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Since 1979 people have entrusted their dreams with us. Ibex has been a leader in adventure travel, off-the-beaten-path holidays, wildlife safaris, special interest vacations and deluxe escorted journeys in luxury hotels & camps or quaint lodges. Our endeavour is ensure that our trips benefit the environment and communities. We welcome each one to our Incredible India!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tuesdays for Tomorrow

~ 20 Days of Learning ~



The students of Chitardai are benefiting greatly from the 20 days of work by our volunteers.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Vintage Monday

~ Elephant Trails ~

Adventurers set off for jungle trek on elephants
By Eamonn Fitzpatrick




Two Hongkong adventurers will set out on an international expedition later this month through the jungles of southern India on elephants - the first such trip of its kind.

Public relations consultant, Mr. Chris Lonsdale and his wife, My Anthea Chan Fung-tei, will leave the territory on Saturday to join the Kerala Elephant Expedition 1990.

"The aim of the expedition is to arouse public awareness over the rapid destrusction of the world's forests and the need to protect the environment", Mr Lonsdale said yesterday.

"My wife and I have never been in a jungle before and it is unlikely that we will have another chance.

"In just a few years all of the world's forests will have been permanently destroyed", he said.

Conservationists estimate taht about 12 million hectares of tropical forests are lost each year around the globe, and 40 million hectares of India's 74 million hectares of forest land are already severely degraded.

"Satellite data shows that India continues to lose forests at the rate of 1.3 million hectares per yearwhich means that even discounting population increase, the country will be without forests in 27 years", Mr Lonsdale said.

"An examination of the results of forest destruction in India shows us clearly what is going to happen to the whole planet if we continue this madness."

Veteran Indan mountaineer and adventurer, Mandip Singh Soin, who invited Mr Lonsdale when they met on the Arctic ICEWALK expedition in April last year, will lead the team of 13 which will include nine Indians and two Britons.

The $120,000 expeditions, which will use nine elephants, will set out on January 17 from Trichur on the west coast of India and travel 250 kilometres inland on an unchartered route through dense jungle.

The journey will take the team through two wildlife sanctuaries in Kerala state before arriving at the Perimbakalum wildlife sanctuary on the border of Tamil Nadu.

The group hopes to complete the expedition within 15 days and the journey will be recorded on film.

The couple will return to Hongkong in early February and plan to give a series of lectures and slide shows to organizations and schools.

10-day adventure expedition


The elephants trundled their way through the dense forests of Kerala. And seated on them, besides their mahouts, were 11 adventurers with a mission. One of their primary concerns was environment as they travelled on elephant back through Trichur and Palagat districts of the State besides passing through Parambaikulam Wildlife Sanctuary.

The leader of the expeditions was Mr Mandip Singh Soin, an avid trekker and mountaineer. According to him, the 10-day long epedition was undertaken to promote the spirit of adventure. More importantly, there awas also the objective of creating environmental awareness and to ake people realize how ecological issues were critical for the very survival of the human race.

Traversing a distance of 101 kilometres during their expedition, the group collected all non-biodegradable garbage en route and brought it to Cochin. Further, members of the group studied both the wildlife and vegetation in the Parambikulam Sanctuary and climbed the highest peak there.

According to Mr Soin, the group collected sufficient information to promote ecological awareness about the State. Further, this could also be used to promote tourism in the State, he said. Besides the Kerala Government, various other individuals and organizations also extended their support to the expedition.   
 

Friday, April 26, 2013

Friday's Feature

~ Inspirational Tales

from an Intrepid Explorer ~


How Mandip Singh Soin "enthralled, amused and humbled the students, staff and community members at the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) with an extraordinary acount of his four decades of travelling adventures"

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Testimonial Thursday

~ What More Can We Say? ~


Our experiences with Ibex have been nothing short of fabulous. They take care of every little detail. They get to know what you’re interested in and tailor your experience accordingly. Some people like to shop – and Anita Singh Soin is a master shopper! Others like Ayurvedic treatments, still others like cultural performances, or you can just stroll and explore. 
We had the most memorable vacation in Kerala. I can still smell the spices. We met locals, talked with spice plantation owners, had plenty of time for photography and video. We floated the canals of Kerala in riceboats and in the evening our friends hooked up their boats together and we walked from one boat to the other to the other till we were all on the dinner boat where the crew cooked up a luscious meal.
Considerate, individualized, respectful, exciting, surprising, delicious...and no hassles. We traveled in comfort and were able to focus on our experience not the logistics. What more can we say?

- Pat and Russ

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Wildlife Wednesday

~ Back from the Forest ~


The Soins - Mandip, Anita, Himali and Himraj - and Ibex Knight Shumeet Banerji, returned from Ranthambore last night.








The forest is dotted with Chhattris from a lost age. A forest peers over it, as if to protect those that roam wild, from the whims of the weather. This weekend, they circled the Padam Talab, where they found the Machhli tigress cooling off in the late afternoon heat.












Beside a variety of birdlife, such as the Golden Oriole, they witnessed a story in the wild: a deer mating another, a peacock and a sambar chatting, an egret and a wild boar, and even a hare and a jackal, all in symbiosis.











They stayed at Sher Bagh, a set for the Far pavilions, a portal back into the British Raj, replete with leather-bound books, old hunting hats, binoculars and brass straps.

 









Get in touch for more information on our wildlife safari holidays! www.ibexexpeditions.com

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Tuesdays for Tomorrow

~ The Village Children Say, "How Are You?" ~

 


Ibex collaborates with Pack for A Purpose as their agent in India. Volunteers offer their knowledge and guidance to Chitardai school in Rajasthan, to teach its teachers, in order to improve the quality of education provided in rural India. A great deal of importance is given to learning English.

Get in touch to find out more on our humanitarian projects in India and abroad!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Vintage Monday

~ Footnotes from Jaisalmer ~


Jaisalmeri jootis, synonymous with brilliance of colour and an exquisite craftsmanship, are also reminders of a vanishing line of craftsmen, says ANITA SOIN.

In Jaisalmer, all roads lead to the mojado or jooti (leather shoes) shops, standing cheek-by-jowl in colourful confusion.

Within its golden walls, amidst the maze of cobbled alleys and between the din of people, children, camels and vegetable vendors, the tiny jooti shops appear quite distinctively in exotic rushes of colour, beckoning the passerby.

Some of these shops are housed in havelis, mansions of the rich with carving and latticework of amazing intricacy in glorious profusion. It is hard to believe that behind these filigree facades live men and women with occupations and interests that demand resilience and determination, for the desert can be extremely desolate for most of the year. As one admires their architecture, the amazingly similar workmanship strikes one. The one displays embroidery in stone and the other in leather.

These embroidered shoes of Jaisalmer have a brilliance of colour and pattern seen all over Rajasthan, though they appear especially quaint in jaisalmer as a reminder of a vanishing lineage.

Sticking to tradition has been tough for the jooti maker. As Vikas Chander Kumar observes, "Our business has been prospering, though it still remains seasonal. Our major buyers are foreigners or Indian tourists, but a small percentage of locals and villagers also buy".

"The pattern differs in Delhi where the sale is only local," notes S. S. Obrai, manager of the Rajasthan handicrafts Emporium, at Baba Kharak Singh Marg, who prefer to get their stocks out of jootis for  the emporium from the more commercial centres of Jodhpur and Jaipur.

Jaisalmer being a more remote destination, restricts its sales ti the city itself. A few like Chander have noticed the changes in demand and have diversified into other products. Allowing his brother to handle the task of crafting the jooti, he manages marketing and sales.

Hansraj, Kumar's father, takes tremendous pride in his ancestral work. He reminisces of a time when this art was used mainly for the shingar or decoration of saddles of camels and horses. In some shops, the decorative saddlery with embroidered or applique work can be found even today. They have incorporated a variety of styles and fashioned the leather into belts, shoes, hats, bags and passport holders with beautiful embroidery in a mosaic of colours, patterned with tiny mirrors.

Hansraj sadly believes that work is not as prosperous and value for this art is not as it used to be. A proud Rajput, he claims that he would rather fight or steal than beg. The spirit of courage reflects in the product he creates.


The delicate flow of design embroidery and selection of colour is attributed to the womenfolk who ply the needle with dexterity and for whom needlecraft is an intrinsic part of their folk culture. Even the most modern Rajput women will never be seen working in the shops. The do the embroidery in purdah at home, leaving one to wonder at the coordination between the rhythm of the needle and the leather, done as it is through a blurred veil!

The threads weave a subtly coloured pattern and the more ornate ones of princely Rajasthan are embroidered with fine gold thread with an earthly vitality. Popular motifs are gorgeously plumaged peacocks, elephants, flowers and geometric patterns in a variety of stitches - stem, herring bone, double-cross and twisting cross, all of amazing richness. A popular colour combination is pink and emerald green. Many of the designs are inspired by nature - the colours of the setting sun, the patterns in the sand and the ocean waves.

Though there is quite a conducive market for the products in the peak season, Girdharilal, another mojadi maker, feels it does not justify the time and labour taken. The products seem as if they were mass produced but it is obvious that production is a painstaking process. A day sees one worker producing only one jooti. Another full days is spent in embroidery. This might take longer as the jootis often have to be sent to tribals as talent for the embroidery is becoming rare.

In a month, only 30-35 jootis are produced. The work continues with the same minute execution through the summer months to enable the stocks to pile up for the busy winter period. "After all the effort, the returns are just enough for one to survive", states Girdharilal. Born a Rajasthani Marwari, he has been in the business for four decades but feels most certain that the future generations will turn to alternative occupations and further education as profits are minimal now.

As Girdharilal observes, with the leather costs per jooti being Rs. 40 and a day's labour is Rs. 20, and materials such as oil thread and dyes another Rs. 3, it leaves a paltry sum as profit, as jootis sell between Rs. 40 and Rs. 100 per pair. Part of the problem is the non-availability of the leather. Until recently, curing was easily possible in Jaisalmer but now the shoes have to be sent to Jodhpur which increases the cost of transportation.

They try and compensate by capitalising on the tourist influx, when the rates are conveniently exaggerated. And so the desert festival in February, Holi in March and the tourist season in December are peak tourist periods.


Traditions and quality vary from district to district. Each area has its own style highlighted by legend, which can only be distinguished by a Rajasthani. For instance, the oldest rounded shape is called a badashya whilst the thick leather, Jaisalmeri jooti is called kaseeda. Resembling Gandhi's wooden scholls, these are mainly worn by men, but in modern cities ladies consider them high fashion. This is found all along the border in restricted areas such as Barmer.

As far as tastes go while Indians go for the brightly coloured or zari-embroidered jooti, the westerners settle for the plain, unshaded ones. Though traditions die hard, even the isolated jootiwallah of Jaisalmer is aware of the changing trends and styles and modifies his patterns to suit individual tastes.

Surprisingly, the Jaisalmeri jooti is spotted only rarely in Delhi. There may be several lookalikes but the quality and essence found in Jaisalmer is missing. Obrai confirms the fact, "Though jootis can be found in abundance all over Delhi, there is a difference. It's not only the leather, the craftsmanship or the style, it's the basic workmanship history which is very different from the Rajasthani jooti".

In spite of being proud of this art, surprisingly, india does not and cannot export jootis as they do not meet the stringent standards of the Leather Corporation of India to achieve the ISI mark. In Delhi itself, the local sales at the emporium fetch a mere Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 lakh annually.

Every jooti maker secretly knows that soon this art will be extinct yet his personal determination makes him keep it alive as long as there is even a single buyer left.

Each craft of Rajputana has a legend of how it eveolved. And though the young man who sells you your jooti may look quite modern, one knows that the skill and pride with which he crafted it is almost as ancient as the land he lives in. And the beauty as well as the ruggedness of each jooti one sees is differnt in some way from the other, retaining the mystery of this creative art.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Testimonial Thursday

~ Shumeet Banerji at Bandhavgarh ~


Dear Mandip,

I am writing to give you some impressions of the excellent trip organized by Ibex in light of our experience with wildlife travel in Africa and elsewhere. Thank you for organizing another wonderful trip for my wife Della and me in central India. I must say that the trip vastly exceeded our expectations overall.
The secret ingredients of great safari camps in our view are respect for the bush in design, superb naturalists, privacy when you want it and excellent personalized hospitality by the staff.

Best regards,
Shumeet

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Wildlife Wednesday

~ Reni Pani Jungle Lodge ~

 




At Ibex, we take the utmost care in selecting the hotels and palaces and lodges that we offer. Each one is tried and tested by our Directors to make sure you get the best products and the friendly, personal service you're looking for.

Get in touch to find out more!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Monday, April 15, 2013

Vintage Monday

~ Conquering Swargarohini ~


Team to attempt Swargarohini:
New Delhi, Aug 14: A joint expedition comprising Indian, Swedish and US climbers will be attempting the Swargarhohni, one of the last virgin peaks in the Garhwal Himalayas.

The expedition, titled Charminar Challenge International Himalayan Expedition, is expected to scale the 20,000-foot high peak in about four weeks, and are to start out on their expedition on August 16, according to the leader of the expedition, Mandip Singh soin. The peak has been repelling attempts since the 1960s, Soin said.

The seven-member team comprises three Indians, two Swedes and two Americans. All the expedition members are experienced climbers and have been part of a number of successful ascents.
   

Team to leave for Swargarohini today:
New Delhi, Aug 1 (UNI): A six-member international team is leaving on Wednesday in a bid to conquer one of the last major challenges on the Garhwal Himalayas - the 20,506-foot Swargarohini I.

In fact, if mythology is to be believed, the last people on Swargarohini I were the Pandavas who, with their wife Draupadi and dog, chose to leave the earth by climbing this peak which literally means path to Heaven.


Regular attempts to climb this peak, which is the highest of the five peaks of the Swargarohini massif, since the early half oh this century, have failed. Quite a few expeditions reached up to Swargarohini II through which the attempt to I has been made, and could go no further.

The Charminar Challenge team, consisting of three Indians, two Swedes, and an American, hopes to get atop Swargarohini II in an Alpine style push and from there go on to the difficult and exposed ridge to Swargarohini I.

The three Indians - Mr. Mandip Singh Soin, Dr. Tejvir Singh Khurana, and Mr. Charu Sharma - and Swedes, Mr. Ake Nilsson and Mr. Birger Andresh had, in 1986, made the successful ascent of Mount Meru, another mythologically important peak using the Alpine push.

In the Alpine Push, the team does not set up camps on the way to the peak, but will bivouac at night by digging snow holes or cutting ledges to sleep. No tents will be used beyond the advance base camp at the foot of the massif.

Joining the Charminar Challenge team, this time is Mr. Jeff Marden, an experienced American mountaineer, who after returning from the peak, will be studying Carntaic music in Madras.

The approach to the Swargarohini is upwards from Dehra Dun towards Netwar, through "Har ki Dun" and into the beautiful Ruinsara Valley.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Friday's Feature

"~ Madagascar ~


... It's good for the morale

By Himali Singh Soin

The high notes of "C'est bon pour le morale - It's good for the morale - reverberated in the rugged landscape of Madagascar. Despite its start poverty, the capital of Antananarivo, where we fly into, is a happy place. A zest for life, generosity of heart, and a deep belief in nature and its gods render everything "c'est bon bon". It's all good.

I am in Madagascar because my family has a penchant for searching out raw, undone landscapes. Filled with curiosity and a sense of adventure, we explore the country on foot, by cart and by boat, discovering the land with the greatest endemic biodiversity on the planet, testing our physical limits. We trek through deep jungles in search of all species of lemur and chameleon, flycatcher and orchid. We cross the red laterite earth on ox-carts, a thousand white phosphorising Comb Ducks, Helmeted Guineafowl, Black-Banded Plovers flying above us.

We climb the tsingy - giant tentacular rock formations, worshipped by the Northern Antakarana tribe (the Tsingy de Bemaraha national park, the biggest protected area in Madagascar, is a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site). The tsingy are fearsome, jagged karsts, and ascending them through dark cracks and vertical rock faces is a test of nerves.

We spend three days on the river Tsiribihina in dugouts, floating through valleys and crouching in grassland. We explore the bat-ridden stalactites and stalagmites, the ethnic villages, and the rough purple gorge of Bemaraha. Cockroaches and crocodiles co-habit the land: a natural claim to harmony.

During our last three days, we sail in a traditional dhow, along the Mozambique Channel. warm belly, eager ears and the sentiment of "C'est bon pour le morale" fills me up, and I sing with the crew. The king of an island tribe accompanies us on the boat on the last day, and as we catch crabs for lunch, he blows his conch. sanguine sky, glassy sea: we are alone, we and the king and all the water.

The tumoral neuron heads of the famous Baobab punctuate the sunset. Lemurs sit molded to one another, white, fluffy, sunlit. Barefooted, unbathed children play with makeshift toys, blowing up heart-shaped balloons in my eyes. A savage landscape, a song is whispered, now a gentle one.

 Himali flew from Delhi via Mauritius on Air Mauritius and Air Madagascar.
Her trip was organized by Ibex Expeditions (www.ibexexpeditions.com)"

Get in touch for more information on Ibex's journeys!