Ranthambhore

Well we said goodbye to Jaipur after a quick stop by Sud to get some things for the Jungle me Mangle! Not far down the road at a very busy roundabout a police officer waved us to the side of the road. He asked for Suds licence and Sud got out of the car and started walking and talking with the policeman. He was gone for a good 10 minutes while we sat in the car being approached form all sides by beggars. On Sud’s return I asked if everything was ok and he explained that they tried to bribe him for money. He said he did nothing wrong so he wasn’t going to give them 1 rupee. They eventually let him go! We stopped at a monkey temple where the temple itself was for the sun god Suriya and was nothing to amazing to look at but it was on the top of a big hill that looked over all of Jaipur. On the long walk up the hill there were thousands of monkeys everywhere. We bought some chickpeas and peanuts at the bottom and fed them on the way up. We also attracted a young boy called honey who walked and talked with us up the hill and showed us his massive scar from a monkey bite! Rudi was not scared at all and fed them constantly, I got a little frightened because when you fed one they would come running at you from everywhere and they got quite angry if they didn’t get food! They were pretty gentle though and lots of tiny monkeys that were so cute! After giving Honey a small tip and ‘hugs’ on his request we headed off to Ranthambhore. We checked in at our hotel and Sud said he would be back to pick us up after he went to the market for the fresh lamb. We watched a couple of movies on tv, in English, which is something we have seen very little of and just relaxed while we waited for Sud to return. He came and picked us up at took us to the hotel he was staying and he had a fire lit for us on the rooftop and he had already cooked dinner! The lamb curry was amazing, he promised to teach us how to make it and get us fresh spices to send home! We also had a big plate of the freshest veggies we have ever tasted…. we just couldn’t stop eating them…raw! Many drinks were had, a few smokes by the boys and lots of cards! Was a really fun night but we got kicked out earlier than we would have liked because the hotel people wanted to lock the front doors! Sud invited us back tomorrow night for some fish or chicken curry and more drinks and cards! We were very quick to say yes!