Jaipur - part X - to Ranthambore - highway robbery - literally!

We left Jaipur and headed out on the highway to Ranthambore National Park, about 180km from Jaipur. The roads were decent and things were going along fine when we encountered a rock barrier on the road and a bunch of kids. The driver stopped, talked to them for a bit, then gave them some small amount of money. They moved the rocks and we drove on. It turns out, this is not that uncommon on Holi, they want money for their celebration, and each car only has to give 20 or 30 rupees (50 or 75 cents US). The first three times, it was not a big deal, it seemed all good-natured. As it went on, we encountered more groups and we felt the spirit of it change - the mood of the gangs was uglier, they wouldn't take the amount the driver wanted to give, they crowded around the car and tried to open the side doors, once they pretended to throw a big rock at the car. The driver started trying to speed around the barriers and leave them behind shouting after us. Frankly, it was NOT fun. It is remote out there and we felt a bit vulnerable. Once we came to a bridge with a barrier at one side - there was no one around. Randy and the driver got out and cleared the whole barricade. It seems typical to make a mess and not clean it up when you are done - Indians do not have much civic pride or social responsibility as a general rule. So for the gangs to walk away and leave the barrier up did not surprise us.
These photos show a bunch of cars lined up at a barricade. We were surprised that a busload of people would tolerate the shakedown.










We were in Rajasthan, one of India's larger states. It does not have the nicest terrain - kind of scrubby and flat. But it does have lots of great looking palm trees!
We saw many large fields, with crops being cut by hand. And exclusively by women. We also saw monkeys, and the driver was good to stop and let us take pictures.

And then, something totally cool happened!! We were suddenly in the middle of a herd of camels! Some were off to the side, but there was bunch on the road. And there were babies!! This was so neat! Make sure you play the video - this little guy was running with us!