Cowboys are Indians

We spent Saturday with our American friend, Kate at Connaught Place (CP)- doing some shopping and enjoying the atmosphere. CP is a central hub in Delhi, originally laid out by the British. It is now a place where many travelers (and locals) go to shop, meet and eat. Good bookstores, clothing, emporiums for local arts and crafts, and many, many restaurants can all be found here.

We wound up going to a restaurant known as "Rodeo." It is on the inner-most circle of Connaught Place. Rodeo is famous for its Tex-Mex menu (with a dose of Indian masala).

We had a blast... We walked in and Hank Williams, Jr was blasting out of the jukebox. All of the waiters and waitresses had on cowboy boots and hats. Some of the waiters even had six shooters (albeit cardboard) strapped to their belts! The adults in our crew were in hog-heaven - ice cold Margaritas!When the real salsa, cheese nachos and tacos were placed on our table the kids were in hog heaven! It was a great night of cowgirls, cowboys, and Indians - a little taste of Texas (sort of) all right in the middle of New Delhi.

Sariska National Park

Sariska was the second stop on our mini-trip to Rajasthan last week. It has been billed for years as a "Tiger Preserve." But as most of the current travel guides note, all of the tigers were apparently poached in 2005. The good news is, the Indian government and an NGO have been working to restore the population. As of last week, 2 females and 1 male tiger have been relocated from other areas to Sariska.
We stayed in a place called the Sariska Palace - it had beautiful brochures and a very beautiful website. Sadly, it is not what it seems . Bad food, overpriced rooms with bad service. The Palace itself could be politely described as "faded glory." I got sick from the food the night before our Safari. Not a good way to prep for a bouncey 3 hour jeep ride in the woods.
The Jeep Safari is the reason to come to Sariska. Jeeps (Maruti "Gypsy") are rented right at the park entrance which opens as early as 6:30 am. The fees are reasonable and our jeep driver was very good and spoke some English. Our driver, Chauhan came with us so we had no need for the extra guide the park offers (for an additional fee).

Tiger sightings are very rare, but there is plenty of wildlife to be seen. We all enjoyed spotting the Langurs which are plentiful and very entertaining. Lesa and I really love the Kingfishers. You can easily see both the common and larger varieties here. Crocodiles, Peacocks, Samber (very large deer the size of an elk!) spotted deer and even the occasional stray water Buffalo. Both Audrey and Evan are good animal spotters!

The weather is cool in the morning so it was a good time to view animals - as in any park like this, the wildlife is active in early morning and dusk.

Sariska is little out of the way, but we had a pretty ride through small villages and farms and got a chance to see the many abandoned forts (or "haveli") that dot the landscape throughout Rajasthan.

Farmer's field

If you have been following the blog you may remember the photo of the train engine that was part of a farmer's home. A neighbor and I returned to the scene this past weekend to get a closer look at the locomotive and try to find its owner...

We got a good look at the engine - both inside and out.In the photo above you can see how close it is to the road. The engine is a narrow-gauge train. The mystery, though, is that there are no railroad tracks anywhere in this part of Noida. This is a very heavy machine - we have no idea who got the engine to its current location or how it was moved!

Since my neighbor is a native of India and is obviously fluent in Hindi - we decided to take a little trek back through the open farm fields to try and find the land-owner and see what else we could discover.

We met villagers along the way who were harvesting and cleaning vegetables (radishes, onions, tomatoes, cauliflower and flowers).

This odd contraption - its owner taking a nap - is seen around town hauling everything from lumber to produce. It is a homemade hybrid. Part motor-scooter and part bicycle-rickshaw. Although we never found the owner of the train, everyone we met was very friendly, helpful - and a little curious about us. It was a beautiful day for a hike - right here in our own Noida!