Our Long Walk to Nowhere

Luckily, we were able to sleep in today, as yesterday had been an early morning and a very long day. We woke up around 9am, and started packing up our stuff because we were checking out today. After leaving our bags in the luggage room, we and headed out for the day.

Our plan was to do some walking and explore the town a bit. We knew we were in a rural location because we didn't see much when we came into the hotel area, and we weren't able to get internet anywhere around us. But, our tour guide said there was a temple nearby and a town about 5 kilometers away. We asked the reception agent which way we should walk to get into town and he pointed to the left, so that is where we went.

The walk started out smoothly, the road we were on was nicely paved and there wasn't too much traffic – just some tractors and bicycles. The area we were walking through had never really been built up in that many of the people were living in street-side tents and shacks (literally). It was really eye-opening to see so much poverty. Some of the people were bathing in the street water and others looked like they were sifting food out of the pile of garbage. It was really heartbreaking.

Some of the homes we passed along our walk.

James opted not to get his haircut at the outdoor barber shop.

A neighborhood cesspool, filled with litter.

A cow was eating out of a pile of garbage that was on fire, right in front of our hotel.

We kept walking and walking... and walking and we didn't really see much of a town. We saw some street vendors and what we believe was a dilapidated temple hidden back behind some fencing. After walking for about an hour, we decided the rest of the street looked very chaotic (lots of cars, cows, rickshaws, tractors, and bicycles) and muddy - making it difficult to navigate. So, we headed back.

We arrived back at the hotel around 1pm and decided to eat our lunch there, mainly because there weren't any other options for food. The hotel had a buffet, much like other places we have stayed, that was loaded with different types of Indian food. After eating our lunch, we met up with the rest of our group and took Tuk-tuks (small, 3-wheeled vehicles) to the train station.

The tuk-tuk we took to the train station.  It was a cramped, noisy, and bumpy ride!

Walking through the train station was an interesting experience. We were the only group of Western people around, and it seemed as though everyone was staring at us as we headed through the outdoor station. We finally arrived where we thought our car might stop and we waited. Within minutes, there were several children begging all of us for money. Some of them were even grabbing us – which was quite unpleasant. Eventually, our tour guide yelled something to the children in Hindi and they ran away. We also began to notice that a group of Indians began forming a circle around us. We weren't sure if they were planning to attack us or if they were just interested in watching us. Luckily, we kept to ourselves, and they left us alone.

You can see some of the children begging some of the members of our tour group for money.

Our train was delayed by about 30 minutes, which made our time at the train station seem very long – especially because everyone was staring at us the entire time. Once the train arrived, we pushed our way on board. Unfortunately, our seats weren't near one another. James tried to ask someone to switch with him, but the person did not want to. So, we sat in our assigned seats, and Erin organized photos and videos on the computer while James read his Kindle. 

We arrived at our next destination, Swai Madhopur, around 6:30pm and took a vehicle that was a cross between a jeep and an army half-track to get to our hotel.  It was about a 15 minute ride from our hotel.  We were anxious to find out if they had internet because we had been without for a few days. And, to our delight, they did in fact have wifi that worked in the lobby.  Our group decided to have dinner at 8pm in the hotel (again, our only option because we are in such a rural area).  We quickly freshened up and met up for the buffet dinner in the hotel.  The Indian buffets seem to offer many of the same staple foods at both lunch and dinner: naan, rice, dal, mixed vegetables, chicken on the bone, and fresh cut cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions.

Our ride to the hotel....it is a good thing it wasn't too cold!

After dinner, we used the internet to call our families at home because it was Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, the connection wasn't very good, but we were still able to say hello to them for a few minutes.  We were thankful for that!

Soon we made our way back to our surprisingly large guest room to get some rest before the next day's early morning safari in the Ranthambhore National Park.