With the waves crashing in the background, located at beautiful Palolem Beach, we write this final blog entry for India with our farewell looming tomorrow. It truly has been an absolute pleasure to travel through this country. India went well beyond our expectations. Yes, there is so much to this country that we didn't look for that may have changed our perspective. But as backpackers, our main goal is to travel around while avoiding confrontation and just be a witness to the life as it happens around us. The one thing that stood out throughout India is the discrepancy between those who have, and those who have not. And when it comes to poverty, it really is the children who it affects the most. A child born into poverty with an age of no more then 3 or 4 walks around with the responsibilities of a teenager at home. Whether it be begging, performing stunts or even looking after his or her younger siblings. All day they contain the seriousness one would never find with a child the same age at home. We witnessed many of the day to day struggles that it takes to survive in India and have many experiences to draw upon as we continue with our lives and gain perspective on our own issues.
Having said our goodbyes to 'Brendeep' in Varanasi, we made our way south with one thing in mind, finding wild Tigers. With many parks to choose from in India, we elected on the one that has the highest concentration of Tigers, Bandhavgarh National Park. Once the famous hunting grounds for the Maharajas and British colonialists, it is now a National Park and Tiger Reserve boasting more then 50 tigers within the 105sqkm park and 437 sqkm buffer zone. The park gained its status in 1968 and has been visited by many tourist who flock to snap photos of its many resident tigers. It used to be said that one was lucky to see a tiger in any other park in India, but at Bandhavgarh you were unlucky if you only saw one. Unfortunately from poaching and farming, the tiger population has been plummeting and now it is believed that only one in ten tourists will actually see one. Well...we feel sorry for the other tourists who struck out because we went 3/3. Having talked with many tourists, we know first hand how great our luck was.
This beautiful female we witnessed on our first day. We had driven around the park and talked with many of the parks rangers, all of them saying that she had been sighted within the area. We saw her many tracks and knew it was only a matter of time before this beautiful creature would show herself. The main detection and location of a tiger comes from the forest animals themselves. They all seem to work together in raising an alarm once a tiger is on the move to help nearby animals flee. While spotting the fresh tracks and waiting, we heard the alarm call from a bird. We raced over and found her walking through the bush along side the dirt road. We were able to watch her for twenty minutes as she made her way to a hunting perch and laid down. Throughout the chaos of the jeeps scrambling to get a better position, she surprisingly seemed to ignore us as if we weren't a part of her world. She disappeared into the bush and wasn't seen by anyone for the rest of our entire stay at Bandhavgarh.
Having met some other travelers we joined up the next day to try our luck again. The park prices work on a per jeep basis, allowing six people plus a driver and guide, thus making it cheaper to group up. Our second safari we were very lucky again. We witnessed one in the morning for about 5 mins laying down. She then got up and walked over to a tree, gave it a rub then disappeared into the shrubs. Driving around later we heard and incredibly loud alarm call. Luckily, we were the only ones there. We raced over and sat waiting, hearing the alarm call again. This time seeing a very large deer eating some shrubs. Suddenly, the deer took off racing straight towards us! When it saw us it froze in its tracks, then headed in another direction. Right behind it the hunter appeared, a large tiger with another one only twenty feet away. The tiger stopped in its tracks, looked at us, then back at the escaped deer. It was such a great experience! One that you would see on a Planet Earth documentary. Speaking of which, BBC was there! They were in the park for a month filming a new documentary called "The Hunt", which should air in a of couple years. Our third safari trip we were able to watch two playing in a large field. Jumping up a tree and chasing each other for what seemed like half an hour. In the afternoon we spotted a large 2 year old cub waiting near its den with the mother not far. Lucky again, we waited a while and saw some glimpses of the mother.
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| A real action shot. The moment the mother was spotted by our guide! |
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| BBC |
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| We love how the one on the left is sitting with his legs out and feet crossed. |
We left Bandhavgarh on a 20 hour train ride to Mumbai. We hung out in Mumbai for about four days taking in some of the sites that were within walking distance. Mainly we found a starbucks and some good restaurants and just chilled out.
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| Indian Gate |
From Bombay we headed south to the state of Goa. The tiny little state with a world renowned reputation. We stayed a week at a beach called Mandrem, then headed to the south end of the state and stayed on a beach called Palolem. We were beach bums the entire time. Laying in hammocks, reading our books and playing in the waves. A couple days we did rent scooters and toured around to find some other beaches near by. Along with Goa's reputation for being a hippy hang out, it also has a reputation for most travelers getting some sort of illness. After about five days with a constant fever and chills at night, Kelly finally convinced Dean he should see a doctor. After some blood work, we were sent to a specialist who ran through a series of questions and decided it was best for Dean to be hospitalized for what both doctors thought to be Typhoid (even though a blood test came back negative for Typhoid). We spent five days in the hospital where a series of tests were done on Dean - chest X-ray, chest ultra sound, one blood test, two blood cultures and two urine tests. Because the doctor anticipated Typhoid and started Dean on the proper anti-biotic, when the blood culture came back positive, we already had the upper hand. It was a scary event when the high fevers and violent chills were happening. Almost making us think about heading home. But when Dean was healthy and we headed back to the beach, we never gave it a second thought.
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| Trees filled with giant Fruit Bats! |
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| The best way to get around in India. |
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| The hospital really looked better in person. The marks on the walls are just a bad paint job. |
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| Leaving :) |
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| We rented a kayak to find some dolphins and we were rewarded! |
We are now heading to Sri Lanka. A country that is just emerging from a bloody civil war. We are very excited to experience a new culture and see a very diverse island with major historical sights dating well over 2000 years!
