Visit to Bannerghatta National Park

2 weeks ago, I went on a little Safari trip west of Bangalore. Yeshwant, one of the drivers, accompanied me there. He came to pick me up at 8 am and we were on our way. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there. I wanted to be early to avoid morning traffic and be on time for the park opening. Once we arrived, we stopped at a little “shack” to grab some breakfast. I was a little apprehensive to grab something from the street and eat it but I figured that was my only option this far away from town, so I jumped right in. I ordered a plate of fried noodles and Yeshwant and I waited under this huge tree for our food to be served. After couple seconds, I felt like things were moving over my head. I looked up and sure enough, a family of monkeys was staring at us. I had never before seen monkeys in the wild. When our food arrived, they acted like dogs begging for food. After our little breakfast, we got some tickets to get in the park and got on with our safari. We jumped into a reconverted school bus with fences welded on it to protect us from the dangerous animals. Yeshwant had a little talk with the driver and got us “special” seats up front were we had a really nice view. We saw some himalayan bears, lions, tigers, white tigers, deers, and some other creatures. I think part of the discussion Yeshwant had with the driver included them taking pictures for me with my camera. It was perfect because it allowed me to spend more time admiring the animals. Of course I had to give them a generous tip at the end but I didn’t mind because I really enjoyed it. After the safari, we went inside the zoo to check out more of the local fauna. We saw some more bears, giant squirrel, crocodiles, monkeys, birds, and my favorites: the cobras. We saw a king cobra. This snake is absolutely terrifying! It’s about 15 feet long, black and apparently if it bites you, you’ll die within the next 10 minutes. We also saw an Indian Cobra. That snake was beautiful. We were lucky enough to see it open its head to reveal the beautiful design on its back. Another man killer but absolutely gorgeous! We finished the visit with some cheetahs trying to chase monkeys of their cage.