Tim’s famous wild leapord “butt” picture
Kvz. We left Khajuraho for the Panna National Park where we would go on a Indian Safari, mainly in search of the tiger. On our African safari we saw all the big animals except for those 2 ever-elusive big cats: the leopard and the tiger. This National Park is a tiger reserve, and we stayed in a luxurious lodge just outside the entrance gates. We had to get up before dawn and it was quite cold…we donned our Peru hats and dug out our long underwear for the open-jeep ride and watched the sun rise slowly over the forest trees. Our guide and driver took up the front seat, and we hadn’t gotten more than a mile into the park when our headlights shined directly on a huge stag (Sanbar deer) with a gigantic rack of antlers. He was just standing there motionless, and I joked in a whisper “does he think we can’t see him if he doesn’t move?”. But then I noticed that the driver was much more interested in what the stag was staring AT. Sure enough, peering intently into the bush we saw a leopard crawl by. We were amazed…we didn’t even expect to see a leopard at all! Then he walked across a clearing and we saw him clearly. He was a male, around 3 years old, according to our guide. Then he noticed us and crouched down low, peering at us before scampering off. We moved up the jeep and got to glimpse him once more..what a beautiful creature. Our professional photographer (Tim) was taken by surprise and the lighting was bad, so no decent photo was to be had.
the jeep followed the dirt track
elephants followed nothing but their mahoot’s commands which included walking right over small dead trees and crossing streams
We never did see a tiger, but we felt extremely lucky about the leopard. And we took a boat ride to see a gigantic 9′ crocodile from 40′ away, sunning itself on the rock. We could see his jagged teeth hanging over his lips. They prey on fish and frogs, but will settle for tigers and leopards too if they stray too close to the water’s edge. We also climbed up on a full-grown bull elephant and rode through the jungle for an hour. There was some semblance of a trail, but the elephant strayed from it often, mowing down trees in his path without hesitation. We soon noticed the mahout (elephant trainer/rider) was directing the elephant verbally and instructing him to either remove a low-lying branch (which he’d do with his trunk) or take down an entire tree (which he did with his legs and then sheer mass.) It was amazing and we had to duck constantly to avoid being scratched…trying not to think too much about the possible environmental damage this trip was causing. We were surrounded by deer and langur monkeys. Our guide was wonderful, energetic, and so knowledgeable about the birds (Becca had her trusty Indian animal book along) and we were able to identify many. What a day.
Panna’s Jewel of The Jungle Lodge
We had planned on leaving Panna and splitting up the long haul to Varanasi by staying overnight at Satna. But then we read some travel blogs where Satna was described as nothing more than a concrete jungle, and that they were eaten alive by bedbugs. We decided to stay in our “Jewel of the Jungle” (name of hotel) another night. How could we resist when we were practically the only guests and were pampered head to foot? Due to Mumbai, the economy, and it being just outside of high season, this is often the case and it is not uncommon to find yourself alone in a place with a staff of 16 or more. It’s a little unsettling and decidedly imperialistic, and definitely you will have NO PRIVACY. We’ve long given up trying to convey to them that we can take care of ourselves…they need the tips and we will oblige. Once we asked if we could eat our lunch in our room instead of the big, lonely restaurant. They carried over a table with chairs, tablecloth, and full place settings and set it all up in the little garden area in front of our balcony!! Staying an extra night here instead of Satna was an easy decision. Tim and I took a sunset stroll through the village one evening. The sun was setting over the cultivated fields with the river beyond. Everyone nodded to us with “Namaste”, the boys playing cricket motioned and yelled for us to join them, the brightly dressed women were gathering water from the public wells with their shiny, silver buckets, the men gathered on benches in front sipping Chai….Many houses were piled high with ceramic pots for sale and you would occasionaly see someone mixing up clay. The Indian village that seems to be doing well. We bought our toilet paper and laundry detergent from the local shop and headed home.
sites around Panna’s village:
It was time to high-tail it to Varanasi, so we chose the private car to Satna instead of the public bus, and from there got seats on the 3rd class sleeper for the 10 hour day-time ride to Varanasi. The compartment in this class consists of a regular bench for 3, but above the seat are 2 tiers of full-length beds. Really a great set-up, for when you tire of sitting up and reading you just climb onto one of the beds and take a nap. It’s all open (no closed compartments) but it’s much better than a bus ride. The kids LOVE it of course, and play tag by climbing from bunk to bunk. Between naps and reading, we snacked on hot snacks and chai teas offered by the vendors that pass through the train at every stop. In India, men will unabashedly come right over and sit next to Tim and chat with us for awhile. If he has his laptop open it’s a great ice-breaker as they will look at some of the photographs we’ve taken in their country. They always ask where we are from and what we do for a living…whether Drew is a girl or boy..how old Becca is. Then, just as suddenly they’ll nod their head and be off. I don’t think this is explicit just to us either…I think it’s common to wander around a train and meet people. So different from our culture.
I think we’re finally getting accustomed to the Indian “head bobble”. At first we would all have to suppress giggles whenever we saw it…it’s not a up-and-down nod, but a nod to the left or right. As far as I can tell, this can mean “yes”, or it can mean “no”, or it can mean I’m not sure, or “more or less”, etc. At times I also found it frustrating. Once I exasperatedly said to a taxi driver “What does that mean? I don’t understand..yes, no maybe, what??” And how did he reply? With another head bobble, of course.
