Tiger Reserve

4:30 AM.  That's what time I woke up.  I don't like waking up anytime before 7 AM.  But, it was for good reason.  We went to a tiger reserve!  We had to wake up really early for the 7:30 AM boat ride through a protected area in the Western Ghats for tigers and other wild animals.  When we got to the reserve, we had to wait for probably an hour in the bus.  We had to get there so early because the line builds up quickly and people are crazy!
Before the bus was inside the reserve, three people had to get out and go in the reserve before everyone else to try and get tickets for everyone on the first boat ride.  I guess they had an auto-rickshaw race with other people and then had to run to the ticket line.  The rest of us were in the bus.  When the bus got into the reserve, we were speeding through to get to the parking area and then our driver hurried us off the bus and everyone sped walk to the ticket line.  We were all sleepy and had no idea what was going on or why we were walking so fast.  Well, once we got to the line, we realized that one person in a group will run to get in line and then the rest of the group would try to budge in front of everyone else to meet up with the first person.  It was pretty chaotic.  Since we didn't know what was going on, all the people that were on the bus waited in the ticket line for a couple minutes until our driver told us to get out of line.
We met up with Jerry and the three who went ahead.  They told us what they had to do and that they had bought tickets for everyone.   They were in such a hurry to get tickets that they had to make up names for some people because they couldn't remember them.  They were some pretty funny names.  I was glad that we didn't have to stand in that line.  There is not really any concept of waiting in line here.  It's kind of a free for all.  Personal space also does not exist.  They will get right up behind you so no one can budge in front of them.  I personally like my space.  Just one of those things I enjoy.  Anyway, we took our boat ride through the reserve, but unfortunately did not see any tigers.  We did see elephants, bison, wild boar, lots of birds, and monkeys, though.  The monkeys were after the boat ride.  They were in the trees over the walking area.  I even took pictures of them for you... even though I don't like monkeys.  They're creepy.

Bison

P.S. "Don't feed the monkeys." There are signs everywhere that say that. Nonetheless, this guy pushed a bag of something toward this monkey, then tried to take it away once the monkey started to pull on it. The monkey was not having that and swatted at him.  So, the lesson is: don't give monkeys food and then try to take it away. 

After the tiger reserve, we had lunch, stopped at a spice shop that sold spices from the plantation we visited, toured a tea processing factory, and took a long drive to our hotel home in Trivandrum.  It's good to be "home."

Flowers: