Seat of Our Pants » Assam

Kaziranga National Park Photos

Jaime — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:04:25 +0000

Martin shared about our tour of the Kaziranga National Park in Assam here, but I think it deserved a few more photos, so I’ve put together this gallery.

This park should be on everyone’s Travel To-do List. It was an experience of a lifetime. Big animals. Untouched jungle. Nearly no foreign tourists. Baby elephants.

A perfect combination.

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Good Times at Assam’s Top Attraction

Martin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:57:24 +0000

Today, we took time off from our Arunachal Pradesh quest to visit a national park – and what a park. Kaziranga is perhaps not the best known park in the world, but for us it ranks among the top attractions in India – it even counts as one of the major highlights of this whole trip. Being eye to eye with a full-grown, silently ruminating one-horned Rhinoceros is . . . but let me start from the beginning.

We arrived yesterday afternoon at the National Park entrance in Kohora, Assam, after a sweaty six hour bus ride from Guwahati. Apparently we lucked out, because the first hotel we tried had an affordable deluxe room available – other travelers later mentioned that they had made their bookings weeks or months in advance. After checking in we made arrangements for the morning after: at first we wanted to do just an Elephant safari, but we were talked into tacking on a two hour jeep ride (for an additional 20 USD). After that, we crashed out early, around nine thirty.

Eight hours later, we found ourselves on the back of a mama Elephant, face to face with a curious Rhinoceros. It’s pretty much an unbeatable feeling to get that close to one of the world’s great mammals. It’s an even better feeling doing it from on top of an even bigger mammal. Thanks to the fact that Rhinos and Elephants are friendly, we were able to get very close to the animals – as close as 10 feet at times. Other animals were also lulled into letting us close: water buffalo, a few kinds of deer, wild boars and so on. The tour lasted only one hour, but again: what an hour.

Next up was the jeep tour: we had braced ourselves for a bit of disappointment after the fantastic Elephant ride, but again Kaziranga NP came through. Thanks to a bit of wheeling and dealing, we managed to have our tour go off in between the other tours, so during two hours we didn’t see another soul: just us and the park (and our hired rifleman – for the unlikely eventuality of us meeting a Tiger). We didn’t get as close to the animals as we did from the back of our Tusker, but we saw wild Elephants, Rhinos, Vultures, Red Jungle Fowl, Buffalo and a whole heap of turtles sunning themselves on a log.

We arrived back at the camp at 9, just in time for breakfast. Not a bad morning, really.

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Personal Space – A Relative Term, Really

Jaime — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:13:00 +0000

Personal space means one thing to us and something all together different to Indians. When I board a bus at home (San Francisco), I hope that the empty seat next to me stays empty. It’s not because I’m antisocial (no, no – of course not). It’s because I like my space, especially on public transportation. I’m sure we all feel that way. Right?

Anyway, knowing this about me, you can imagine how much patience – how many happy places – I need to find to travel on buses in India. I’ll give you an example. Today we took a public bus from the Kaziranga National Park to Tezpur, a short two hour ride. All the normal seats were full when we boarded, so we sat in the front with the driver – and four other people.

Before you start feeling bad for us (it’s not time for that yet), let me explain the lay-out of the driver’s area. The cab is divided into three sitting areas, built to seat three people, maybe four if they’re tiny. The driver occupies one area. The second area is a bench that lines the passenger-side door. The third is a platform that fills the space between these two.

OK – still with me? Good. Now, we climbed into this space and shared the door-bench with a man who was so thin I was afraid he’d drift away. So, no problem fitting the three of us on the door. There was a man squeezed behind the driver and the middle section had just one man on it and. So we were good, right?

Right!

For five minutes. Then, just when I start thinking we’ll ride in comfort, the bus pulls over in the middle of nowhere to pick up another passenger. This is when our luck ran out. Into the drivers compartment rolled (how do I put this lightly?) a rotund man. The middle platform was now full of this man, some of which was drooping onto our knees.

Clearly he could feel us spearing his side – I checked and I could neither see my knee cap nor get a good estimate of how far it was into his side. Three inches is my best guess. Did this man adjust, wiggle or politely ask if we could move (though we quite literally could not)?

No. He actually leaned into us. Once to read the newspaper on the Thin Man’s lap and a second time to use our knees as some kind of messed up backrest.

How did the other man in the middle-bench react to such liberal use of personal space? Like a champ. He simply went from a sitting position to curling up into Martin’s lap to make a phone call. Never mind the invasion of my personal space. Life is good when your Scandinavian husband has an Indian man curled up in his lap.

***I have to apologize for the quality of the picture on this one. Its noteasy catching anything while drving in an Indian bus

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The Muum

Jaime — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:27:38 +0000

If I were to be completely honest, I’d have to say that wearing anything other than a Muumuu is impractical. The Muumuu, or Muum as I like to call it, is the world’s greatest outfit.

You name me one other piece of clothing that you can wear while sleeping, running errands, cooking, throwing a dinner party (with the aid of a belt, of course) or lounging around a pool? I say nay! You cannot.

I have a fine collection of Muums at home (insert Martin’s embarrassment here). Five, if memory serves. With any luck today (mostly if Martin takes a nap this afternoon) it will be six. It seems that women in northern India share my love of the Muum – I’ve seen some fine specimens for sale in the markets here.

So, the top thing on today’s agenda is lulling Martin to sleep while I dream of billowy shapeless dresses in awful patterns.

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Either You Get It, Or You Don’t

Jaime — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:44:52 +0000

Once upon a time I made a video reenactment of my experience in a Dharamsala yoga class. I put it on Youtube so I could share it on our blog. It’s since been watched over 150 times, with varying reactions. I will make no excuses for the video, but I will leave you with the words of three people that hated it so much, they just had to share:

“Yeah!..what a shame you find a 6000 year old science, that I have personally seen having amazing health benefits on children with autism, people re-generating their spines after serious accidents, asthmatics and degenerative diseases, is considered so hilarious. Maybe one day you’ll rediscover it and take this rather offensive clip off the web…..”

“Just because you preface by saying that this video is not meant to offend, does not mean that you don’t offend by your flippant attitude toward this very spiritual, sacred act. Fortunately, most practitioners of this ancient art who recognize what you are doing have better things to do on the planet, than to be offended by this.”

“Good for entertaining friends and family. And I don’t agree with the sanctimoniousness of the other comments. But sloppy observation leads to bad parody. It’s just not funny, sorry.”

What do you all think?

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Michael Fast Food

Jaime — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:18:57 +0000

Wait, what?

As seen on the dusty streets of Guwahati, Assam in northeast India.

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How’s Guwahati? Weeell…

Martin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:36:14 +0000

Guwahati is the capital of Assam, and pretty much unavoidable if you wish to travel in India’s north east. It is a convenient hub with most of the mod cons (espresso, okay restaurants and travel agents). It also picks up a few points for its scenic location by the mighty Brahmaputra river. Other than that, there aren’t many more positives to list: it is a dusty, dirty and congested city.

Having said that, it is an interesting experience for another reason: you hardly see any other westerners here. Beside the stares (of which there are plenty), you can expect people to be interested in who you are and what you are doing here. Some will even go out of their way to be seen next to you – westerners are a novelty!

Still, after four days here it feels like it’s about time we move on. Now, if only that Arunachal permit would come through…

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To Each His Own

Martin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:04:02 +0000

This actually qualifies as entertainment in Guwahati: bring your best friend, lock yourselves into a transparent bubble, zip it closed and commence splashing around on an artificial pool.

As the late Hunter S. Thompson used to say, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

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By the Seat of Our Pants: Now Also in the Northeast

Martin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:10:04 +0000

We’ve arrived in Guwahati, the capital of the state of Assam. It is the jumping-off point for the ‘seven sisters’ – the seven small Indian states in the north-eastern part of the country. Our mission here is to try to get a permit to visit one of the sisters: Arunachal Pradesh, and then move on.

Ethnically, Arunachal Pradesh is Tibetan rather than Indian, and we know of a few places that look seriously interesting: almost-mythical Tawang monastery, for example.

Should we be unable to get the permit, we hope to visit the Kaziranga National park: home to two thirds of the planet’s wild Rhinoceroses. Other options include a quick foray into Sikkim and/or spending some time in the province of Bihar. Whatever we end up doing, rest assured that we will post about it here!

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Eating an Indian Thali

Jaime — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:57:46 +0000

The thali is a dish we’ve been looking forward to since we last left India. Actually, calling it just one dish is a misnomer – it’s really a bunch of little dishes served together with rice and/or naan (Indian flat bread). Thalis vary by region – one of the best meals we’ve had in India to-date was a Rajasthani thali, while one of the worst meals was the thali we just finished eating – bleh.

Today’s thali was served in a little hole in the wall in Guwahati. The locals handle their thali eating a little differently than we do. Their food is served on a platter, which is the dumping ground of all the little cups of various food. This food is mixed rice by hand and shoveled into the mouth, by hand.

Because we are very blatantly foreign, we were served our meal on the same platter but with spoons to aid in shoveling. While the food was bland and yucky, the price couldn’t be beat: 85 rupees (around $2 for the both of us). Though today’s meal was a disappointment, we won’t give up on the dish.

If you find yourself in India (or an Indian restaurant in your town), try the thali – it’s a great way to get a taste of a bunch of different Indian dishes, all in one go.

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