Feb 25 2009

Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve

Searching for information about Ranthambhore can prove a little tricky. To start with you've got to know how to spell it and it's open to debate. But the winner it seems is 'Ranthambhore'.

Firstly, let me recommend a lovely photo book, Tiger Forest: A Visual Study of Ranthambhore National Park. I got my copy for about £15, brand new from Amazon. Full of gorgeous pictures it really whets the appetite for a trip to the tiger reserve.

Next, let me recommend the best set of photos I've seen around. Taken by a man name Aditya Singh who runs the Ranthambhore Bagh hotel, which unfortunately is over my budget range. How I would have loved to talk about wildlife and photography with Aditya but never mind, I'll just have to bore the kids. Aditya's images can be found in many places: his blog; his web site; but above all else, his photos on Flickr.

I love this shot of a tiger almost as much as this shot of a leopard.

If I manage to take one shot half as good as some ofthese I'll be a happy man.

 

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Feb 24 2009

The Best Gadget in the World?

Going on holiday is an excuse to buy that much need gadget. Invariably this 'good idea' turns out to the equivalent of hiding under a table and covering yourself in Bacofoil during a nuclear attack - as seen in the Young Ones episode "Bomb".

Not this time though: I've got the best gadget in the world!!

A Powertraveller Powermonkey eXplorer. Cost £35, new-ish on eBay.

It's a LiIon battery that you can charge from the mains, usb or the solar panel. Add a car cigarette lighter with USB output and you can charge it in your car too. There a few mains charging options which allow you to charge the battery in 150 countries, but not, of course, India. Doh! (One does fit shaver sockets though and I think/hope/guess they're universal the world over.)

Various power tips (actually called Monkey Nuts) mean that you can charge up a whole collection of devices from the lithium battery. The monkey nuts also fit direct onto the leads from the charging plugs (mains/USB/solar) so you can charge a few things at the same time; one from the mains; one from the battery; one from the solar panel. For the main charging there are a few different connectors, so you can charge the device from the main in 150 countries...but not, of course, India. Doh! One of the charging plugs will fit shaver sockets which are universal the world over.

Just think, the next time you're nipping out for the day, you pick up your keys and your phone...damn, it's nearly out of charge. Who cares, pick up your powermonkey battery and the appropriate tip, plug the together et voila. Hold on a minute. You did charge that powermonkey didn't you? Another scenario, you're going out for the day, taking your kid's DS Lite, which of course is fully charged, they watch a film on it, it's dead: Charge it up from the powermonkey and you're the best Dad in the world. "No Dad you're not a real geek, that Powermonkey really is good!".Cool

But the best bit isn't the use of this whilst travelling, it's the use of it at home. We used to have five different charging leads in our kitchen (nokia, sony and HTC mobiles, DS Lite, iPod). Now we've got only one lead and selection of monkey nuts. Pop on the required tip and you're ready to charge your device and suddenly you're the best Husband in the world. "Yes, Kev that Powermonkey really was worth the money, look only one wire". Laughing

When we changed one of the phones the other day, we just bought a new monkey nut, cost £2.50 including postage.

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Feb 24 2009

Water, Water, Give Me Water

It's been an odd couple of weeks.

The flights are booked; car and driver is booked; trains are all booked; India related books have all been purchased - mostly from Amazon, some were only £0.01 plus £2.50 postage...bargain!; we've watched all the India related films we've got, or borrowed (Wink)

So the only thing left to do is get stuff ready.

Always in the market for something useful, different and cheap I decided that we needed to sort the water carrying out. Amy is very forgetful at drinking water and in temperatures around the 40°C mark, we needed to make sure water was always nearby. A solution was needed, preferably a geeky one, but failing that, something that works. There's loads of devices out there from carabiner clips through to Camelbaks and beyond. But I'm me and I wanted CHEAP.

I decided that we were not going to take water bottles (like our bike ones) with us but we would just buy (plastic) bottled water and carry that around. Half a nanosecond of thought later and I decided that we needed to buy a device to carry the water bottle in. Before you say it, yes I've seen Slumdog Millionnaire, I'll watch out for a glued bottle cap.

Thanks to the wonderful world of eBay, I'll soon be the proud owner of two of these from Malaysia; total cost: £6.11.

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Feb 13 2009

Don't Forget Your Visa (Part II)

This is all about money, what to take and specifically Visa debit cards.

When I last went to India, shortly after Dinosaurs became extinct, I took lots of Traveller's Cheques, but these days there's no real need to take loads, just take some backup.

Everyone on IndiaMike seems to take their ATM card and use that, but some complain of high charges from their own bank when doing this. They draw out enough money for the next couple of days just like at home.

But what about the hefty bank charges? I checked my providers, Nationwide, and they state that there will be no charge for withdrawals in India, or anywhere else for that matter. Great. The card is a Visa debit card so it will be accepted anywhere.

But what if the machine swallows the card? I guess I'll take a backup card and some Traveller's Cheques. I could always get cash out on my credit card if I was really stuck.

But how many ATMs are there in India? The answer is loads but of course, there's an article on IndiaMike about the location of ATM's in India.

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Feb 12 2009

Don't Forget Your Visa (Part I)

In the fury of planning your holiday some people forget almost the single most important thing: a visa to get into the country. If you don't have it, "you ain't coming in, not tonight son, your name's not down". (Sorry, slipped into remembering my abortive attempts at getting into nightclubs when too young, claiming I was on the guess list.)

Before you start wondering about getting a visa, you have got a passport, haven't you? Also this article only deals with my experience of a UK national getting a tourist visa for India.

Few IndiaMikers can forget the legend of Boston Harry and the Expired Passport, but it just goes to prove that you can get caught up in lesser important stuff like "how many ATMs are there", "how should I carry my money around" etc.

For me the visa situation was plain and simple but it was the one thing that gained a huge sigh of relief when it was completed. You just don't know what reasons may be taken into account and what information do they have? Do they dislike members of Amnesty International or Greenpeace? Will they know that I downloaded a copy of Slumdog Millionaire? Of course, I didn't actually do this, that's illegal isn't it?, but I do belong to both Amnesty and Greenpeace, but I've got my visa so who cares?

Applying Online

A first glance at the form on the VFS Global India Visa web site, leads to confusion with questions like "I don't have the names for any referees in India". But applying couldn't be simpler. The form has many pages but each one has a help page which is well worth reading first. Hey, even I read it and I'm a bloke and an geeky IT person to boot. Of course, if you run into confusion/trouble there's a visa section on IndiaMike all about it with a particularly good Q&A article for people in the UK applying for a visa.

When To Apply

I would have happily applied as soon as I booked my flights but I couldn't apply that early. I only wanted a six month single-entry tourist visa but the visa starts from the time they put it in your passport. Really you need to apply within six months of the date you'll arrive back in your home country, otherwise it will run out before you return. The turnaround time for me was 8 days, including posting both ways, and that's for four passports/visas.

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Feb 12 2009

Preparing The Kids (Part IV) - Food

For years it's been the same old cries of 'Macaroni Cheese please Mum' followed by 'I hate that can I have sausages please'. For those of you that know us, you'll know which kid said which!

As soon as we mentioned about going to India things changed and an interest grew in all things curried. But how do you start introducing such food without wanting to cook a decent meal and then having to hurriedly cook something else (maccy cheese / sausages).

I dreamt up 'International Food Day' where we'd spend all afternoon with the kids preparing a dinner that they would eat. Generally we'd cook a few main courses and buy in a few starters. This approach went very well although International Food Day only made it over to China once before the kids said "can we have curry again". Good news, they're hooked.

Next, on one of their school's teacher training days, I took them to Cafe Tusk in Fareham. A great restaurant with an always on, all you can eat buffet, with a great selection of food. The best bit being the price: lunchtime for adults is only £6.99, for kids under 10 it's only £3.50. This turned out to be a great idea as it allowed them to try a very small bit of many different foods before filling up on the newly discovered preferences: Amy, anything Tikka; Emilia, Korma and Bhuna.

Since then the Winchcombe Sunday Roast has been replaced by Curry Sunday where Emilia and I have prepared loads of new dishes, even down to Puris and Chicken Cafreal. The best bit for me was a couple of weeks ago when whilst chopping chillies I tried to get them to eat a bit of raw chilly. Emilia tried it straight away, Amy more hesitant, Jane even more so. After the dish was cooked and contained large slices of green chillies, Emilia tucked in saying 'they're not that hot'. Good girl!

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Feb 11 2009

Preparing The Kids (Part III) - TV

Luckily, England has a fascination of India and this extends into our television programmes, including documentaries about cities/wildlife/travel/religion/gardens and children's educational programmes.

So armed with a Windows Media Center that will record any programme containing (in it's title or description) the words 'India', 'Rajasthan', 'Tiger' and 'Maha'*, we've ended up with loads to watch over the last nine months or so. Some of this is very good stuff for the kids, others not.

  • Firstly, there's a wealth of regular programmes that have 10 minutes on India. Usually not very informative, they're still worth watching. This include holiday programmes like Holiday Showdown and other holiday shows, one-off wildlife documentaries.
  • Primary Geography is a series of 10-15 minute children's educational programmes all about kids in India. There's an overview programme, one about Kerala, one about Rajasthan and many more. The Rajasthan one included footage of a boy who lived in the area near Sam/Khuri desert and another part featuring the niece of the current Maharaja of Jodphur.
  • Paul Merton In India was quite a good series where Paul saw some of the more unusual/eccentric elements of the country. I thought it was done quite well as at he always promoted the activities with an open eye, daunted at first, respectful at the end.
  • Tiger, Spy In The Jungle was a series following tigers within Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharastra. As with all BBC and Sir David Attenborough the quality and content are superb.
  • India with Sanjeev Bhaskar. For me the jury is out on this one and it's interesting that the first site I found (linked in on the left) felt the same way. I like Sanjeev as a comedian but as a documentary lead I just found him a bit too up himself. Unlike, Merton, he didn't seem to want to get too close to the locals, apart from when he was retracing his ancestry to Pakistan. Still, there's great footage includingn interesting time spotting tigers, in Pench, where it took him two weeks to find a tiger. Funnily enough this series was shown on TV at the same time as Tiger Spy In The Jungle, so perhaps Sanjeev should have followed Sir David around, he may have had better luck.
  • Michael Wood The Story Of India. A bit too old for the kids but we showed them the more interesting parts.

The BBC has a list of India & Pakistan related shows, most of which are finished but are bound to be repeated.

I thoroughly enjoyed most of the TV shows listed above too, but I was on a roll with the title 'Preparing The Kids' so I couldn't rename it halfyway through!!!


* keyword of Maha was included just in case Mahabharata ever turned up again on telly. Having read the book in 1996 it's never been back on TV.

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Feb 08 2009

Preparing The Kids (Part II) - Films

It seemed important that the kids could see glimpses of India before they went as with only Europe as a reference, they'd be in for a quite a shock.

Over the years I've bought a couple of videos - videos eh? remember them? - about India so we decided to go through them.

One's to mention are

  • City Of Joy. I didn't care for this film very much but I rate the book as my favourite read, so much so that I bought it last week from Amazon after lending my original and never getting it back. The film does show some stuff that the kids might be horrified by (violence, scams, muggings, leprosy) but they got through it. A few questions, mainly about leprosy, later they were fine. It was a good introduction for two trusting kids on the art of scamming.
  • Gandhi. I felt it important that they know about Gandhi and this was the best (infact only) introduction to him I could give. I'd forgotten how long this film was - over three hours - so we did it over four days as it is hardly fascinating viewing for an 8 year old. It took four days as we only managed to watch 45 minutes a day, but each 45 minutes actually took 75 minutes, what with numerous pauses/questions.
  • The Darjeeling Limited. A slightly boring film for the kids but it's got lots of train footage in it and the train travel footage is mainly shot around Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
  • Slumdog Millionnaire.. What! It's not yet out of DVD so how did they get into the cinema? Of course, they didn't and there's no other way they could have watched it... is there (Wink) ? All I can say is that if they had have watched it they would have thought that: lovely film; slightly gruesome but not worrying; really makes them want to go to India more; Mumbai looks huge; looking forward to train travel; be careful buying water, check no glue round cap;wish they were Milyunaires.

Tonight, we're going to watch The Fall as it is partially shot in Jodhpur.

UPDATE: 9th Feb...wow, the locations and cinematography are fantastic but....the film?...I'm not so sure. Check out this site about all the locations in the The Fall.

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Feb 06 2009

Preparing The Kids (Part I) - Books

Whilst planning this trip I've found loads for me to read. Be it, my old Lonely Planet India, the new Rough Guide of Rajasthan/Delhi/Agra, the AA Guide to India bought for me by Secret Santa, let along the gerzillion or so articles I've read on IndiaMike. All of this is factual stuff I need for booking hotels, trains, blah blah blah. I've started buying myself some India related novels (City Of Joy, White Tiger, English August, Last Song At Dusk, Above Average) through Amazon as they're so cheap.

But what about the kids?

Today I happened across a site which I've found very useful to find a list of books that the kids might actually enjoy: http://www.travelforkids.com/Funtodo/India/india.htm

It's got lists of books recommended for children and thanks to Amazon's used book sellers I've bought a fair few of them, mostly for under £3 each including delivery.

Here's what I've bought:

 

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Feb 05 2009

Booking Safaris in Ranthambhore National Park

There's lots of advice about Ranthambhore but some bits are still quite lacking especially when it comes to the safaris themselves.

Some things I'll go through here, but I won't have answers to some of my questions (where is the departure point for safaris, how do you actually get from your hotel to the departure point, which is the nearest hotel to the departure point) until I return. 

 

Types  Of  Safari

There are two safaris per day, one very early in the morning - mine start at 5:30am! - and one mid-afternoon - mine start at 2:30pm.

You can book on either a 'Gypsy' (6 seats, + driver + guide, petrol) or a 'Canter' (20 seats + driver + guide, diesel).

For more information there's a very good thread on IndiaMike that I've been involved with named Ranthambor Info: Jeeps, Canters and all that jazz. Read this, you'll learn loads.

 

Pictures of a Gypsy and a Canter:

 

Booking

Everyone advises that you should book your safari direct on the Government of Rajasthan Department of Forest web site using the Ranthambhore Online Bookings page. Booking is available for dates 90 days in advance, but just like trains, but unlike flights, there's no point in waiting as the price never gets better. So, as with trains, if you know when you're going to be at Ranthambhore you might as well book up.

At the time of writing the prices are as follows for a foreign national like me: Canter:Rs547 Gypsy:Rs64, about £8.5 and £10 respectively.

So you're talking about Rs100 (£1.50 ish) extra per safari for the benefit of only 6 people in the same vehicle. It's no contest, why would you even consider a Canter is a Gypsy is available? Coupled with the fact that the canters are diesel.

 

Paying For The Booking

Booking the safaris isn't much trouble: go to the site, select the date, enter the number of morning and/or evening places you want, fill-in the details about each person, including names and passport numbers and then proceed to pay for it all.

It gets interesting when you have to enter your credit card details.

You enter all of your info and credit card details and then (I'm guessing) the site realises it can't handle your international credit card and forwards you to payment gateway number 2.

 

Again, you enter all of your info and credit card details and then (I'm guessing) the site realises it can't handle you international credit card and forwards you to PayPal.

You log in to Paypal and pay and the booking is made.

Throughout this process you're never informed that you're being redirected due to your international credit card and more importantly you never get the chance to say 'Hey, I've got an internation credit card please take me straight to Paypal.

NOTE: I've read that others have had trouble trying to pay via Paypal when their Paypal account only has a credit card attached and no bank account. For me this wasn't a problem as my Paypal payments come straight out of my bank account.

 

 

Timing

As I said earlier, just book it up, why wait?

The proof is in the pudding for me: I booked as soon as I could and got just what I wanted. Today, one month on 40% of the seats have gone.

Obviously if the spaces for a Gypsy sell out you can probably always get a ride in a Canter, but with loads of others, in a diesel, trying to spot wildlife, no thanks.

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