3 Incredible Days in the Heart of India-Madhya Pradesh | Day 2: White Tigers of Rewa

(Continued from where I left off in the previous post about Day 1 in Madhya Pradesh) 

It was early morning. I was fast asleep in a log hut somewhere in the middle of a vast tropical forest. My alarm was set for 7.30, though I should have known I wouldn't be needing an alarm clock. I woke up at 7, all on my own, to the lively chatter of birds and the rustle of the wind in the trees outside my hut.

I was in Bandhavgarh National Park - one of the world's foremost tiger reserves - and another exciting day of wildlife experiences lay ahead of me.

Day 2 in the Heart of India

If I wake up early on any given day, I snuggle right back into the covers and sleep for at least another half an hour (usually more) before finally forcing my still-asleep body out of the bed and into the bathroom. On this particular morning, however, I was wide awake within a minute and out of the door in 10, wide-eyed with wonder and camera in hand. The jungle was awake and buzzing with activity.

It took me a minute to tune in to the sounds of the forest. Stepping out of the shade of my hut, I looked around to figure out where all the birds were - and lo and behold, there it was! My first sighting of one of the most magnificent birds of India - and not a common sighting in Madhya Pradesh - the Asian Paradise Flycatcher (now called Indian Paradise Flycatcher), with its never-ending white tail and black head, perched atop the tree right behind my hut. It was quite sensitive to sound too, because it sensed my presence within seconds and flew away to a taller, farther tree. I managed to take a few snaps before it disappeared into the foliage, its majestic tail trailing behind it in the most beautiful flight I have ever seen any bird take.


Encouraged by the lucky sighting, I set out to find more winged ones, though in a hurry now because it was getting sunny and I was expected at breakfast soon. I ended up spotting a bunch of Coppersmith Barbets in a fig tree and a pair of Spotted Doves that looked like they were batting eyes at each other like a romantic couple (believe me).

The Asian (or Indian) Paradise Flycatcher. They are called so because they feed on insects that they catch mid-air (fancy that!) The males are beautiful white and long-tailed, while the females are shorter-tailed with dark wings.

A pair of Spotted Doves.

Coppersmith Barbet feeding on wild figs.

Breakfast at the jungle resort came as another pleasant surprise. Seated in an open restaurant with mud-plastered walls and greenery all around, it was a rather lavish meal (given the setting) with fresh fruit, toast, eggs, milk and cereal, juice, and an Indian addition in the form of poori sabzi (which I generally stay away from - bring on the non-greasy stuff for me!)

Breakfast situation during my first 'glamping' stay at a safari lodge in Bandhavgarh National park. By the time more food arrived, I couldn't wait to click a 'complete' picture. I got busy stuffing my face.😄

A post shared by Mahima Kohli (@kohliaroundtheworld) on May 8, 2018 at 5:33am PDT

After a hearty meal, we took a stroll around the resort, traipsing in and out of green patches, lots of tiger grass and a bunch of small greenhouses. We also spotted an abandoned-looking tractor on the premises that I put to good use (posing on it).

Around 10.30, we checked out of our amazing log huts (still haven't gotten over THAT goodbye) and embarked on a 150-km drive through the dusty hot MP countryside to Rewa, where we planned to go on a safari inside the famous white tiger reserve. Due to navigational troubles and a couple of stops to take pictures of the rural scenery, it took us a few hours to reach Rewa, where the rest of our party was waiting for lunch. We ate at a restaurant opposite to the tiger reserve and hurried over for our safari around 3 PM, when the sun was at its extreme. Luckily, there was a golf cart waiting to ferry us around the reserve and zoo.

The last 3 days have been amazing, filled with all kinds of exciting new experiences. I had a whale of a time travelling through the central-eastern parts of Madhya Pradesh, aptly called India ka ❤. In picture: golf cart that ferried us around inside the white tiger reserve in Rewa. And, of course, me having a good hair day. 

A post shared by Mahima Kohli (@kohliaroundtheworld) on Apr 30, 2018 at 1:28am PDT

As we waited for our safari bus/minivan to take us inside the reserve where the two breeding white tigers are kept, I read up on the history of white tigers in India at the air-conditioned museum cum waiting lounge. What I discovered was nothing short of enlightening - WHITE TIGERS ARE THE SAME AS ROYAL BENGAL TIGERS. They are not albinos or a separate species but indeed the same species. The white colour occurs in some of them because of a lack of pigmentation due to a rare genetic combination. Wikipedia says, "for a white Bengal tiger to be born, both parents must carry the unusual gene for white colouring, which only happens naturally about once in 10,000 births". It means if you breed a white tiger with a yellow tiger, only a yellow tiger will be born. And if you breed two white tigers, it is still not necessary that a white cub will be born.

White tigers have most abundantly been found in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, which was a princely state until Independence. There are several hundred white tigers spread across zoos all over the world right now, and they are all progeny of the white tigers originally found in India. Geneticists observe that white tigers are whiter in hot climates and grow darker in colder climes, which means white tigers in India are always snow-white while those in, say, Bristol Zoo are darker. It is also believed that the last white tiger to be seen in the wild was shot dead in 1958, after which they have only survived in captivity. Hence, we had to opt for the safari in Rewa zoo.

Another interesting thing I found out on the internet is that there are several restrictions in place on the breeding of white tigers in zoos across the world, because in a bid to breed more and more of these 'exotic' beasts, zookeepers resort to inbreeding between related tigers, which results not only in the rare white colour but other genetic defects like arched backs, cross-eyes and clubbed feet as well. Humans will literally resort to any means to make that extra buck, ugh.

Our minivan finally arrived and we set foot inside the reserve, which is built like a forest, the natural habitat of tigers. Safari goers can sometimes be really unlucky, because the tiger may simply be lying in the shade of a cave or dense foliage to escape the sun, and the tourists may not get a single glimpse of the beautiful beings. But we were lucky, because we heard news of both the tigers being out and about in the sun, which meant we could easily see them. And oh boy, we did!

One of them, the female, was literally sunning herself by the side of the road in the SCORCHING sun. It made no sense, since she could easily have been in a cooler place. But luck was on our side. So she sat there looking bored and even looked up at us a few times. It was one of the most exhilarating moments I have had in my entire travel life. The other white tiger, the male, was also found a few minutes later, sleeping after his afternoon meal in a cooler part of his pit but still visible from our van.

They say the thrill of encountering Bengal tigers in the wild is unparalleled, and I heartily agree. But to be so close to this rare animal that few people have seen or will ever see in their lifetimes - it was really amazing!

On our way back from sighting the white tigers, we were taken to a few other enclosures around the zoo. I saw a sleeping cheetah, another couple of white tigers, a lion, a few Black Bucks, and a yellow Bengal tiger (who seemed nothing like the regal beasts we had encountered less than 24 hours ago inside Bandhavgarh forest). The highlight of this leg of the trip was the Black Buck, an animal I had first seen in my childhood in fat encyclopaedias (I was a nerdy kid) and a Discovery show on TV. I had always fantasised about seeing a Black Buck for real. In Rewa, I finally saw one in all its glory. (Couldn't get Bhai's face out of my mind for a long while after that though 😂)

The Black Buck was so elegant, and such a poser!😍

We set out on our return journey to Jabalpur after a good two hours at the Rewa reserve spent up, close and personal with wildlife. On the way, we witnessed the most stunning sunset over the Vindhya hills. Needless to say, I stopped the car by the roadside to capture the scene. It turned out rather well, thanks to the cyclist.

Sunsets have a magical quality about them. No matter where you are, and in what kind of a mood or situation, when the sun sets you will find yourself stopping to take notice. I took this shot on the way back from Rewa to Jabalpur. We were passing through a town and evening traffic was upon us. But I stopped the car by the curb and waited for breaks in between passing vehicles to capture this stunning sunset over the Vindhya hills. The appearance of the cyclist was pure bonus.😄

A post shared by Mahima Kohli (@kohliaroundtheworld) on May 3, 2018 at 4:34am PDT

Day 2 in the heart of India went by in a flash, and in hindsight, it was as exhilarating and full of new experiences as Day 1 in Bandhavgarh had been. Back in Jabalpur for the night, I was happy, relaxed, and as excited as ever for more adventure. In the end, Day 3 turned out to be less about adventure and much more about local sights and places made famous by Bollywood. But it revealed a side to Madhya Pradesh that I could scarce have imagined the existence of. More details in the next edition of my three-part MP travelogue!

***

The third post in this series about how I spent Day 3 in the Heart of India is coming up super soon, I promise. Meanwhile, head over to my Instagram and show some loooouve! 😍😁

Gorgeous in Winter, Mesmerising in Fall | Tsomgo Lake, East Sikkim

9th Sept: It was cold and wet outside. I lay in bed, clutching the blanket to my throat, wondering what had gotten the Gangtok weather so drafty all of a sudden. The room was flooded with natural light, and I could see what a mess we all had made the night before in our room. I looked up at the window and, in that one glance, knew the sun wasn't going to be up in the sky today. The next moment, the guys were outside our door, blaring music on the speakers in a bid to get us out and ready to go. So I jumped out of bed, skimpily clad for a chilly morning like that, and rushed to the bathroom to get ready. This day seemed promising.

The view from my hotel window. The clouds are covering the valley, which is otherwise visible on a clearer day.

 

Permits and permissions: A horror story?

We set out early, for we were told that the security forces didn't allow cars past the first entry point on the road to Tsomgo lake and Nathu La. We even had to arrange ourselves in the cars according to the grouping of names on each of the three permits we had obtained the previous day for our journey. As fate would have it, we reached the first entry point a little after 10 am - the supposed deadline - and we were dreading not being allowed to go ahead. But the officers let us continue our journey without any reprimand, though with strict instructions not to take any pictures in the military area on our way uphill. Like responsible citizens and travellers, we kept our promise and only took pictures/videos where there was no obvious sign of military presence.

The drive up rugged mountains and winding bends was memorable, especially for the way the clouds totally covered the valley as we ascended to higher reaches. It was a bumpy ride, as the roads were in bad condition because of recent rains. You could see local men and women labouring away on particularly dangerous stretches of road, removing rocks and debris so that cars would pass without accident. Tsomgo Lake is 35 km from Gangtok, and there is a steep rise in height from 5410 ft (Gangtok) to over 10,000 ft within the first 15 km. Literally nothing but a white fluffy blanket was visible from the car window through most of the drive. The air was clammy and there was more than just a nip in the air, so we stopped for hot tea and bought woollen caps and drapes on our way up to save us from the icy winds.

I made a short video clip of the drive. Watch the clouds play hide and seek over the valley as soulful music plays in the background.

Tsomgo Lake: More beautiful in the winter or fall?

I will admit, I had embarked on this trip with little research and a blind trust on the beauty of the Himalayas. I knew the general itinerary and believed we couldn't go wrong with anything on this trip. What I hadn't thought of was the drastic change I would go on to witness at these places that I had already been to in December 2016. It was unbelievable for me how much Tsomgo Lake, and the entire area around it, had changed in a matter of a few months just because of a change in season. The rugged brown mountainsides of the winter had given way to lush greenery, and the shiny blue water of the lake now appeared silvery-green, shrouded in mist and low-hanging clouds. You can see the change - I've got pictures for comparison.

December 2016 - 'Before'

September 2017 (nine months later) - 'After'

It was during this second trip that I also realised Tsomgo Lake, viewed from this point, looks like an inverted map of the Indian subcontinent.

I cannot possibly decide if Tsomgo Lake is more beautiful in winter or in the fall. I'm waiting to visit in the summer next year. I'll post yet another set of pictures, and we'll compare all three. Though I'm sure there won't be a verdict even then. This place is as mesmerising in fall as it is gorgeous in winter!

 

Are we being responsible as tourists/travellers?

Another change I discovered over my two visits to Tsomgo Lake, nine months apart, was the impact of garbage on the beauty, and probably ecological balance, of the place. At the same spot along the edge of the lake, where I'd found crystal clear blue water last year, I found accumulated garbage and algal blooms this year. While the algal blooms may be a natural phenomenon owing to the season, I strongly believe they had something to do with the pollution caused by the garbage left behind by tourists as well.

Clear waters in December 2016. The tourist season hadn't begun in full swing yet, I guess.

September 2017. Off-season, but I am guessing no one bothered to clean the lake after the last tourist onslaught.

Would you believe these two pictures were taken at the same spot? It's a shame, what we're doing to our fragile mountain ecosystems and water bodies in the name of 'finding ourselves' and discovering new 'offbeat' places to travel to. Can't we simply take our garbage back with us to the cities, to designated garbage bins, where we can at least be partly sure it'll be disposed off properly? Plastic, liquor bottles, food packaging and the rest of our modern wastes do not belong in the lake or the mountain valley, much as they don't belong at the beach or the riverside. Be mindful while you travel. Don't litter. MAKE SURE YOU CARRY YOUR LITTER BACK TO WHERE IT BELONGS.

I have read one too many research articles about the weak ecosystem of Ladakh being destroyed by the onslaught of tourism since the turn of the century. Let it serve as a cautionary tale - don't destroy nature for your pleasure. Be a responsible traveller, and the planet will reward you with its bounty. I encourage more travellers to discover the sheer joy of travelling through Sikkim, but I desperately hope they do not end up turning the relatively untouched ecosystem of Sikkim into yet another dumping ground for tourism and modern capitalism. I will not be able to bear that loss.

*****

Also read the previous post from my Sikkim travels- Stairway to Heaven: Yumthang Valley | North Sikkim.
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Stairway to heaven | Yumthang Valley, North Sikkim

In early September 2017, I went road tripping through North Sikkim with a group of perfect strangers. I'd signed up for it with high hopes from the whole experience. Little did I realise I would end up discovering the stairway to heaven! Why don't you see for yourself? Here is the first of my many heavenly experiences from the trip.

5th Sept: I stood on top of the world

The sky above my head was an infinite blanket of the softest blue. White cotton-candy clouds hung low over grey-blue cliffs. A cow grazed nearby while its little one suckled up to it. A stream of sparkling clear water flowed in the distance, reflecting the blue of the sky. And I stood there, transfixed. I was at the centre of the most exquisite landscape I'd ever seen. To think of all those stories about the beauty of the Swiss Alps and the English countryside that pop culture has fed us for so long! I couldn't help but wonder - why did no one ever talk about THIS PLACE? Was it even real, what I stood before, or was I in a dream?

View of the valley from a height of 13000 feet.

I was on top of the world. Or so I felt, until a sudden shaking under my feet jerked me back to reality and I remembered where I was really perched - atop the luggage carrier of a Tata Sumo Victa. My hands were outstretched and my eyes darted in every direction. I was awestruck. The closest I'd ever come to this kind of awe was back in 1998, when I was a little girl of 7 and had just seen an escalator for the first time. My jaw probably hung loose for a little while on both occasions.

There was pristine beauty all around us, and my fellow travellers didn't waste a moment in whipping out their cameras and taking selfies that I knew were going on social media as soon as we had network reception and landscape shots that would adorn their desktops for months to come. An army truck was stranded ahead of us on the bend in the road, and we had stopped behind them to stretch out our legs and take in the surroundings.

It had only been a day and a half into the trip, but the song 'Bandook Meri Laila' had already become our trip anthem, thanks to these two really amazing guys from Bombay who made the trip a memory worth cherishing forever. So, there we were, in the middle of the road, taking pictures and chatting and giggling away in our little groups, when one of played that song out loud on the speaker. And all of a sudden, right there on top of our cars, all 14 of us broke out into a happy jig.

Several decades from now, I'll be found telling my grandchildren about the most thrilling dance I ever did, with a bunch of crazy strangers, on a winding Himalayan road in the middle of nowhere at the age of 26. I hope they will be awed, because I sure was.

Sikkim's Valley of Flowers: Gorgeous even in the Fall

I had read enough travel blogs to know the best time to visit Yumthang Valley is in the spring, when the valley is flush with beautiful blooms of rhododendron, the State Flower. But believe me, the journey uphill was an absolute treat even in the Fall. We drove on winding roads past gurgling streams, grassy rocks, exquisite landscapes, grazing yaks, and not a single human in sight for miles and miles. We eventually halted at Zero Point - a plain area by the side of a small stream at a height of over 15000 feet. The sun was up in the sky and the water was freezing. We balanced ourselves on a small wooden bridge across the water, and the daring ones out of us dipped their feet in, some even with shoes (not a good idea, in hindsight).

Isn't this landscape so reminiscent of Ladakh and Spiti Valley? A greener, more vibrant version.

Isn't this landscape so reminiscent of Ladakh and Spiti Valley? A greener, more vibrant version.

How can you be in the midst of such alpine beauty and not do a Shahrukh pose?

Do those cliffs remind anyone else of Mordor from LoTR?

Yumthang Valley is home to the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary, which houses over 24 species of Sikkim's state flower. I plan to return here in the summer of 2018 to treat my family to this apparently amazing spectacle.

Yumthang Valley is home to the Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary, which houses over 24 species of Sikkim's state flower. I plan to return here in the summer of 2018 to treat my family to this apparently amazing spectacle.

Roaming around the landscape during one of our breaks in the Valley, I found this little Chorten tucked away in the lap of nature and surrounded by prayer flags. 'Chorten' is the Tibetan word for stupa, which is a mound-like structure that contains relics of the Buddha or Buddhist monks/nuns. Buddhists come here to meditate. Honestly, irrespective of their faith, who wouldn't want to meditate HERE?

The real deal: Travelling during off-season

We started downhill in the late afternoon so that we could reach our hotel before sunset, since it gets dark pretty quickly at higher altitudes. We stopped at a roadside joint on the way to fill our bellies with chai, wai-wai, and freshly-whipped omelettes. That little tin-roofed joint was the only one we could find in the area, thanks to our supposedly ill-timed visit. None of us minded though, because visiting during the off season meant that we had the entire place to ourselves, without crowds throwing around garbage, photo-bombing our shots, and conjuring up what could only be called a fish market.

Indeed, I can not emphasise enough: off season is the best time to discover the pulse of a place without any interference or distractions. I've been in Sikkim during both peak and off season, so take my word for it. The locals spend their time farming and relaxing during the off season, when there are very few tourists and almost no commerce to be done in the countryside. They subsist during these months on their savings from tourist season. I wish my travelogues from North Sikkim, and hopefully other travellers' as well, would encourage more people to visit here during the off-season. It'll help the local populace during hard times and expose the lucky travellers to whole new levels of beauty, serenity, and charm. 

*****

On the last night of the trip, our group went out for dinner and we sat discussing our favourite moments from the trip. Needless to say, mine was the roof-top dance at 14000 feet above sea level. It was nothing less than a personal epiphany.

So listen up, you, who are reading this right now - I know you love to travel. And I hope you will visit Sikkim. You'll find your epiphany, I promise.

Until then, stay tuned! Because many more adventures and pictures from my Sikkim travels await. Also follow me on Instagram and Facebook for a sneak peak into my life, travels, and experiences in real time.