In Which We Shoot Some Wildlife

Ahh Alwar, such a change from other places located directly on the tourist trail. This town was, by no means, completely off it, but far enough away that for the 36 hours Evan and I spent there I believe we encountered exactly one other non-Indian, not to mention no corner stands sold toilet paper, which is generally a staple item in more tourist-driven economies. Evan and I fully embraced the opportunity to be a bit off the beaten Western path and dined at Bob's Family Restaurant for our first meal of the day, where Evan had one of the best ice cream shakes yet in India (tasted just like one from McDonald's!!).

After failing miserably in our attempts to contact anyone at the Sariska wildlife reserve, we decided to just chance the hour bus ride there in hopes it would be open with jeeps available. As the wildlife reserve was the sole reason we had made the trip to Alwar, we figured at the most it would be two hours wasted on a bus, and even then, it's the journey, not the destination, right? Especially on a bus!

And thank god, the gamble paid off. The Sariska bus stop was seemingly in the middle of nowhere, which makes sense as it is in the middle of a wildlife reserve. The entire "town" of Sariska consisted of the offices of the reserve itself and two hotels, all conveniently situated right there by the bus stop. Therefore it only took Evan and I about three minutes of scratching our heads and looking hopelessly lost before a kind soul took pity on us and pointed to a building not 100 yards away where the ticket office was located. Whew!

Very quickly, it became apparent our wildlife safari came with the most expensive entry fee yet, between the cost of the jeep, the driver, the tour guide, the entry fee for the jeep, and the entry fee for us non-Indian citizens (this was one of the very few places Evan's residency permit held no power and he had to pay the full foreigner rate). Evan was none too pleased with the final total, and spent a good 15 minutes seeing if there was any way to bring the cost down, and seemed about ready to forgo the whole adventure except for the fact I told him that we were going on the damn tour if I had to pay for the whole thing or not (the thought of getting right back on the bus...). Evan graciously accepted the overrule and insisted on splitting the cost, and soon enough, we were off!

Our tour guide, whose name I definitely can't remember, lived in a nearby village where he taught economics as his day job and gave tours as a hobby. He was great lover of animals, and was a strong advocate to give park rangers shoot-on-sight privileges to stave off the rampant poaching problem (a problem so great that Sariska currently had no tigers to speak of, and the other larger Indian tiger reserve a few hours away just had their own population reduced by 16). With only three rangers to guard hundreds of kilometers of reserve with no weaponry to speak of, it doesn't look like the situation is going to get much better, not without major funding the park just doesn't have. All of a sudden the entry fee seemed more than reasonable.

On our three hour tour (a threeeeeeeee hour tooooooooooour!!!), the skipp... I mean, the tour guide and the driver, both with great eyes for spotting wildlife, pointed out to us two or three different species of deer/antelope, jackals, varying avian species, wild boars, monkeys, etc. My two favorites were the Indian Magpie - a brilliantly colored bird that was bold enough to feed out of our hands (I'll give you one guess as to how many pictures we took of that) and had the ability to make 18 different sounds, the best one sounding almost exactly like that triumphant "You Have Collected One Hundred Coins!" trill in Super Mario Brothers - and the Nilgai (which translates to "blue cow") antelope, a virtually untouchable species due to their fortunate resemblance to the holy bovine, not to mention the male's godly blue tinge. The male was stunning to see.

After about an hour in the jeep, our driver and guide brought us up to one of the ranger stations which overlooked an important watering hole, and from where Evan and I had a great view of a herd of Sambars taking an evening respite. One male in particular was having a great time, rolling around in the mud and flinging it around with his huge antlers. According to our tour guide, the Sambar was in heat and the mud helped him cool off (ha ha).

Between the lushness of our surroundings, the peaceful scene at the watering hole below us, the sweet smelling air, and the gently setting sun, Sariska worked its voodoo magic and I felt relaxed like I hadn't in awhile. Our guide wrapped us in blankets for the ride back, a drive taken at a leisurely pace as more creatures had made their way out of the woodwork now that the sun had made its disappearance. All too soon, they were dropping us off at the bus stop headed back to Alwar, and we bid Sariska a fond farewell.