India

Hello there! Olaf and I recently took a trip to India. His work requires him to take vacation two consecutive weeks each year, to get employees away from the office so the man can make sure they aren't up to any funny business, like insider trading. 

We searched and searched and searched for a relaxing beach that we could camp out on the week before our scheduled Christmas visit to California. Nothing looked very exciting, so Olaf suggested we go on safari again. In India. 

Cool. Decision made, I scrambled around to get the necessary insurance, vaccinations, visas, lodging etc. to spend seven days in the jungle. 

Flight from London to Delhi

We arrived in Delhi at 3am. Completely disoriented and exhausted, overwhelmed by the smell of burning incense, we waited in the arrivals area for the representative from the travel company to pick us up. We had to be taken to another airport to catch a flight to Nagpur, and more importantly, to receive our travel documents for the trip. After 45 minutes of searching for Mr. Representative, we gave up and got on a goat shit smelling bus that looked straight out of Afghanistan. Dusty windows, dented body and suspicious driver. 

Ticketless, we arrived at the other airport. Security wouldn't let us in, but I authoritatively told him my printed email from the travel agent was enough documentation. That was enough to let us in the airport and on the plane. Thank God. 

We arrived, hours later, in Nagpur, in the smallest, dustiest airport I have ever seen. We were the only arriving flight that day. Again, no one to pick us up. It was a three hour drive to the jungle lodge, and I didn't want to venture out past the machine gun sporting commandos guarding the arrivals benches. 

Turned out the travel agent saw our flight was delayed in London, so she cancelled all of our onward travel plans. Argh. Smart. Surprised to hear we got ourselves to Nagpur, she sent someone to pick us up. What a day.  

After this initial chaos, our trip only got better. 

We split our trip between two reserves. First we stayed at Baghvan Lodge in Pench National Park. We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, when drives are not allowed. Instead, we got a treat. Our naturalist in Pench, Wasim, took us to a lake outside the jungle area to have a 'sundowner' drink and chat while the sun set. He told us about the park and wildlife in India and shared some funny stories from past guests. 

We went to India to see the tiger. However, tiger spotting in India is very difficult and absolutely not guaranteed. We read lots of reviews from disgruntled visitors who didn't see one tiger their whole trip. Plus, we were visiting in the winter when tigers are easily camouflaged by the lush vegetation brought by the prior monsoon. I had pretty low expectations, but Olaf was pure TIGER, TIGER, TIGER. 

I definitely did not do my research on India. Sure, we were well informed about the extreme stuff- pythons, malaria, bubonic plague.

The first time I visited Olaf in Germany, I was well prepared. Over prepared. I even had travel sized toilet paper rolls for my purse. Totally uneccessary, of course, but I had heard about European hygiene practices and I wasn't up for surprises. Turns out, there is no shortage of toilet paper in Europe. 

India is another matter. There was no toilet paper anywhere. I had no idea and had not brought ANY reserves. And where the hell are the seats???? The most lovely toilet I used was two bricks on the ground behind a partial straw fence, in the dirt. Ew ew ew. 
 

This little friend welcomed us to our room. YAY!

To make up for abandoning us upon arrival in a very foreign place, the travel company arranged for us to have a nice romantic dinner on our balcony.