Ready or not kitties, here we come!

We arrived in Ramnagar around 6:00 this morning, got a rickshaw to a hotel, and promptly fell asleep until nearly 1:00. This turned out to be a wise choice, as there is not much to do in Ramnagar, and the more time we 'wasted' sleeping, the better. I can't believe we managed to sleep that long, despite being so tired, as our hotel was practically the town bus stop. The buses all have a deafening horn, which the drivers use as frequently as they see fit, i.e. constantly. I think the honking has gotten so out of control in India that they've become useless. No one pays attention to horns any more, as they just keep honking no matter what.

Ramnagar is a small town not far from the Himalayan foothills, and the closest town to the Corbett Tiger Reserve. We dragged ourselves out of the hotel, had some lunch and then wandered around to book a trip into the park. We had to get a permit, book some accommodation, and find a driver. We ended up going with the restaurant where we ate lunch, Govind Guest House and Restaurant. The owner is a friendly man who broke down all of the necessary costs involved and what he offered. He was completely, surprisingly honest. We had been to the Corbett Tiger Reserve's official reception centre and got little help. The assistance we did get was in confusing, not so pleasantly offered English and we had left annoyed and still clueless. We agreed on a price with Mr. Govind (that's not his name, but what we call him) and headed back to the lovely woman at the CTR reception centre to buy our park permits and book our accommodation. We then went back to Mr. Govind with our permit, paid him the money for our jeep and driver, and were done with the hassles of the day.

We walked around the small town of Ramnagar. It's still dirty and smelly and loud like Delhi, but the people here are friendly and seem much more at ease. We happened by some kids playing cricket in a concrete park and watched them for a bit. They were having a great time and seemed to like the fact that we were there. Indians are so mad about cricket, and of course it's the first thing they talk about with us when they find out we're from Australia. We found a place to buy some binoculars, had some dinner, tried to have a beer in the one pub but it wasn't cold, then headed to bed.