Jan 1 Blog by Donna

Yesterday afternoon we spent in Chittorgarh where we toured yet another fort. There were some interesting old temples of various Hindu branches, and an ornate carved tower. The highlight, however, was the monkeys, which were everywhere. There are vendors selling monkey food, and they were quite active.

Marina:
They were like little rats. I fed them part of a diet bar, and one grabbed my leg. I thought they were kind of scary the way the mothers were carrying around the babies on their bellies, because when they came up to you, they looked like two headed monkeys. They would also line up against the wall and jump up to the trees, and it always looked like they were going to fall. ~mina

Dec 31, by Donna

This morning was an early one – they woke us up before 6am to leave at 6:15am in order to visit Ranthambhore National Park. We departed in open jeeps, wrapped in our heavy blankets, hats and gloves. Our mission – ultimately not achieved – was to see a tiger. There are about 30 tigers in 350 square kilometers and, as we found out, there are not so easy to spot. We rode around for several hours, seeing spotted deer (heck, I didn’t have to leave Portola Valley to see deer), monkeys, and a very well camouflaged owl. But no tigers.

We’re back at the train now on one of our few journeys that takes place during the day, so we have some down time. The train travels for hours and hours but doesn’t seem to go all that far. I learned that this is because in most places, there is only one railroad track. As a result, sometimes we stop and wait for other trains to use the track, or pull over onto a side track