took about 700 pictures or thereabouts, including a couple of videos.  One video in particular was where I think my elephant was unhappy with the mahout (driver), and he was growling this low-down staccato tone that was so low, I felt it more than I heard it.  It was awesome!  The mahout verbally reprimanded the animal, the elephant growled some more and snuffed loudly.  Another verbal reprimand from the driver, and the elephant trumpeted.  That was the only time I heard the elephant make a noise, and I just happened to get it on video, so hopefully the sound comes through too. *note 5/11: audio from that clip was inaudible, so I’ve put another clip here instead*  I can’t wait to get some video up on the blog, but the cell signal just won’t handle it, and the one cybercafe I visited had hardware from the mid-90’s and bandwidth to match (when it was up).  The vids may have to wait until I get home…

My Corbett excursion only lasted about 2 hours, but it was good enough for me by elephant.  I think if I were to come back to Corbett, I would stay inside the deepest, remotest corridor, and hire a professional guide for several days.  It also wouldn’t cost $60 though!

I’ve met several foreigners here at the “motel”, one guy from Massachusetts living in Maine, and travelling on a one-year anthropology fellowship to study fishing villages, and an other from the UK travelling around for a few months in between jobs and breaks from “uni” (university/college).  Both have had stomach troubles and were on anti-biotics.  So far so good on my probiotics instead, as the only troubles I’ve had so far have been related to too much dairy (lactose intolerant), but that happens to me in the States too, and I’ve successfully avoided any dairy for the last several days.

The camp here is basic, but clean by Indian standards, and I was able to rinse my shirt that I’ve been wearing for the last week.  I took a cold shower with soap that was laying there (though I washed/rinsed it first), and didn’t dry off with a towel, I just put my clothes back on and my wet shirt.  I feel like a savage, but I don’t really have any qualms about it.

A young man came by last night to bring a fan, which was helpful, but I’m trying to keep it off during the daytime to acclimate to the drastic heat in my next destination.  Tonight I head to the Ramnagar train station and head to Varanasi, which I’ve heard described thusly: Take all the craziness and chaos of India, all the sensual assault of smells, tastes, and colors, unhide anything private or sensitive, and throw the mess into a pot.  Boil it down slowly to concentrate the flavor until only one teaspoon of the potent mixture remains.  There you have Varanasi.

This should be interesting.