My Apologies

Well I figured since I gave a shot at the Harley riders out there I would make up for it with this little treat. Have a look at Harley-Davidson Kuwait!

Car snooping

Well I went for a little cruise today to find the Honda Dealership.  Finally located it right beside the Ferrari Dealership...after all they are pretty much the same car.  I knew there were nice cars in Kuwait, I've seen them everywhere but never have my camera with me.  So today I packed up my camera and went for a cruise to find some nice rides.  Here's what I came across.  First off, for the Momma's and Papa's out there; a $500,000 Rolls Royce Phantom.  Notice the rear suicide doors.

Here's a corvette with a strange body kit

Nice 03' Viper for sale

This brand new Audi R8 zipped past me on the road...but I caught him

This was at the gym today.  Brand New Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster LP640

Guy Drove it from Dubai

This lives across the street from us.  Also a Murcielago LP640

Paintballing

Well I was fortunate enough to be able to go out paint-balling today.  I got hooked up through a friend at school who went last year so I got ahold of the guy and planned a skirmish with them.  The group of 18 consisted of mostly Americans with a few Aussies, Brits and Myself. Most of these guys work for the Kuwait Armed Forces and some for the American Embassy.   I headed 70 kms out of Kuwait toward the Iraq border to the location. An old blown up Satellite area with three large buildings and 2 massive 150 ft diameter satellites still standing but in rough shape from the war.  The three buildings we played in were in seriously rough shape from the war as well with holes all over them and evidence of many bombs hitting them.  It was incredible to see the remains of the Gulf War right in your face.  On the drive out I passed a herd of camels along the highway which were being led by a farmer.  That was pretty cool to see.  There had to have been 100 camels.  I snapped a few pictures of whatever fit in the viewfinder.  We had a wicked BBQ when we first got there for everyone to fill their belly's.  Clay had 20 sets up guns, armor, masks, balls, etc for anyone who needed to rent, so we were fully hooked up for about $20.  They also have a 20 gal CO2 tank and 15 gal Nitrogen tank that they bring out to fill up all the little bottles on our guns. So there was no running out of air.  These guys are so loaded up with paintball equipment they can provide enough stuff for 40 guys to paintball all day.  We blasted each other with paint for 3 hrs and had 5 battles with 15 min breaks between each one.  As a first time paintballer I wasn't sure what to expect.  I got laced in the first battle by a guy who ambushed me and unloaded his fully automatic weapon on me from about 20 ft.  After that I knew what paintballs felt like.  I can honestly say they are very similar to taking a dragon fly on the shoulder or arm on a motorcycle at very high speed.  That was exactly what it felt like and I'm used to that so it wasn't too bad.  You Harley riders out there wouldn't know what that is like.  But it really hurts.  Kelly didn't want to come out for this one but maybe she will get enough courage built up to come to the next one with me.  There were a few guys that brought their wives today so everyone is welcome.  I suppose I could work her up to it by whipping her with a wet T-towel for about an hour a day.  That should do it.  Well here are some pictures of the day.  Any questions about any of this stuff feel free to e-mail me at vipondrr65@gmail.com

Cheers for now.

Ryan

Here's our car for those of you who have not seen it yet.

Those three buildings in the background were the ones we used.

Sunset 1

Sunset 2

Kuwait City from about 20 kms out

Agra: Taj Mahal

Well Agra ended up being a little Delhi.  It seemed we were in a small city going there from Delhi and we were, I mean it seemed like maybe the size of Dauphin, then I asked our driver, how many people live here?" he replied, "one million" Ok so maybe not Dauphin but it was a lot smaller then Delhi.  Agra is a major tourist city and therefore children and store owners are everywhere trying to get you to go into their store and buy something.  They pile out on the streets near the Taj Mahal gates and swarm tourists walking by.  Its gets to be a pain in the ass after about... oh 30 seconds.  We were lucky our hotel was only about 50m from the east gate so we didn't get it as bad as the tourists walking down the street from a block away.  The road is blocked off for about a block all around the gates so that traffic does not get out of control as it is a very very busy area.  After touring around the Taj Mahal we grabbed a taxi and had the driver bring us to some common shops in Agra.  Our first stop was a Indian carpet factory.  Ok but as a guy I was unaware that India was famous for carpets, nor did I care very much, until I went to this place.  Wow what an experience.  This factory is run by the Indian Government and all prices are set by them.  Also as Agra is the major Indian Carpet manufacturer there is no tax on any carpet that is made in Agra or within 30kms of Agra.  There were two men sitting in the store making a carpet as we walked in.  A well dressed man came up to us and said, "hello my name is Yogi welcome to my store".  He shook all our hands and started explaining to us all about the making of carpets.  These two men working on the carpet worked so fast you couldn't even tell what their hands were doing.  The owner told the one man to do it in slow motion so we can see what he is doing.  Then all the girls got to sit with him and try one knot themselves.  After that the owner explained to us what makes a good carpet and how to tell a quality carpet from a crappy one.  Its simple, look at the underside.  It should perfectly replicate what is shown on the front.  Then you want to know if a carpet is actually "hand made".  That is easy to tell too.  When the carpet is laying down walk from one end to the other and if it is hand made it will change color from light to dark and from dark to light as you walk across it.  The reason for this is that when a carpet maker ties the knot on the carpet and cuts it with his knife he is always cutting the yarn in the same direction.  This makes the yarn have a slightly different tone on the cut edge.  When carpets are made by a machine the machine cuts the yarn square at the top, like a lawn mower cuts grass, and it does not make for that color distinction.  He then brought us into the warehouse to show us some carpets and served us beers as we watched his men bring out examples and lay them out in front of us.  He assures us, "we ship all over the world" and "shipping is included in the price".  Well we couldn't resist after seeing about 40 carpets and us downing a couple bowls of "loud mouth soup" we ended agreeing we had to get one.  We asked the price of one that was layed out.  It was about 12' x 8' way too big for many living rooms but we were interested.  "$1,688 he said.  So we looked at some reasonably sized ones for homes and they ranged from $400 to around $900.  All shapes all sizes and you can custom order any design and color you want.  Just be prepared to wait 5-9 months for it to be completed.  We bought 3, two where done and the third we ordered so it will be started on right away and completed in about 5 months.  Oh and the workers, they make around $480 per carpet.  Imagine working on something for almost a year and getting 500 bucks for it.  Not this cowboy.

Well thats our time in  Agra for the most part.  One interesting thing about India is that there are a lot of security guards everywhere carrying machine guns.  At the gate of the Taj Mahal, on the train, all around the grounds of any tourist monument.  I can't even count how many times I looked down the barrel of a machine gun pointed at my head as I was on the top bunk on the train.  Damn guards walk by with the gun strapped to their backs and the barrel points right up at anyone sleeping on the bunks.  Geez, tough to get any shut-eye.  Got used to it though after 30 hrs total train time.  I'll tell ya maybe VIA Rail, or Greyhound for that matter, can learn a bit from Indian security.  Give train conductors machine guns and that would smartin up some of those people getting rowdy on the train.  We definitely had calm; cool; collected train rides.

regular road side attraction

not the Taj Mahal

Our train bunks

yup regular traffic in India, cars, trucks, rickshaws, and buffalo

us at the TAJ MAHAL

the Taj Mahal taken from down river at the Agra Fort

men making carpets

us jammed in a rickshaw; luggage on roof rack

another regular sighting in India.  Guys on bicycles carrying... I dunno what but lots of it.

Bandhavgarh National Park

Well this is where we were for 3 days.  Bandhargarh National Park is in Central India and was a 14hr train ride from Agra.  The trains in India are quite fast.  At one point I clocked it at 67mph on my handheld GPS.  We got off at the station and took a van 34kms to the resort.  This was a slow ride.  The roads were everything from sand to clay to asphalt to broken sinking asphalt so we were only able to average about 30km/h.  Once at the resort we checked in and took a nap as it was 6am.  We had this first day to relax as the park was not yet open for the year.  We had to wait till tomorrow.  We woke up at 5:30am and quickly grabbed our things and met at the jeep for 6am.  I wasn't too sure what to expect of this safari as the park has been closed since July and not a single person not even a park ranger has been in the park since then.  We met about 12 other jeeps from other resorts at the park gates all waiting to get in.  As we all got our documents to enter the park we slowly made our way in.  Each jeep is designated to a specific route in the park as to not have everyone on the same road.  After about 10 minutes we rounded a corner in the road and saw about 10 jeeps all parked and jammed up on the road.  People were standing up on the seats, hoods, windshields and roll bars all pointing at the bush.  I thought to myself, "wow these tourists really get excited about spotted deer".  We pulled up and a guide in another jeep said something in Hindi to our guide then he whispered to me, "two tigers right there in the bush"  AHH... PARDON!!  We maneuvered our jeep into place and there they were a male and female tiger growling and roaring at each other.  The sounds echoed through the entire jungle like they were hooked up to a 20000 Watt sub-woofer.  The guide said to me, "they are mating"  Wow; so here we are 10 minutes into the safari on the very first day the park opens and we see this.  Can you say lucky?  We snapped as many pictures as we could and then the jeeps started to spread out again.  Throughout the day we saw, spotted deer, Jackal, red-faced monkey's, wild pigs, a ton of birds and huge jungle spiders.  These spiders had webs the size of truck hoods and themselves were the size of drink coasters.  We went on two jeep safaris each day.  A morning safari; 6am-10am and an afternoon safari 3pm-5:30pm.  We saw these same two tigers on three of the four safaris we went on, however, they were very difficult to photograph on the other occasions.  But we tried our best.  

Kelly is standing in front of our cabin.  Our door is on the right and our friends is on the left.  Its kind of like a duplex.

This is inside the main lodge dinner area.

First tiger spotting

This one was taken through binoculars and then zoomed in

"Common Langral" 

One of the rangers on the elephant

Fresh Tiger prints from earlier in the morning

Day two, same male tiger from yesterday

The walking path from our cabin to the dining room

Wild flower growing in the pond at the resort.  Was about 8" diameter

up in the park hills, my GPS reads "1875 ft"

The meadows