We're home and well!

Hi all, just so all are aware, we are safe and sound back in the USA. Please give us a call if you want to catch up!

We'll be sure to post some more information regarding our last few days, Delhi pictures, videos and other commentary about being back in the US.

Manali, and our last week

Alo! Again we apologize for the delayed/sparse blogging as of late. We've been on all sorts of ups and downs these past few weeks and time has been tough to find. I'll provide some details of our trip to Manali, since that was our last adventure and there are some pretty cool pictures. If you notice some pictures that appear to be repeats, it is because we have a combined album of our pictures with Andy's and Jen's.

So we got to the airport on Saturday morning at about 7:00, but we soon learned that the plane was delayed for another hour. We waited around the airport for a long time, talking and passing time. Once we were told it was time for boarding, we hopped on the bus and drove to the plane. Any annoyance that we felt because of the delay soon melted away once we saw the plane. They could have taken however long they needed for all we cared, just as long as all is well. You can see the inside view from the album, both the cramped seating as well as the amazing views of the mountains. The flight only lasted about 1.5 hours, and it was quite a thrill. Weaving our way through (literally through, not so much above) the mountains, we landed at the airport in Kullu.


We hired a cab and headed off for Manali. I had previously contacted a hiking/adventure guide and he happened to be in the area for a wedding, so we picked him up on the way. Among the sights along the route were kiwi trees, Buddhist monasteries, people making gravel (no joke), and the intimidating Beas river. We discussed our various hiking options, such as the lightning temple, waterfalls, and mountain lakes. Whitewater rafting was definitely something we wanted to pursue as well. Sadly, we would only get to go on one hiking trip, since it rained for the rest of the time we were there.

Arriving at the hotel, we checked into our cabin. Since there was 5 of us, we thought it would be cool to reserve a 5 -room cabin, which definitely paid off. The hotel was also famous for its trout, local to the area, and we were sure to indulge. Following a quick lunch, we drove off for the mountain hike. Soon we came across a field where you could paraglide or roll down the hill in a huge inflated ball. At that spot there was also a rope, controlled by a silly old man in a pink hat, that kept illegal cars from going further up the mountain. Our guide had to argue with this man for a while before we were allowed to pass. Two other items of note, at one part of the road we had to drive through the river and another part there were a huge pack of vultures eating a dead cow.

The hike itself was awesome. Such amazing views and people living on the side of the mountain itself. At one point we paused by some children so Andy could do some of his amazing yo-yo tricks. He's a national level yo-yoer and the kids were rather excited about it... that or the candy bars we gave them. (We also have some video of Andy's yo-yoing following the 4th of July party, I'll post that later.) To say that the hike was a challenge would be a vast understatement... it killed all of us, and we're all experienced enough hikers. The hardest part was the fact that the air was so much thinner, we would all be gasping for air after only 10 minutes of hiking. We took a bunch of breaks, which helped. The bridges over the river were also pretty intense... some were better than others, all were pretty exciting. Sometimes there were no bridges and we had to leap from rock to rock. Don't worry moms, no one got hurt! There were cows, birds, and buffalo all over as well, a very beautiful and rewarding hike. Dan V also decided that we must touch snow (ice) in India... so after we reached one of the peaks, we romped off the trail and climbed another part of the mountain and stood on the mini-glacier.

Much more excited, we began our trip down the mountain. Very quickly, the clouds rolled in and we found ourselves literally in the middle of a rain cloud, complete with a mild downpour. As soon as our guide started pushing us, we basically began running down the mountain. Drenched head-to-toe, we hopped from rock to rock, doing our best to avoid oblivious cattle and raging rivers.

We had plans to do more hiking, but like I said, it rained for the rest of that day and the next day. So we spent the rest of the trip hanging around Manali, shopping, and enjoying each other's company. Of course, Monday morning, the day we had to leave, was absolutely perfect... see pictures. This made for a spectacular plane ride, as you can see.

This is our last week, in fact we leave on Thursday and we'll be in the US on Friday at 10:30am!!

We are sooo excited to be home. Packing has been a hassle, but Courtney has done an awesome job of getting everything prepared. I got 2 suits tailored, among other things. We can't wait to see/talk to you all in person! I've been taking some random pictures of Delhi/Gurgaon so that you can see some more of our daily life-type shots. We'll add some comments regarding our post-India feelings, as well as some more videos (the one of our car crossing the river on the mountain is awesome as well as the one of us trying to cross the road by India Gate). Be well till we see you, we'll talk soon!

Caroline's Visit! ... and Udaipur Details

Hello everyone!

It has been so long since we have last blogged! We are sorry about the delay, but these past two weeks have been crazy. As Dan briefly touched upon in the last entry, on June 24-26 we visited Udaipur, another town in our favorite state, Rajasthan. (See pictures here) We flew in on Saturday morning and checked into one of the most amazing hotels I have ever seen in my entire life. It is literally a palace in the middle of a lake. The cost to stay here starts at around 450 US dollars per night, but because we are staying at the Taj Hotel in Delhi, we acquire points for money we spend there. We used some of these points to stay for free! Although I have never seen the movie and can not give you specifics, scenes from James Bond: Octopussy were filmed at this hotel. The hotel was beautiful and it was fun having to take a boat to and from the hotel. One of my favorite things about the hotel was the guy all decked out in his uniform who greeted me every time I got off the boat with a very fancy umbrella. He walked me the whole 10 yards from the boat to the hotel entrance with the umbrella above my head so as not to have the sun beat down upon my delicate skin. This was quite amusing to Dan and I.

In the town of Udaipur we did some shopping and sight seeing. The City Palace, of which we had a view of from our hotel window, was one of the palaces we visited. It was very nice, but in the end not much different from other forts and palaces we have seen. At the palace there was some beautiful glass mosaic art work. This glass mosaic was mimicked at our hotel and we met the artist who did the work at the hotel. He told us that his family for generations had been doing this sort of work and that it was one of his relatives who had done the work at the city palace. One of the great things about Rajasthan is how artistic it is. Udaipur is known for their tiny paintings with extraordinary detail. Well the same glass artist also does these tiny paintings so he painting a tiny lotus flower on my finger nail for me. It was really neat.

The other palace was also in the middle of the lake. We took a boat tour of the lake and stopped here for a little bit. There was not much to the palace that we had access to. So we walked around admiring the view for a few minutes only. Both nights we had great thunderstorms to watch. The first night we hit up the pool and the hot tub and watched the storm roll in from there. The other really amazing thing was the bats. In a group of trees next to the city palace there lived thousands of bats. These bats were the biggest I have ever seen. Their wing spans were probably about 1-2 feet long. They literally looked like vampire bats. Every evening at sunset the bats would leave their trees and hunt for bugs over the lake. We had great views of this as well as the storms from the pool. Though we did do our fair share of sight seeing in Udaipur, most of our time was spent relaxing at our hotel, well palace. The city was beautiful, and very romantic. It was wonderful to just relax.

Later the next week, Caroline arrived!!! It was so much fun having someone to share this experience with. It was especially fun for me to have someone to hang out with again. Since the other wives have left things have been boring during the week. But Caroline and I did some major shopping and hanging out. It was great. One of the days she was here, she and I and the other Dan, who is here from Hewitt, went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We had a great trip and Caroline got to see monkeys, elephants, camels, peacocks, and even the bears on leashes - locals keep them so when tourists are stopped at the toll booths they can make them do tricks and try to make money. This is quite a sad sight to see, but it’s kind of crazy to see bears doing tricks on the side of the road. While we were stopped, a trained monkey was jumping on top of the bear and sitting on his back, then he would jump up and balance on top of a stick, then the monkey jumped up to my window and pressed his mouth against it and slid it down as to expose his gums and teeth. It was hilarious! The Taj was as majestic as ever and this time we did not go on Sunday so it was way less crowded. (Dan and I went on Sunday last time and Sunday is Indians get in free day) Check out the pics, there are some funny ones of us that look like we are picking up the Taj by the point at the top and there is a great one of the other Dan eating the Taj.

On Saturday Dan and I took Caroline sight seeing around Delhi. We hired Raju, who drives Dan to and from work everyday, to take us around Delhi. We went to India gate and saw parliament, the army and navy buildings, and the president’s house. All of these are in the same vicinity and are about equivalent to Washington DC. We also went to a huge temple called Akshardham. No cameras were allowed, but check out the link. It was amazing, huge, and so intricately carved. Probably the most amazing temple we have been to so far in terms of size and intricacy. It was fun going here also, because Raju came with us. This happens very rarely in India. In fact we have never had someone who we have hired come with us to do any sight seeing. This shows that Raju considers us friends, and the feeling is mutual. Someday we will do a blog entry on the people we have met in India, but Raju is definitely one of our favorites.

That night the US embassy hosted a 4th of July party for all the US citizens in Delhi. We went a were greeted with American beer, real beef hamburgers, hot dogs, tex-mex food, and Papa Johns pizza. There was a fireworks display and a dance floor with a DJ. At one point at the end of the night Caroline and I were the only ones utilizing this, finally the other Hewitt guys joined us and we had a blast. It was a fantastic night. We had a great time, and we welcomed Andy to India. Andy is the newest member of the Hewitt clan and also a friend of ours from back in Lincolnshire.

The day after the party we hopped on a plane to Mumbai (Bombay). Here we stayed at yet another AMAZING Taj hotel – the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower. This one takes the cake in my opinion. It was huge and here we actually felt really out of place. The place was swarming with very high class looking people, Indians and goras a like. This Taj actually looked like an art museum, or some historic building. It had huge grand stairways with red carpet. It had about 10 restaurants and bars, and it had basically a shopping mall inside which included a Lous Vuitton store. We, thanks yet again to Taj points, lived it up for free in the junior sweet. We had a living room and bedroom each with a huge flat screen TV which basically had a computer running it with surround sound. Each room had a sizeable and beautiful chandelier. The room came with a complimentary bottle of wine, a free cocktail and hors d'oeuvre hour, and 24-hour butler service. It was extremely high class and we felt very pampered. The downside to this trip was Mumbai being in monsoon season. It rained the entire time we were there, and not just drizzle. It was a down pour. This made sight seeing impossible, but we shopped, ate at some cool places and relaxed in the lap of luxury. We swam in the pool in the rain, ate sushi and enjoyed each other's company. The day after we got home Caroline headed back to the states after visiting us for a week and traveling around Europe with friends for 3 weeks.

It has been a crazy few weeks and our trip is winding down. Dan and I are both going to miss India, but we are beginning to grow tired of some of the ins and outs of daily life here in Delhi. I am tired of being confined to a hotel room with no one to talk to during the day. We desperately want to make our own meals and eat food our stomachs can handle. We can't wait to drive and have multiple rooms to live in! We can't wait to come home and see everyone!! It will be only two weeks on Friday! We will miss traveling and the people we have met, but there really is no place like home!

Speaking of traveling, we went to Manali this past weekend. It is way north and right in the Himalayas. We did a crazy hike and had a great time, but we will post more on that this coming weekend while we are relaxing and doing some final shopping, sight seeing, and eating at restaurants that are on the must-do list.

Miss you all! Much Love!
- Courtney

Udaipur tour

Hi all! Sorry for the delay in any updates. Courtney and I spent two weekends ago in Delhi sightseeing and shopping (pictures to be posted). Since we haven't seen too much of the "sights" in Delhi, we thought that it would be good to start checking some off the list.

Last weekend we went back to Rajasthan for one last trip in our favorite state. The Lake Palace in Udaipur was our destination. The city is truely a magical place, none of its beauty lost on us. We took advantage of the posh digs and did a fair share of lounging and storm watching. The Lake Palace was an excellent place to recharge our batteries after 2 weeks in Delhi. More to come on this as well.

The best news, however, is that my sister Caroline is here for the week! The girls have been having the best time while I've been toiling away at work. Soon to be remedied, happily, as I have off Friday and Monday. They went to Agra and the Taj Mahal today, tomorrow we all go to Gwalior, Saturday Delhi tour, shopping, and 4 of July party at the US embassy, then Sunday our overnight trip to Mumbai (Bombay). So much to look forward to! We all send our love, check back next week for details and visuals.

Moving pictures for you.

The bollu hanging around the gypsy:


A buck samba deer exploring Dikhala:


One of the other asian elephants on a safari:


Kathakali in Kochi (the old man is telling the hero that he needs to be saved from the demon):


Kathakali in Kochi (the demon making a rukus);


Fishermen in Fort Kochi:


Sitar and Tabla in Fort Kochi (We apologize for the dimness, there was only candlelight available):

Elephants, boars, birds, crocodiles! ...but no tigers.

Our trip to Corbett National Park was exciting and rewarding, despite the absence (at least from our view) of any tigers. The park is northeast of Delhi, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in the state of Uttaranchal. This is the same state that Rishikesh and Haridwar are located, the park and Ramnagar are about 120 kilometers southeast. We need to post a map showing all the places we've been, that would probably be useful. Pics can be found here.

I hussled home early from work and we caught the 10:50 Ranikhet Express from the Old Delhi train station. The station was probably the most crowded we've experienced thus far. When the train arrived people were trying to jump on before the train stopped, crashing into bystanders as they were carried along hanging from the door. When we arrived at our seat, which we hoped would be two since we had two tickets, we found that we had to share one. I suppose we did better than the three kids from the Netherlands who all had to share one as well. We did get some sleep sharing the little train bed, and woke up as the train arrived in Ramnagar. Our driver picked us up in an open-topped gypsy, and we drove off.

I arranged the mini-safari with a combination hotel and "adventure tour specialists." We ate breakfast at their hotel just outside of the park and then had to head back into town to obtain our permit for park entry. We also had to pay for our reservation for a room in Dikhala, which is a camp 31km inside of the park. This proved to be quite the hassle, since this was the last weekend that the park would be open before the monsoons came. Our tour company had sent a guy there to wait at the office since 4:45 in the morning. When we got to the office the guy waiting pulled me to the back door of the office and whispered instructions to tell the people inside that I was #2 on a list and he had been waiting since the above mentioned time. When I looked up I noticed a virtual wall of Indians pressed to the front window all trying to get their names - or the names of their clients - logged into the system. Based on my side door entrance, I thought that maybe someone decided that goras don't have to wait in line... I was wrong. Any hope of organizational efficiency was lost, as I realized the consistently and frustratingly pleasant woman behind the counter was the only person with the authority to issue permits, settle disputes, or collect money. All decisions went through her, no matter how small or how many seemingly capable men stood idlely behind her. This meant that it basically took 3 hours of battling crowds and sitting around to get our permit and room confirmation.

Our arrangement with the tour company was that we would have 2 day use of the gypsy and driver for whatever safaris we wanted to take. The trip to get to Dikhala itself took about an hour and a half. You can see in the pictures that there are several dry riverbeds along the way that would during monsoon season be filled with rushing water. At the official entrance to the park, we were greeted by a strangely tame Bollu (at least that's what the locals called it). I have some video of this guy, who came right up to me and followed me to the car. He/she? kind of looked like half-horse, half-cow and didn't mind a nice ear scratching (I've got a video that I will post later). After the pleasant drive in through the forest, we settled into our room and took a well-needed shower. Next was lunch at the vegetarian only (of course) camp restaurant, which was actually very good. We found that other wildlife at the park was tame, as a buck sambar deer wandered around the camp looking for scraps of food, a pursuit he shared with the monkeys.

At around 5:30pm we boarded a 50-year old female elephant, tromped (a word to be taken quite literally in this case) across the river, and through the grasslands. Our first shock came after we crossed the river and we realized that the elephant was trodding through a virtual forest of marijuana plants, some above our heads. Our elephant driver, or mahaut, explained to us that indeed we were surrounded by fields of the naturally growing plant. Anyway, the trek was very relaxing and included sights of a herd of wild elephants and hundreds of different bird species. Our mahaut assured us that our best chance of a feline encounter would be as the "elephant wake up sleeping tiger" somewhere below us. Tigers are scared of elephants so nothing to be worried about. Sadly this would be our first swing-and-a-miss in our efforts to catch a glimpse of a big cat (the park was also home to leopards).

The next morning we got up at about 4:50am, ate some breakfast, threw the last uneaten piece of toast to the monkey, and again jumped into the gypsy. This was to be the beginning of a 5 hour long safari, hosted by our driver and a park guide. Again we were amazed by all the wildlife we saw as we were treated to a beautiful sunrise. The birdlife was especially unique. At one point, as we approached the river, we watched from a distance as a herd of wild elephant crossed the water. Our driver took us about a kilometer down the road and stopped the car. We waited for about 5 minutes, and the herd one-by-one came through the forest to cross the road. It was a very special experience, which was a little prolonged as one of the older females decided to stand in the middle of the road for about 15 minutes. Still no tigers though, only 4-hour fresh paw prints... which sadly is the closest we will probably come on this Indian excursion to seeing a wild tiger. After checking out of the room and lunch, we sat around camp reading our books, Life of Pi and God of Small Things (both highly recommended). This was a good way to beat the heat, as you can only safari in the morning and early evening. When the time was right, we drove off for one last romp through the woods. On this trip we saw a serpent eagle, some wild boar, crocodiles, turtles, and lots of monkeys, birds and various species of deer. We were lucky to catch a male peacock in full display attempting to woo a female. He looked silly from time to time as he would turn around revealing his behind gyrating back and forth like a frightened duck.

We left the park as late as we possibly could, 7pm, just as the gates were closing. After some dinner we rode back to the train station and caught our ride back to Delhi. This time, happily, we each had our own bed, and got a great night's sleep. We arrived at the South Delhi train station at 5:15, drove back to the hotel, and crashed. Another amazing adventure in the books.

Kerala, our taste of Southern India

Hey everyone!
Sorry for the lull in blog action, we have had a crazy traveling schedule these past couple of weeks. We returned last night from Corbett National Park and Tiger Reserve, but that will be another blog entry. Now I want to talk about where we were the weekend before, Kerala. We flew into Kerala which is the southwestern most state in India, on the morning of Saturday the 3rd. Kerala is known for its backwaters. The backwaters is a series of waterways fed by the Lakshadweep sea that divides the coast around Cochin, the city near where we stayed, into multiple islands. Pictures!
Our first night in Kerala we stayed in the quiet, historical town of Fort Cochin. We checked into our first hotel, well guesthouse, and set off to explore the town. We had a seafood dinner and walked down to the water where fisherman fished with huge Chinese fishing nets. These nets were essentially huge wooden pulley systems with a net attached to one end and ropes attached to the other. Check out the pics. The net would be dropped in the water just beyond the beach line off of a dock. A few minutes later the six men it took to work the nets would pull down the ropes at the other end and raise the giant net from the water. This was fascinating to watch and the fishermen even let Dan in on the action one time. When the nets were raised and the fish caught were dumped onto the beach we and the other spectators would huddle around and watch the fisherman sort through them all. They caught little prawns, and lots of little silver fish. Who knows what they were, but my favorite catch was the long, slimy eel. It was kind of gross but hey now I have seen an eel. We watched this for a while and then walked down the road to the fish market where the fisherman would display their fish, you could come up and choose one, and they would cook it for you right then and there. Dan and I did not eat a fish this way in Kerala, me being a new seafood eater didn't think that it sounded all that appetizing :)
After the fishermen and the fish we headed to the Keralan Cultural Center where we experienced the ancient art form native to Kerala called Kathakali. This is a performance art in which actors act out stories that are being sung and put to music through precise movements and facial expressions. This art from involves elaborate costumes, head dresses and makeup. We got there early and watched the make up being applied which is very much a spiritual part of the performance. They use what they grind from colored rocks and mix with coconut oil to paint their faces. The different colors of paint symbolize different character traits. They use red paint to depict evil, green for courage and goodness and black implies a mix of good and evil. Before they take the stage they apply this make up and meditate to transform themselves into the character they are about to play. The stories performed in Kathakali were derived from ancient Hindu temple rituals and became more popular around the time Shakespeare was writing. The stories are usually based on the epic tales found in Hindu texts. These performances in the prime of their popularity started in the evening and went until the early hours of the following morning. Now a days the performances are cut way down. Our performance included two men playing drums, and one man singing the story while the three actors acted it out. Before the actual play began they gave the small audience a demonstration of the art form. They explained that there is a facial expression and motion for every word of the story. One of the actors demonstrated single words like mother, father, happy, sad, and even come and go by calling Dan, me and someone else in the audience onto stage. First by calling Dan politely, me a little more urgently, and then demanding the other audience member's presence. Then he asked politely the other guy to go, me a little more urgently, and then he demanded Dan leave the stage. All of this was communicated without words and it was rather funny and caught Dan and I off guard. Then the actor demonstrated the phrase, mother would you please tend to the baby. This simple phrase took about five minutes to act out. The actual play was very interesting, very expressive and very colorful. In the story a small village is being tormented by a demon and an old man of the village asks the hero to help them. The hero agrees and enters the cave of the beast where he sits down and eats the beast's meal. This upsets the beast and he and the hero fight ending in the death of the beast. It really was amazing to see how this art form basically created a language without words, using only body movement and facial expressions made with muscles I didn't even know existed in the face. Very cool.
The next day we got up early, moved to our next hotel, the Taj Malabar which was stunning, and then set off for our all day backwater boat tour. We were driven by bus about 30 kms from where we were and taken to a small village. Here we boarded a large boat resembling a house boat and set off on our journey through the waterways. We lazily drifted through the large waterways surrounded by fishermen in small boats and islands of lush, green, tropical jungle foliage dotted with civilization. Every home had a boat out in front, these people live on the water. Such a different way of life from anything I have ever known. It was beautiful and extremely laid back. We were taken to an island with a factory where mussels are boiled and de-shelled. The shells are used to make some form of calcium powder which they sell to pharmaceutical companys for the production of calcium tablets. On the island plants are grown for all sorts of natural medicinal remedies. Kerala is also the home of ayurveda which is a form of natural medicine, healing, and massage.
After checking out the factory and eating a fresh, locally made snack of cooked muscles with Keralan spices and seasoning (soooo good) we headed back to the village we started from where they had a huge south Indian style meal waiting for us. The food in the south is way different than the food in the north. The south uses different spices, lots of coconut, curry leaves, and red chilies. Everything we had was delicious.
After lunch we left this village and drove another 7 kms to a different village. Here we all (one younger Indian couple, one Indian family, and a man from France) boarded a much smaller boat and toured much smaller waterways. Here we really felt like we were on the Amazon. Very tropical surroundings with very tropical villages. On this part of the journey we saw tons of Kingfishers, ducks, and some snakes. Halfway through the journey we got out of the boat and watched a guy climb up a tree knock down some coconuts, chop off the tops with a machete, and stick a straw in them for us to drink. We did this, then handed him back the coconut and he cut it in half and scooped out the fruit which we also got to eat. He then plucked a fresh wild growing pineapple and chopped it up for us to eat also. It was great. The smaller waterways of the backwaters were just as beautiful and tranquil as the larger ones. This was such a unique experience and so much fun.
After this we headed back to the Taj Malabar ate and went back to the Keralan Cultural Center where we finally got to see some live Tabla and Sittar. These are two major instruments in classical Indian music. The sittar is a string instrument and the Tabla is two drums which are played with the finger tips, have a very shallow sound, and is usually learned throughout the course of ones life. The Tabla player we saw has been playing for 15 years, ever since he was 5. It was really amazing. We have been trying for the entire 3 months we have been here to see these instruments played live and we were so excited to finally get to see it. It was really beautiful and all improvised.
The next couple of days were mostly spent relaxing in the lap of luxury. We lucked out on Sunday for our backwaters tour and got mostly sunny skies with the occasional cloud, but never rain. This is rare since the monsoon season is starting and we were right on the water. The next day we weren't so lucky. It rained pretty much all day. This was fine with us, we shopped a little, and hung out at the Taj. The Taj was awesome, check out the pics, the pool had no ledge and looked out over the water. It gave the effect of the pool water merging with the sea. It was really neat. This Taj also had a ayurvedic spa, we didn't use it for that purpose, but it did have a ping pong table which was a good time. We had some great meals, especially the grouper, and caught an AMAZING sunset. The hotel was literally right on the water and there were always fishermen in their boats right next to wherever we were sitting, in the pool, eating dinner, watching the sunset, it was very peaceful.
It was fun to be in a place where the main transportation was boat. Weather it was houseboats, ferries in between the busy islands and the city of Cochin, fishing boats small and large, or home made sailboats with old cloth for sails. It created such a sense of tranquility, and relaxation. The scenery was lush and green, a much welcomed change from the dusty, HOT, dry city of Delhi. It was fun to be in a place where they even dress differently. The men all wear lungis or dhotis. These are essentially wraps, like skirts but for men and I must admit I like them a lot. They seem very practical in such a tropical, wet climate. It was fun to be in a place that seemed so different from the northern part of the country. Southern India really does seem like a completely different country, with a completely different culture, and a completely different way of life. Kerala was beautiful.
Love and miss you all!
-Courtney
P.S. Stay tuned for the Corbett National Park posting in the next couple of days. And check out the pics!