Ranthambhore

It was Febuary 6th, 3:30 am and I had just reached the airport. I met the head teacher and she told me to go stand with my class, I went towards my class and the teacher handed me an orange ribbon to tie around my suitcase. After 15 minutes of waiting we headed inside the airport and we gave our parents one last goodbye. 

We went inside and then we checked in our suitcases and we received our boarding passes and some snack boxes. We then went up the escalator and proceeded for the security check. To my surprise i did not need to take out the camera that was in my bag so less work for me. We then reached our gate and we all sat down. We started chatting, buying snacks, and beverages and my friends and I were making caricatures of everyone.  It was then time to board our flight so I then grabbed my sketchbook and my bag and went on the flight. On the flight I was sitting in the middle of two boys and i just slept on the flight. 

Before I knew it, we landed in Jaipur! We were extremely excited!! We then went out of the plane, collected our baggage, walked to the bus and we were on our way to the Radisson Blu for breakfast. It was so amazing , everything was fresh and the omelets were tender and they smelt so good.  We had stopped for one hour and after breakfast we went for our 3 hours bus ride. We were singing songs at the back of the bus.  After that my friend asked me to tell her about Rajput rulers and she fell asleep. I then also slept due to exhaustion. Soon I was woken up due to the bumpy roads and people screaming. When we were near our hotel all of us were cheering. Wen we got down from our bus we started singing 'I Want It That Way' that became our grade's theme song! 

We then went to eat a scrumptious lunch followed by a quick briefing of the rest of the day and we were then given our room keys.  We dragged our luggage up the stairs and then we went to our rooms. All of us had an hour to unpack get to know each other and settle in. We then explored our room and it turns out the we got the suites. We had a massive bathtub in our room.  All of my room mates snuck in food including gum, candy, chips and even donuts. One of our neighbour's suitcases was locked and she lost the key. So I went to their room and I managed to pick the lock for her. We had to assemble in the lobby with our safari cantor groups for some team building activities. Our group completely failed in twister. These activities were followed by high tea with some yummy pakodas. We then had to go to a meeting hall where they did a presentation of tiger behaviour and we even played some quizzes. 

The teachers came to our at 6:30 to wake us up. I was (surprisingly) the first one to wake up. Then I woke up all of my room mates and I told them to get ready. After getting ready we went to eat breakfast at 7:00. Most of us were half asleep. So after having a smoothie, fruits and some waffles I got up and went to the main lobby area. We were split into two groups, my group (Group B) had to go to an art workshop, followed by a block printing workshop. 

The art workshop was run by the village women of Ranthambore. We went for our art workshop and there we could choose on wether we wanted to use paints or charcoal. I chose charcoal. We had to sketch a portrait of a tiger.  For my friends and I, it wasn't going well at all so we decided to just draw anything we wanted. I drew a palm tree. After drawing we decided to mess around and I took the powdered charcoal and put it on my face to look like a warrior. My friends also joined me in this act and we were then looking like a warrior clan. We checked out the two stores at the workshop but I wasn't interested in either of the shops. After 2 hours it was time to go to the block printing workshop. The block printing workshop was known as 'Dastkar' which translates into handiwork. We made our own pouches using paints and wooden blocks. We had to press the wooden blocks into any of the dyes and then we had to stamp the dyed blocks on the pouch. After that we went looking at souveniers. We tried out clothes took photos and had a lot of fun. After that it was time so we headed back into our cantors and then we headed back to the resort for lunch. 

At lunch we were talking about how our day was going. After lunch we had 1 and a half hours of room time. Three of my guy friends wanted to see how big our rooms were. My room mates anyway left to hang out with their friends. So the boys came and they were really jealous. They told us that thier full room was the size of their bathroom and we were proud. One of my closest friends adn I couldn't belive their room was that small. So they also said that they will show us their room. They were right, their room was really small but in their rooms the TV was working and they had an indiviual terrace per cottage. So we went up to their terrace and we were partying and playing UNO. One of the guys won though. We then were playing football on the the terrace and it was extremely fun.

The teachers came to wake us up at 7 am.  We had half an hour to get ready. We all got dressed and we all agreed that today all of us would shower at night. Following that, we went down to the restaurant for breakfast. After that Group B (my group) had to go for community service today whereas Group A had to go for the art and block printing workshop. For community service our group had to go to a school called 'Blue Star Academy'. Over there we played games like Kho Kho, Dodgeball, Dog and the Bone and even some Football.

We even had some time to interact with the children and we even got to see a minature love story unfold. We were having a lot of fun with them but our teachers told us that it was time to go. After a long and sad goodbye we left to go back to the hotel. Our whole grade had lunch after we reached the resort. After lunch we had some room time those three boys, my close friend and I went to the lawns and we were playing and dancing. 

After that it was time for our safari. In our second safari we went to Zone 4. In zone for we saw a giant family of chitals (spotted deers). We also some birds. We came back at 6:30 pm for high tea and snacks. It turns out that one of my friend's cantors saw 5 tigers, 2 sloth bears, a leopard chasing a cheetah and an eagle ripping off a snake's head. It sounded like they had one of the most epic safaris ever. 

The teachers woke us up at 5:45 am in the morning. We were still knocked out after yesterday but we somehow managed to get up. I got ready and then I realized that today morning that we were going to visit the fort. I packed my bag, got ready then went down to check on one of my friends because she was sick. After checking on her I went for breakfast. We had a light and cold breakfast because we had to walk a lot. We then hopped in our cantors and we went to see the fort. We walked around the fort as the guide told us about the history of the fort. Temples, tanks, large gates, and tall walls define the fort. 

Ranthambore Fort, built in 944 AD, has been the scene of numerous sieges and wars. The conflict between Rao Hamir and Alauddin Khilj, the Sultan of Delhi, in 1301, is arguably the most well-known of the conflicts it has survived. We went up to the highest point in the fort and then we saw one of the most amazing views that I have seen. You could see a giant lake surrounded by tree everywhere. We even saw that there were some animals coming to drink from the lake. It was amazing. We  even saw the queen's bathing pond and it was massive. 3 hours passed and then we knew it was time to go back for a nice and hot breakfast. We came back to the resort, had breakfast and then we went for a session on 'Biomimicry'. It was one of the most interesting sessions we had. I even slept for a little bit in the 2 hour session. Then it was time for lunch. 

We had a scrumptious lunch and then we had 2 hours of room time. I was feeling pretty sick so I just crashed out and went to sleep. Then my friend and one of the boys came to my room to check on me. I was feeling better so I got up and then I went down with them so that we could play Monopoly. We were having a good game of monopoly but then we heard somebody crying so then the five of us ran out to see who was crying and it a  boy who was trying to cause drama because he hit his room mates. Bit his room mates did not hit him and then he was causing a huge fiasco.  At two instead of assembling on the lawn we assembled in the meeting hall and we were all worried that something happened. One of the guides told us that the forest officers had gone on strike that day. The guides were trying to do. the best they could to let us go on our last safari in Ranthambore. After half an hour of trying they let us all go to Zone 6. And all of us were cheering. We hopped in out cantors and set off on our last safari. Zone 6 was quite dry and arid. It did not have many animals. But the scenery was breathtaking we only saw a few birds. While we just took a break in the cantor next to us a guest and the guide were fighting and the guest punched the guide on the nose and the guide then had blood on his nose. We were all surprised by this scene and we also scurried away.

We then saw it was time to go to the resort for a folk night. As it was the last time we all came together as one to Ranthambore. So we were singing songs like Waka Waka, We Will Rock You, I Want It That Way, I'm Good, Dreamers, World Cup, Careless Whispers and even Believer. We came back to the resort and the teachers told us that we should wear our nicest clothes immediately. My friend lent me some of her jewelry and  I wore a cream colored top with black jeans.  Everyone came looking stunning after that we went to the garden. We then saw that there was a band of musicians, a dancer and even two actors. After a few dances that were mesmerizing. The dancer asked if two people could come on stage so my friend and I both went on stage and then we started dancing to ghoomar with the dancer. We had no idea that the dancer left and sat down to see us dance. The dance was amazing and we were in complete synchronization. Our friends were shocked but they loved it as well after that everyone came on stage to dance.

There is not too much to say for this day. We woke up all of us had a shower, we then went down for breakfast with all of our luggage. This was our final meal at The Tigress so we were all really sad because we wanted to spend a week here. We then went our to the ground where we were singing Careless Whispers followed by I'm Good and We Will Rock You. We then had to settle down because they were giving the prize for the neatest room. We then had to share some feedback about the trip. After that session we took some photos.