Experiencing the countryside (wild) life in Ranthambore

In the winter of 2022, during my India break, we went for a short 5-day stay at Ranthambore. It was a very convenient trip to plan for, as we were driving there. So, I booked a nice hotel, and we were ready to go. By the way, it was interesting to see the number of luxury hotels that have sprung up in Ranthambore. And of course, their crazy prices! I went for a reasonable option, and thankfully the experiment worked fine.

Inside the park

Booking the safaris was a much longer process though. With some initial research, I found multiple websites offering safaris in the park. After some more research I realised these were all third-party websites and not the direct government safari website. And there was a simple reason for it - the government website was too complicated to use to make the bookings. Somehow, I was able to create a login, register and actually book the safaris directly. But it was confusing and time consuming. (After going through the process, I do realise why the third parties are flourishing).


Getting there

The drive from Gurgaon to Ranthambore is supposed to go down to 4-4.5 hours once the Delhi-Mumbai highway is inaugurated, but for us it was still the longer route we had to take. It took us about 6-7 hours to get there. We drove on the Delhi Jaipur highway for a bit, taking smaller roads for the rest of the drive. Overall, it was a pleasure to drive there and is testament to the fact how much infrastructure in India has improved over the last few years.

The highway till Manoharpur is a road we have travelled on many times. The surprising experience though was a short patch on the highway when the speed limit dropped to 80 kmph and we got an overspeeding ticket there! Anyways from Manoharpur, we turned towards Dausa and Laklot, and drove on smaller roads which were also 4-laned and good quality! In fact, we were still able to drive quite fast through the second non highway part of the route too.

The drive was quite a pleasure – it was through green pastureland, with small hills and some small forts on top of mountains. There were so many guava orchards on the way there. We also saw a lot of colour all around, as Rajasthani women wear much brighter clothes. The yellows and reds and oranges are quite enlivening. We stopped at a random bus stop on the way to have chai, it felt so idyllic. This part of the drive was so much better than the main highway till here.

The last drive stretch

The last stretch was not a good road though. It was greener, and surrounded by fields all around including sarson khet which were yellow at that time of the year. And soon wheat would have been planted. There was a river also running along us through part of the way. But the quality of the road was sub-par.

Very close to our hotel, our GPS showed a shortcut where we took a turn away from the main road and had to drive through villages to go to our hotel. The road was so small, it was definitely not the right way to go. It actually felt tough to drive through. We also had a flat tyre, just before we were to reach our hotel. 4-5 village boys on bikes came and helped us change the tyres. Just like that. It felt amazing, and something I haven’t experienced for a while – strangers helping out like this.


The Ranthambore Heritage Haveli

The haveli

We were staying at the Ranthambore Heritage Haveli and I must say – what an absolute delight it was. It’s a huge hotel built in the style of an old Rajasthani haveli, with courtyards, flowers in the courtyards, painted walls and roofs and the typical chatri architecture of the area, all in a bright yellow. It was open air, with lot of covered spaces to walk around. 

The haveli khats

It had an outdoor pool, and green gardens where they had khat (village beds). Those were our favourites, we sat there every day all afternoon when the sun was out, playing cards or just sleeping. Half our days were spent like that, in the winter sun, enjoying its warmth (the winter sun is sometimes missing from Delhi winters). And there were many sitting spaces on the first floor too, to just sit and chat, from where we could enjoy the sunsets, as the sun cast its last deep yellow shadows on the haveli. It was my favourite place in the hotel, we enjoyed many sunsets from the first floor. It was just so idyllic and blissful over the next three days to be there.

Sunsets at the haveli

The best part of the stay though was the food. We had breakfast and lunch at the haveli, and the spread was just outstanding. Plus the taste of the food was something to die for. The cooks made typical homecooked food every day, with local sabzis, hot naans, ghee, and what not. And the personalised and warm service was just the icing on the cake. We relished each and every meal we had at the hotel, it was just such a pleasure to be there.

The haveli was near Khilchipur village, in a stunning rural setting, with khet all around it. Apparently, most of the hotels and resorts in the area are located nearby, near this Khilchipur village. From the roof we could see 4 other similar havelis nearby, all with the same chatri architecture. And they all had the same broken road to get to. We later did find a shorter route to get to the main road though, which was actually worse, but as it was shorter, it made the whole ordeal of driving out a lot easier.


How the safaris work

Booking the safaris directly is one complicated procedure. There are 10 zones in Ranthambore park for which you can get safari permits for either jeeps or canters. The jeeps can take 10 people at a time, and the canter about 30. There are limited number of jeeps and canters allowed in any zone in any day. And you need to book a jeep or a canter for a specific time and zone beforehand. (These are just the official rules though!)

These safaris can be booked on the Government of Rajasthan’s website. But it is such a mess to book – with registrations first required on two separate websites, logging in is allowed only through gmail (you cannot just create a new login), setting up a profile using buttons you can’t find (!!), and many other hoops you need to jump before you can actually get to booking through the site! I did actually manage to do it after a few days of trying, but it did feel sometimes that it may actually be better to book through all the agents who resell these tours for double the price. The agents book the safaris for you beforehand as well as get the tickets for you on the day, saving a lot of time and hassle.

We booked directly though, and found out the whole procedure only after turning up at the haveli. If you book directly, then on the day of the safari, you need to go to the forest office (which is located near a shilpgram) with your booking and wait for your driver and guide to be assigned. Once assigned, you need to wait for them to arrive and find you. And of course, they all come when they want to, over a 1 hour window. When they do find you, you need to give them your papers. Then you have to go back to your hotel and wait, as the guide and the driver come with the canter or jeep and pick you up from your hotel, about 30 mins later.

The chaos

The process is a mess, and it feels like a macchi market there at that time, total chaos. With the drivers and guides arriving at different times and shouting out for their passengers as there is no way of finding them other than shouting for them! Getting to the forest office wasn’t easy either as the roads are not even pucca and there is no marking. And you end up waiting there for a long time. Thankfully all around were sarson and wheat fields, which was a good time pass in such a rural setting.

But really, in this day and age, this way of arranging safaris is just ridiculous. As I said, if you book through agents, you can get away from all this mess, and you will directly be picked up from your hotel. For double the price, of course. (On the official website, costs for safari are Rs. 1305 (jeep) and Rs. 791 (canter) while agents offer for Rs 2375 and Rs. 1860 respectively. And finding the actual cost of the safari online was tough too).

Also I figured out that even though online there is a limit on the number of vehicles allowed in a zone, once at the forest office, there is no limit on the number of vehicles going into any zone. When a zone has had a sighting (and the probability of another sighting is higher), a lot more vehicles are allowed into that zone! It was quite sad to hear this is how things work on the ground. Also there is apparently a mafia between the guides and the drivers, the more influential guides get the more coveted zones (to get higher tips from customers for having seen the tiger!). It was all so messed up, somehow the whole experience did not feel fun.


Safaris at the Ranthambore National Park

Lakes in the park

Over the next three days, we went on two safaris in the park. One was in a canter in zone 3, the second in a jeep in zone 5. Apparently, there are 80+ tigers in the park. But we had only one tiger sighting, on our second safari only.

Zone 3 is supposed to be the most beautiful zone as it has the Ranthambore fort within the zone as well as a few small lakes. We passed by the fort with its majestic presence, chatri architecture and canons to protect it. It was so interesting to see that a fort has just been abandoned and now resides inside the National Park.

Dried vegetation

We drove in the forest for a few hours, enjoying the wild ambience. The vegetation was mostly dry forests, though the trees looked very old. The forest was not too dense, and the terrain was a bit uneven, with a lot of driving up and down. And the soil had a reddish tinge to it.

Sambhars

There were a few lakes inside and all had some birds and crocodiles next to it. There were also some old structures around the lakes where the kings used to come and rest. During our safari, we saw lots of chital, some sambhar deer, some nilgai, crocodiles and turtles near the lake, a wild boar, some langur and lot of birds. But the tiger eluded us even though we heard a few calls.

Sunset in the park

We did enjoy a nice sunset in the forest though, with the trees suddenly turning orange with the sunset light. Even though it was December, the day had been warm and sunny, but as evening came, temperatures dropped suddenly. And we got cold while coming back from the park. The driver also drove extremely fast while coming back, making us jump on all the potholes of the village roads! It was quite a bumpy ride back. Though the surroundings were nice, the khet and slow village life around.

Fort, inside the park

The second safari was in zone 5. It was a cloudy day that day. We passed by the fort and a stepwell during the safari. There were loads of mango trees around. And the forest was also lovely here, greener, with some waterbodies too. But we didn’t get to enjoy these beautiful forest views. The guide got a call about the tiger being spotted, and we just rushed our jeep to the spot. There were already 15-20 canters and jeeps there, all waiting for the tiger. It was a long crowded queue, of loads of people waiting and making a ruckus. The noise was too much and obviously did not add to the ambience of a wildlife sighting.

Old structures in the park

Apparently, 3 cubs of the famous tigress Noorie were sitting in the shrubs by the river. We could sometimes spot them moving, but not too well as they were quite far off. So everyone just sat there, waiting for some movement. We were there for 2 hours, just waiting for the cubs to move and come into view. Sometimes they did yawn, and walk around. And we tried to catch a glimpse through the binoculars, somehow.

Noorie's cub

After some time, we started hearing some animal calls, and Noorie came to pick up her cubs. Then they all started walking and went into the bushes up the hill. One of the cubs stayed behind though and walked along the river for a bit. He then sat at a spot for 5-10 mins. And then finally we were able to spot it well. We observed it, sitting and getting bored for a while before it went up the hill too.

To be honest, I did not really enjoy the experience, as it felt too staged. As sad as not spotting an animal feels, what feels worse is finding one in a fake manner 😂. The real joy of safaris is spotting an animal just like that. There is no joy going somewhere where there are 100s of people already. There were very few wildlife lovers there, most were there just to photograph the tiger and leave. It was so loud and crowded there, it did not even feel like we were in the jungle. And the whole time, the guide also kept telling us about how things actually worked in the park – how you can give money and get any number of viewings you want. And how more than the allowed number of vehicles can easily get in.

The whole park felt such a commercial enterprise, it was not fun for me. It felt like such a beautiful experience had been spoilt by commercialism. Anyways, in the end we did see a tiger, so that was that.


Ranthambore town

There are many other experiences also nearby, like Ranthambore fort, Surwal lake, Kachida valley safari and going up in a hot air balloon. We did spend one day around town though tried neither of these experiences. We just drove around a bit doing random things. We first stopped at the RTDC centre to buy some Rajasthani handicrafts. Then we went to a few more craft shops to shop for local stuff. We bought lot of things there – suits, rajais and dresses with Rajasthani prints

After that, we drove into town, to the main market near the railway station. The station was quite pretty. We tried exploring the market also but there wasn’t anything interesting there to do. Coming back, we stopped at a local multi-cuisine food court called Chopati, and had food from some of the local stalls – oh my god, the food there was so yum. We ate and over-ate that day. While coming back, we visited the Ranthambore museum on nature. It was quite simple but lovely to see it. And at the end of the day, we again enjoyed another stunning sunset from the top of the haveli. Even though we didn’t have a plan, the day around town had turned out to be interesting.


Overall, we loved our short trip to Ranthambore – the drive there, the haveli, the food, the excursions to the jungle, the village ambience and the slow easy life. I can see us travelling there often, especially with the new highway opening up now. And just like that, the weekend was over. The drive back was gorgeous again. We stopped at a sarson ke khet for a break, the rest was a comfortable drive as there wasn’t much traffic either. Looking forward to the next trip there.