Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY! - 01/04/2013

Tony!

GABBY - This morning we managed to wake up in time for our complimentary buffet breakfast.  It was an assortment of Indian dishes ranging from aloo (potatoes) in gravy (what Indians refer to as any sauce) to French toast.  After breakfast, we met Rafish for another day of sightseeing around Bengalore.  We had decided to head outside of the city a bit to Bannerghatta National Park, which featured a safari and zoo.  Leaving around 9:00 am, we were stuck in morning Bengalore rush hour traffic for close to an hour and a half.  It was hard to get any quality snoozing done with all of the different car horns blaring.  We eventually made it to the National Park, paid our entrance and safari fee and headed to the departure point for the safari.  We were put in a holding area, which was a square plot with a large bench surrounding the perimeter.  We were held there until there were 30 people in the holding area.  The bus wouldn’t leave until it was packed to maximum capacity.  We boarded the bus and attempted to stare through the bars that came between our window and the outside world.  It wasn’t the most ideal vessel for decent pictures.  We had an hour to drive through the park (the only amount time the park offered) and there was no way the driver was going a second over the hour allotted.  We flew through the entire park starting with the Bear Safari.  These were Himalayan black bears and looked similar to the North American black bears, but with longer, white snouts and intense hooked claws.  They were really interesting.  We saw the first one and I bearly had time to get my lens cap off of my camera before the bus sped off to the next bear sighting.  We had about 10 quality seconds to capture a solid picture before the opportunity was lost forever.  It was a totally different experience to that of Addo Elephant Park, where you can sit for hours looking at an animal if you want.  After the Bear Safari, we drove to the Lion Safari.  I wasn’t as impressed with this portion because of the lions we had seen in Addo.  They didn’t look any different to the ones we had seen a couple months ago.  Despite all that, lions are still such beautiful and majestic creatures, so I was still delighted to see them again.  After the Lion Safari we drove with lightening speed to the Tiger Safari.  I was really excited to see tigers because I don’t think I have ever seen them in person before.  The first ones we came across were orange with black stripes, like Tony and his Frosted Flakes!  I wasn’t able to capture a good picture seeing as we had no time to focus the picture and tourists were climbing all over me to catch any kind of view.  After our visit with Tony, we were actually able to see a white, snow tiger, which used to be my favorite animals (replaced only by three toed sloths).  They are absolutely gorgeous and I definitely could have watched him for a good hour.  The 10 seconds per animal just didn’t quite cut it for me.  

Uncaged monkey enjoying some kid's ice cream

After the whirlwind of a safari we headed into the zoo, which was included in the price of our entrance/safari ticket.  We moseyed around the zoo walking around and looking into each enclosure.  We saw emus, ostriches, elephants, Himalayan black bears, long snouted crocodiles (weird looking guys), lemurs, peacocks, and monkeys that were not in cages.  The monkeys that roamed free seemed to wreak havoc on the zookeepers and visitors.  We saw monkeys jumping on the park signs, drinking from water fountains and stealing food.  After a sweaty, but nice stroll through the zoo, we headed back into the city of Bengalore for a late lunch.  Rafish didn’t really seem to understand that Ben and I were on a bit of a budget and wanted to experience the street food that India had to offer.  He took us to a really fancy restaurant called Tandoor.  The food was exquisite.  We got loads of naan and decided on chicken tikka masala and a chicken reshmi dish, which was a new choice and turned out to be delicious.  After our satisfying meal we shopped around a bit, returning to a store that we went to yesterday to buy a Pashmina and jewelry.  After our mini shopping spree we headed back to 37 Crescent, where I stunned Rafish with a traditional American goodbye.  I gave him a hug for being such a hospitable and informative guide.  He was clearly uncomfortable and taken aback, but when I was done, he ran over to Ben and gave him a big bear hug.  It was a pretty hilarious exchange and clearly not a usual practice for Indians.  When I returned back to the hotel I had a much needed hour long Skype session with Nicole.  It was really great to chat to her and not just about updates, but normal friend stuff.  We had a lazy night ordering room service Murgh Makhani (butter chicken) and watching our new favorite TV show of violence and sex - Sparatcus.