Elephants, Jewels and Mystics: All That Glitters

Jaipur 

Jaipur, or the "Pink City", was one of my favorite places in Rajasthan. I toured the city palace and saw one of Jaipur's famous gem "factories", which was little more than a family-owned shop that specializes in polishing and setting precious and semi-precious stones. I have a deep and abiding love of all things shiny, and this was no exception.
The next morning, my new yoga friends and I headed to the Amber Fort, which overlooks Jaipur. At that point, I had toured what felt like every fort in India, so I wasn't overly excited about it. We arrived at the fort's entrance, which was at the base of a long and winding road that led up to the main fort. This was when I realized this was going to be different. For the first time since I arrived in India, I saw a large group of pachyderms, colorfully adorned. We were going to take elephants up to the fort!
After fighting through the most aggressive group of salespeople I had encountered to date, we reached the elephant boarding area. As touristy as it was, and in spite of the ethically questionable nature of it, the elephant ride was really fun. Our elephant was slow (even for an elephant), and we were lapped by about seven elephants before we made it to the top, but it was the coolest fort experience I'd had since Jaisalmer. The fort itself was also truly unique, with narrow, winding alleyways and hidden staircases to explore. 
Afterwards, we headed back to Jaipur. Our tour guide had promised he would introduce us to his brother. My companions were much more excited about this than I was, I will admit. The guide claimed his brother studied Kundalini Yoga (a particularly esoteric branch of yoga) and had psychic powers. He promised his brother's predictions would "make us cry". I inwardly rolled my eyes at this claim, guessing (somewhat correctly) that there would be a dollar sign at the end of this tunnel. 
When we reached his brother, though, even I was surprised by how un-psychic he looked. He was a regular, mustachioed Indian guy working in (surprise!) a gem shop. We were invited to peruse the wares while our mates were having their fortunes read.   
My turn came, and I walked into his office, not knowing what to expect. He asked me to hold out my hand and he closed his eyes, breathed deeply and held his hand out over mine. His eyes snapped open.
"You having very strange dreams lately," he announced.  "Also, this," he said, pointing to my jaw, "this no good. You biting at night."
I was stunned. He was exactly right. Completely random, but completely correct. My dentist has been after me for years to get a mouth guard for my nocturnal tooth grinding. Also, I have been on Malaria pills the whole time I've been here, and one of the side effects are strange, vivid dreams. He hovered his hand over mine again.
"You have kidney infection last year," was his next utterance (also correct). "You be careful or you will have one again."
He continued in this fashion for another ten minutes, rolling out one random announcement after another. I won't get into all he said, as some of it was rather personal, but I was stunned at his accuracy. Color me corrected.
We all walked out of the gem shop quiet. It was a silent, meditative ride to Agra for the four of us. It wouldn't stay that way for long, though. The next morning, we were bound for the Taj Mahal.

No lions, but tigers and bears

Jaipur - Day 12(? or is it 11? losing track...)

June 4

Yesterday, I woke up at the crack of dawn in Ranthambore. I had to be at the hotel reception area by 6 AM sharp. I got there five minutes early, but our safari was detained as we waited for the other passengers from my hotel (two sour-faced French tourists - do the French have any expressions besides sour and disdainful?). We were headed to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve to see if we could spot any tigers.

By the time our rattletrap canter (basically a large, open-topped jeep that seats about 15 people) jostled into the forest, it was almost 7 AM. The guide warned us against talking, as it would scare away the animals. I wondered what the animals thought about the horrible din our squeaking, roaring beast of a vehicle made. Apparently, it doesn't bother them.

We cruised through the forest, spotting deer, peacocks and monkeys. But no tigers. We stopped a few times to "listen to the forest for the sound of the tiger". I thought these dramatic pauses smacked of cheap dinner theater, but still, I listened. 

After about two hours, we started heading back. No tigers had been spotted. We were all feeling a bit dejected even though we knew seeing tigers is a crap shoot (the enormous forest holds only 46 tigers, notoriously private and solitary animals). Suddenly, one of the passengers in the back of the canter stood up, shouting in Hindi. He had spotted something, but I didn't know what. "Baloo!" he finally shouted clearly, pointing. Ah! A bear! (Thanks, "Jungle Book"!)

Our canter lumbered towards the spot where he indicated, and sure enough, there were two black bears sniffing among the rocks. We watched silently, snapping photos feverishly, until the pair waddled off into the woods and out of sight. So the safari wasn't a total bust after all! We saw some wild bears!

Satisfied, we all settled back into our seats and our canter roared to life. We jerked forward, but our back wheel just spun wildly in the loose dirt. We kicked up a lot of dust, but we weren't going anywhere. The driver got out to look under the vehicle, and we could hear his muffled yells in Hindi. He didn't like what he saw, from his tone.

It turns out we were stuck upon a huge rock. No amount of revving the engine or pushing budged the canter. Luckily, another canter happened to roll by and our guide motioned it over. We were all herded into the other canter, where we squeezed in and watched the men attempt to release our canter. As they worked, someone from the new canter called out, "Baloo!" Sure enough, another set of black bears was poking around the rocks. The men glanced at them nervously and picked up the pace of their rescue mission. Luckily, the bears didn't seem to notice them, or didn't care. They continued sniffing around and left soon after.

As soon as the excitement over seeing the bears had subsided, we settled back into our shared, cramped canter. The sun was getting higher in the sky, and the day was growing warmer. The group was starting to grow restless when we suddenly heard an outburst by a large number of birds in the forest nearby. A good number of them flew off in the opposite direction and there was, for a moment, stillness. Then came a horrible, deafening roar. Everyone in the canter froze. The roar had emanated from the forest that wasn't 50 feet from where we were stranded. The exposed men working on the car paused and raised their heads in the direction of the roar.

When nothing happened, the men resumed their work, and after another 15 minutes, managed to free our canter from its rocky imprisonment. We all cheered (even the French couple nearly cracked smiles) and piled back into it.

That is the true story of my tiger-less tiger safari.

Now I am sitting in a room in Jaipur, the "pink city". It is one of my favorite cities so far. It's what I hoped all the other cities would be - a charming mix of colonial and Indian influences. It has a buzzing central market and curious landmarks. Tomorrow, we head off to Agra, home to the famed Taj Mahal. I finally have met up with three of my fellow students! It is so nice to finally have people to talk to!