We take the eight hour drive from Agra into the State of Rajastan to the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. We stop to visit the Fort and Palaces at Fatehpur Sikri built by Akbar the Great with a Church, a Temple and a Mosque to comply with the different religion of each of his three (concurrent) wives. Then we bounce along into Rajastan and spend a good deal of the eight hours of this journey on unmade roads making about 10 miles an hour as we grind over deep potholes and steer around cows and water buffalo. It does give us plenty of time to look at rural India, however, and it’s pretty countryside around here with small towns busy with everyday life. As night falls people begin to gather around the outdoor food stalls and the mobile cooking trollies are starting up their fires. The towns are crowded but much less so than Delhi and Agra and we would like to get down and walk around and explore but there is no chance to do it. As always people seem happy and have plenty to eat. This is farming country of course and life is pretty simple for a lot of these people. Many live in mud huts in the fields with the local reeds used as a roof. Each family will typically have at least one goat and one buffalo and, with that milk and the vegetables they grow, will be more or less self-sufficient. Cow dung for fuel. Cows have to be buried when they die, Hindus are cremated. The Indian Government raised the minimum wage for unskilled workers to 90rp/day ($2) three years ago and the Government now guarantees at least 100 days of work for them per year. We check in to the Regency Hotel which is up market and pretty comparable to an expensive US Hotel. Its normal charge is US$165/night. All electrical outlets are just shoved into a hole in the wall and are loose so it’s a two handed job to remove a plug and the sink taps are loose in the sink-each would result in a complaint to the front desk in the US but everything else is on par and the rooms, service and food (Indian Vegetarian) are all excellent.
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