We saw a tiger!

Okay, now that you know the most exciting part of this post, I'm going to make you wait for details.

We spent three nights in Mysore, exploring the city. We spent most of one day at the Mysore Zoo, which is a very nice zoo and at Rs 50 for the two of us, a great bargain. The barriers between us and many of the animals were not as vast as in American zoos, so it felt more like a walking safari with fences than the zoos we're used to. The Indian Elephant enclosure had 4 babies and a teenager, so we spent several minutes watching them tease each other and harass the two adult females who were in with them. The otters were also entertaining; one otter was perhaps a little demented and kept biting onto its own tail and dragging itself around the enclosure.

Most of the other full day in Mysore was spent making travel plans for the rest of the trip and going to the railroad station to buy tickets. Mysore Train Station is the most organized station I've seen yet. The other stations we've been in to buy tickets had queues that looked "more like protest groups," to quote an India Mike member. The ticket office in Mysore had rows of numbered chairs and you entered the room from the back and sat in the last available chair. As people moved up to the windows, everyone would shift chairs until it was their turn at the ticket window. The customers were very vigilant for anyone trying to cut in early and offenders would immediately be sent to the back of the room.

We ended up deciding to hire a driver again as our planned route included several stops in a short period of time. Our first stop was Bandipur National Park. We arrived in time to take a minibus tour where we saw one large male elephant and dozens of spotted deer. We had hoped to take a jeep tour, but they were all booked for the day and a tour the next morning would cost Rs 2000 unless we could find someone to share the cost with.

After thinking it over that night, we decided to stop at the office in the morning on the off chance that someone else had booked a jeep and wanted someone to share with. While we were standing at the counter, a family of three came up to the ticket window to ask about a jeep tour and we fairly jumped on them to share a jeep. They agreed to share the cost, and even though we didn't end up seeing anything new, it was still a nice drive through the forest.

After Bandipur, we went to Ooty for two nights. At Reflections Guest House, we met three other couples that we ended up spending quite a bit of time with. There was an English couple, and English and Italian couple living in Greece and a couple from Switzerland. They were all really interesting and a lot of fun and we were sorry to move on, although we all exchanged addresses and invitations to visit. The Swiss couple is flying out of Mumbai the day after we are, so we agreed to meet for dinner the night before we leave for home.

Our next stop was Nagarhole National Park. We were a little worried about staying there because the only places we could find contact information for said they were full. We talked to a man at a travel desk in Ooty who said there were plenty of places to stay, so we decided to chance it. Once we got there, it turned out that "plenty of places" was a slight exaggeration, but the Jungle Inn had one room available that the original reservation hadn't shown up for. We were hesitant to stay because it was so pricey, but they gave us a Rs 3000 discount that made it sting a little less.

The evening safari left about an hour after we arrived and after playing musical jeeps with the other guests we were finally on our way. About a half hour into the trip we hadn't seen much and were wondering if the expense was worth it. We were tracking a small bird that wouldn't hold still when the driver gasped, "Aaahh, tiger!" While we were all looking out the left side of the jeep, a tiger had wandering out of the brush on our right side. We all lunged to the right and my first shot was taken just as the driver started backing the jeep. The second was taken as the tiger turned and was walking back into the bushes and is the only clear shot I got. Jay, the other passenger, who was sitting next to the driver, didn't get a shot at all.

It was the first tiger spotted in three days and the only one on New Years Eve. Our driver got a lot of mileage out of telling all the other drivers about our sighting and insisted I show the picture to everyone we came across. While I wish the tiger had been interested enough to stay a few more seconds, it was still exciting and I'm glad I managed to get any picture at all. We went on to see lots of other animals, but of course nothing as thrilling as the tiger.

The next morning we got up early for a mini-safari and a trip to elephant camp. They had a baby (5-year-old) elephant that we were allowed to pet and Tom got himself and the elephant in trouble by playing tug-of-war with him. Apparently that's not a habit to be encouraged in working elephants. the baby was very curious and would reach out for anything unusual. He ended up whacking one guy in the head with his trunk and knocked his glasses off. After that, Tom and I were the only ones that would still get near him.

After elephant camp it was time to check out and we went as far as Madikeri for the night. This morning we drove to Mangalore, the end of the trip with our driver. Tomorrow we catch a train to Gokarna, on the coast, and will go looking for a hut on the beach that we hear is a good place to stay. Internet will probably be limited for the next several days, so I hope everyone had a great New Year and we'll try to check in at least one more time before heading home.