Animal Encounters

If you look closer (bottom middle), you'll be able to see the black and white goat. Sorry for the bad picture!

After the wide assortment of animals – cows, water buffalos, horses, donkeys, monkeys, camels, etc – that we have seen on the roads in India so far, I didn’t think I could be surprised. Yet, the other day on one of our bumpy and dusty, local bus rides from Udaipur to Ranakpur, we stumbled upon something new. Among the passengers streaming into the bus was a goat. We saw it coming down the aisle between the seats, looking a bit anxious. Its owner, a member of one of the local desert tribes, had to push it and shove it under the seat, which was the only space available in the already jam-packed bus. Ajit and I were super excited for not taking the 1^st class train to miss this sight.

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Another surprise – coming back to our room in Jodhpur yesterday, we had an uninvited visitor. We stayed in a 500-year old haveli (translates into mansion, but it’s really a 4-storey guesthouse with tiny, charming rooms). We unlocked the door, turned on the light, and I sat on the bed to take my shoes off. Something moved behind me and I jumped pretty startled. It turned out that this room belonged to the house cat and we interrupted his afternoon nap. He stretched lazily, curled up and continued his siesta on Ajit’s “precious” microfiber towel for another hour or two. He left at his convenience only to return at 1 am and mark his territory by peeing under the bed. I am happy to report that there is no damage to the towel, but unfortunately for me, this incident did not help in my quest to convert Ajit into a cat-lover.

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As an added bonus to our wild-life experience on the Camel Safari we joined in Jaisalmer, we had a bed companion. Take a look at the picture. I did not hear him joining us, but he seems pretty comfortable – he was shivering a bit. It’s chilly in the desert at night.

We are learning to share our space…