What a journey

It’s Monday the 7th in TATR

Thursday last week, I left Delhi on the AP Express first tier. An excellent train to travel a long journey, except for the many stops, of which I have no idea what they are good for and the really bumpy ride…ah and the thing that I got sick during the night. After say 21 hours I arrived at Balarshah station. That’s near Chandrapur. Some guy from the train was supposed to tell me where to get of, but he obviously didn’t. I did see the sign Chandrapur before, figured out that the next stop would probably be me and decided to get ready. One man who was in my carriage helped me with the door, since I didn’t know how it worked, and he waited until he saw Sunil, Samir and Ramrao, who came to pick me up. I thought that was really nice.

Next was dinner at Shanoo and Sunil’s place, have some chai (very milky tea with ginger) and rest a bit. After that, time to get some shopping done and go to Tadoba. With 5 people and lots of bags in the Gypsy we drove to my ghar in Tadoba.

My bed is normal height, only consisting of wooden planks ad a mattress on top of that of only 2,5 cm thick. I don’t know what’s in the mattress, but it’s almost as if you sleep on the floor. Had a sore neck the first time I woke up.

The shower is nothing more than 2 buckets of water and the toilet is like a hole in the ground. In the room I have a table and a cabinet for storage of my things. There is a van to keep the air flowing. A real necessity, since after 8.30 am, it gets really humid, with temperatures round 46-48oC.

Yesterday, Ramrao and I started translating the lesson notes from Marathi to English. It’s not always easy to understand each other, since the words and letters are pronounced different than what I am used to, and visa versa. I don’t speak English like Claudia does.

In the afternoon I decided that I wanted to see something of the park. It’s nice to sit at the house, but a bit boring… So we went down to the vip guesthouse, had a little stroll and did see a spotted deer, golden back woodpecker, giant squirrel, butterflies and finally also a crocodile.. First he was in the water, but when Ramrao came closer the croc decided to come out…I have to admit, I was a little frightened at that moment, since my lack of experience with crocs and the sign saying: “Swimming prohibited. Survivors will be prosecuted.”

In the evening Ramrao made me dinner. His wife, Anusia, was supposed to come, but she didn’t show up, because there was a wedding in her village. Maybe she will come today, if not, Ramrao will have to be my cook again. He knows not to use too much chilli, because my stomach gets upset with that. Dahl and rice (bath) are not a problem..

Well, I guess I will need a bit more time to get used to the Indian way of living. I am looking forward to the end of this month, because there is a good chance that the rain season will start. Temperatures will drop till 30oC, and that sounds nice to me. Only the snakes….