This is the mother making a point as she lords over two squabbling siblings. To stop their battling with their beaks she takes hers and sticking it into the nest pins both of their to the ground. Very impressive!


Here we have the national bird of Bangladesh which with his cocked tail and cocky attitude seemed a good choice for a national bird.


There were some amusing birds in the park but the ambiance was simply killed by "Sir, Hello, HELLO!!!!...."


Bicycle in the Deeg Palace entrance.

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2003-12-25 - Agra - Keoladeo Ghana National Park - Deeg (Day 252)

It is so obvious the change since the last time I was in Agra at the beginning of the trip. Leaving Agra and heading to Fatehpur Sikri, the same route I am taking today took two hours just getting out of Agra and that was spent going down tiny lanes and through two or three markets. I was scared to death that someone would steal something from my bike as I was stuck in the markets and completely vulnerable as getting on and off the Mule is such a chore. When I finally arrived in Fatehpur Sikri, I was hot, sweaty and exhausted from the ride there.

This time, I made my way right out of Agra and arrived in Fatehpur Sikri in 30 minutes without any problem. It was all smooth, no worries about hitting people, handling the Mule through traffic or getting lost - it seems that one really does get used to how to drive here and how to get places! I decide to drive up to Fatehpur just to test how I feel about the place after the worst experience of the entire trip being drugged there. Of course, the first person I met was Arman from the Raj Mahal, the guy who drugged me and he approaches me very hesitantly. Have to give him credit for having the balls to come up because he clearly recognized me but he was not going to get too close.

I head out of town after a quick look around and one of the questions that I have been asking for months finally gets answered - what will happen win an unstoppable object, a fully loaded Mule hits an stupidly-moving object. Horns are a funny thing about India - they are the most important piece of safety equipment in a car, truck or on a bike and having them broken and still riding is just crazy. All of the cars and trucks for example ride with the windows down even in winter and the radio off so they can hear the horns of other vehicles because in a country where no one follows any sort of traffic rule and the roads are often one lane around a blind corner with two Tata trucks side by side coming the other way, a horn is the only thing that will save your life. Of course, what has happened though is that pedestrians, scooter monkeys and bicyclists are constantly being beeped at (as no one trusts what they will do), become immune to the horns, and ignore them. I have on so may occasions been less then 1 or 2 feet (yup, reach out and smack them distance!) behind pedestrians walking in the middle of the road or bicyclists riding four abreast after slamming my breaks not to hit them and they STILL will ignore me and the horn.

Well it may have been the weather, or more likely my frustration at the roads and India in general over the last month (mostly because of the drivers and roads from Calcutta) more likely it was that it was bound to happen eventually. A bicyclist went from the right line (India drives on the right) and meandered over to the left lane without a look to see what was coming. I slowed and nailed the horn but of course the horn was just ignored and it was either swerve or hope he got smart. Well he didn't get smart and I didn't swerve as every time I do with a loaded Enfield I am risking my own life and the bike just plowed through the bike. My question all along was would it throw me but there is just so much weight with this bike, me and the luggage it was like cutting butter as I went through the bike. Fortunately, the bicyclist was bounced off and landed with just a few scrapes and the bike was not messed up too much, but yet again, the fun of driving on Indian roads arises. My lesson for the day though was this is probably the same point of view that a Tata driver has and as I have seen since setting out on this trip - he is going to go right through me if I don't get out of his way, no matter if he is in the wrong lane, illegally (that is an oxymoron in India!) passing, and with our without lights at night. Yikes!

Unfortunately, the day gets even more irritating and by the end of the night, I am so ready to be done with this trip! I arrive at the Keoladeo Ghana National Park that Lonely Planet bills as "the highlight of many tourists' trips to India!" I walk in and it is just a nightmare in that the place is filled with high-school students looking for dates, it seems to be the "in" hangout spot around here. That would be ok if every single one of them didn't start the "Hello! What is your country? What is your name?" conversation that always stops with those three questions (often repeated by everyone in a small group). The Hello! can not be ignored as that brings a barrage of, "Hey sir, hello!" "HELLO!" "HELLO!"...etc...etc... however, a reply is an invitation to the "What is your country...etc." I do not mean to be a Scrooge, but come on; I must have been asked that same set of questions 200 times in the space of three hours. Since I was there for the pictures - of which there was not much that was close enough to be interesting - this constant barrage kept what wildlife there was well away from me. When I wandered in and hid behind a bush to wait for a small nest of owls to come out, I had a group of ten guys come and sit down beside me and begin the barrage. Every time I would stop, some group would come over and it just would not end.

If I had been with someone it may have been better, but since I was alone I was an open target for anyone who wanted to talk. Again, I am learning what Tom Cruise's life must be like and it is a living hell! Anyone who thinks being a celebrity is fun should come to Bangladesh or India it will give you an unforgettable lesson.

Giving up, I snag a rickshaw whose Sikh driver seems like a godsend to me. I know I have gone overboard in too favorable an impression of the Sikhs but when I see one I instantly feel that here is someone who will deal with me rationally and a straightforward manner. Amusing but the Sikhs are defiantly getting positive-discrimination from me.

I escape from the park and sit on a bench staring at the sidewalk to calm my nerves and finally have a few minutes of peace and quiet before setting off. 40km later I am again swearing at whoever was the author of the Rajasthan portion of the Lonely Planet for pointing me to Deeg which was a mud hell hole without a hotel to stay in. I eventually find the only hotel in town but even so, today's pain doesn't end there because one look at their menu of the same road food that one gets everywhere just turned my stomach and I decided to just go to bed without eating instead of make my Christmas dinner another chapatti/dal / fried rice mix...this has just been one of those days!

Merry Christmas (ugh)!

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