18 March 2015 / leggypeggy

No leopards, no sloth bears, but a fantastic cup of chai

Bagheera Camp, chai, cups, leopards, Rajasthan, Rudyard Kipling, sloth bears, tea, water, wildlife

Pottery cups waiting to be used—with a pot of water in the background

India and Africa are teeming with wildlife, but they aren’t zoos.

You might drive into the wilderness with promises of seeing all manner of wild beasts—but don’t count on it.

We’ve usually been lucky on our safari drives, but we’ve certainly had a few disappointments. Bagheera Camp in Rajasthan was one. Apparently sloth bears came through the camp in the night when we were sleeping. Leopards spent the next morning hiding from us.

The place we stayed after Bagheera Camp said don’t tell anyone you didn’t see a leopard. You must be the first group ever not to see a leopard.

You can imagine that had to make us feel bad—and short-changed—but the reality is there are never any guarantees when it comes to wildlife.

We’ve been in the mangroves of the Sundarbans these last few days (more about them soon) and had the extremely rare pleasure of seeing a tiger. Only a glimpse, but it was still a tiger.

A couple of peacocks enjoying a misty morning

The area around Bagheera Camp is supposed to be teeming with leopards and sloth bears, but we saw only a few peacocks and a lot of rocky outcrops.

In an effort to console us, our hostess took us to the best tea/chai shop she knew. It still didn’t quite make up for not seeing a leopard (we still haven’t seen one on this trip) but it was a fantastic cup of chai—and in the middle of nowhere.

The chai maker has quite a system going with a small fire surrounded by a metal shield to keep out the wind. He cranks a small handle to operate small bellows (I presume) to keep the fire going. When the chai is cooked/steeped/brewed, it is strained through a small sieve and transferred to another pan for dispensing.

A big pot for dispensing lots of chai

Stirring chai

Straining chai

The brew is served in small conical-shaped pottery cups that are usually smashed when the drink is finished. I couldn’t bring myself to smash mine, so it is tucked away in my backpack with one sock inside it and another sock cushioning it from the outside.

I’ll let you know if it makes it home. NEWS FLASH: The little cup made it home. Yay!

But back to the chai itself. It was probably the nicest one I’ve had in India—and I’ve had lots. We’ve had one or two a day for more than 40 days. Our hostess says the chai maker has some secrets. He adds local herbs, and she says he can make a chai to perk you up or calm you down. I wonder which one we got?

P.S. We finally saw sloth bears in Barnawapara, but are still hanging out to see a leopard.

P.P.S. Bagheera is the black panther in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

P.P.P.S. We also got to see some local women coming to the communal well to gather water. When you have water flowing freely from taps in your home, it’s very sobering to see what some people have to do to get water.