From Delhi, our next destination was the pink city of Jaipur. The hotel we booked turned out to be a very charming one, with a great rooftop terrace/restaurant, city view and our room in a quite roof corner.
Since we arrived at night, an early start that we were planning to make wasn't happening, and we decided to take a slow day. We already made the arrangements to spend the afternoon at the elephant sanctuary, so we decided to concentrate on getting our train tickets in order for the next day. When booking the train tickets from home, the Jaipur-Jaisalmer ones were the only waitlisted tickets we got, so full of hopes, we went to the train station. In India, the train ticket system works in mysterious ways, where only a general quota of tickets is available to the public. But there other hidden quotas as well, like tourist, emergency and VIP, from which you still have a chance to get your tickets confirmed.
Following instructions on indiamike.com we went to the foreign tourist office. The guy working their was half a sleep and was not amused when we showed up. Reluctantly, he advised us to go to the reservation office and try to solve our problem with them.
We especially loved the note that the Freedom Fighters (!) were serviced here as well together with foreigners and handicapped :-) By the way, for large pics just click on the photo.
The woman behind the window wasn't amused either with our request, and told us that the only two things we can do is either sincerely hope that the tickets we already bought will be confirmed 3 hours before departure, or to buy another waitlisted tickets in the lower class, that according to her had a better chance to be confirmed... Awesome choice, right? Well, it seemed to us that with 2 sets of waitlisted tickets we will have a better chance of boarding the train all together, so we bought the additional ones as well. We will know the outcome tomorrow, so stay tuned :-)
When we got back to the hotel, the elephant people where already their waiting and off we went to our fun afternoon at the sanctuary.
Their we met our elephant for the day. Her name is Sibel (or Seabell, not sure about the writing part), she is 28 years old and 12 month pregnant.
First, we fed her, so that she can get use to us and be sure that we are not their to steal her food. Half an hour later we were best friends and she even started to smile :-)
The elephants each has it's own human family - husband, wife and kids - that takes care of her (at the sanctuary all elephants except one are female, because males are aggressive and fight each other). The human family is responsible for the elephant's wellbeing and they all live together 24/7. Apparently, each elephant has a separate huge stable with the keeper's family house attached to it.
There is also a large swimming pool where elephants go to swim in the summer.
Next there was a walk together and on our elephant's bareback. It was a bit scary at first, we had no idea that sitting on an elephant is so high up, but then it became really fun, once we got used to it.
Sibel was very playful and constantly "speaking" to the other elephant, that walked with us. The elephant keeper said that they were best friends and always hanged out together. At some point Sibel started to vibrate like crazy, and we thought that she is having some stomach troubles because of al the food we gave her. It turned out that "vibrating" is one of the ways that elephants talk to each other... I had no idea :-)
When we came back from the walk it was painting time. I got to paint the trunk and Dima the side. This was the result:
As farewell, Dima got a brand new turban...
and Sibel posed for us one last time :-)
Altogether, it was an awesome afternoon and we had lots of fun. Sibel, we will miss you!
Next: explore Jaipur and find out about the train tickets. Fingers crossed!
Following instructions on indiamike.com we went to the foreign tourist office. The guy working their was half a sleep and was not amused when we showed up. Reluctantly, he advised us to go to the reservation office and try to solve our problem with them.
The woman behind the window wasn't amused either with our request, and told us that the only two things we can do is either sincerely hope that the tickets we already bought will be confirmed 3 hours before departure, or to buy another waitlisted tickets in the lower class, that according to her had a better chance to be confirmed... Awesome choice, right? Well, it seemed to us that with 2 sets of waitlisted tickets we will have a better chance of boarding the train all together, so we bought the additional ones as well. We will know the outcome tomorrow, so stay tuned :-)
When we got back to the hotel, the elephant people where already their waiting and off we went to our fun afternoon at the sanctuary.
Their we met our elephant for the day. Her name is Sibel (or Seabell, not sure about the writing part), she is 28 years old and 12 month pregnant.
Next there was a walk together and on our elephant's bareback. It was a bit scary at first, we had no idea that sitting on an elephant is so high up, but then it became really fun, once we got used to it.
When we came back from the walk it was painting time. I got to paint the trunk and Dima the side. This was the result:
Next: explore Jaipur and find out about the train tickets. Fingers crossed!
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