Tiger Sighting Reminiscence - 28 February 2026

I received an invitation to join a motorcycle tour from Eligio Arturi, Mototouring, Milan, Italy, to join on an upcoming motorcycle tour of Rajasthan, India. I have ridden with Eligio and Mototouring more than once... from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam, for one. After RSVP--ing no, to Eligio, but expressing excitement about the destinations of the Mototouring tour, Eligio suggested I join by car. Herewith is my stream of conscious reminiscence to Eligio about motorcycling in India and sighting tigers.

Eligio,

Thanks for the suggestion of going on the Rajasthan motorcycle trip in a car. Not this time... but you've seriously tweaked my interest. I would like to keep abreast of your India motorcycle trip options... by car... for future consideration.

I love India. In the early '70's Margaret and I lived in New Delhi for 18 months and Calcutta for 18 months. We've been back at least fifteen times, the last trip to Gujarat in 2024.

My only motorcycle riding experience in India:

Circa 2008. Burt Richmond was there... but I don't remember the tour company. Was it Mototouring... you!!?? We motorcycle tour goers flew into Siliguri, West Bengal from New Delhi. We rode Royal Enfield bikes north to Darjeeling, West Bengal and then east across the entirety of Bhutan. From eastern Bhutan we rode south, back into India, to Guwahati, Assam. The chaos, cacophony, dust, and smoke, while riding amidst trucks, cars, busses, pedestrians, motorcycles, animal carts, on the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Setu bridge over the Brahmaputra River from North Guwahati to Guwahati, Assam, India was one of the highlights of my lifetime motorcycling experience.

I've been to Assam on two other (non-motorcycling) occasions (1974 and 2008). Purpose: to visit Kaziranga National Park and ride elephants into the tall grass to see the endangered white rhino. You've probably seen this famous YouTube of a tiger attack at Kaziranga which occurred in 2004: Bing Videos

Tiger sightings at Kaziranga are rare as the tigers stay mostly in the tall grass. Ranthambore, where your tour is going, is considered the best place in India to see a tiger where I was lucky to sight one in 2017. However, when I asked my Ranthambore guide what percent of the visitors there see a tiger, he said, "only 50% in Ranthambore."

Circa 1973 I saw a tiger, on a nighttime stakeout, in Alwar, Rajasthan. India has done a great job rebuilding its tiger population since I saw that tiger in Alwar in 1973. In 1973 the wild tiger population in India was estimated at 1800. There are 3700 tigers in 58 reserves in India today. 75% of the world population of Bengal tigers is in India.

Above: SDT and tiger at Ranthambore, Rajasthan, 2017

2017 - India: Tiger! | Stephen DeWitt Taylor

The Bhutan portion of motorcycle trip wasn't my favorite ride. The trip was well organized, but low visibility dampened the experience.

I met a future good riding friend on the Bhutan ride, Ed Fredrichs from San Francisco. Ed was a San Francisco architect... well connected as a member of the San Francisco based, ultra-uppity, secretive Bohemian Club. He passed away circa eight years ago). Chuck Cobb, former US Ambassador to Iceland, is also a member of the Bohemian Club. I know Chuck from Miami days, where he was a "big." Currently, Chuck and I are both Overseers at Stanford's Hoover Institution; I see Chuck in Palo Alto occasionally.

In 2009, the year after returning from the Bhutan/Guwahati trip, I took the California Zephir AMTRAK from Salt Lake City to Denver and picked up a new Royal Enfield motorcycle. There was no Royal Enfield dealer in Salt Lake at that time. I rode the bike back from Denver to Park City and thereafter put, perhaps, 5000 miles on it before I sold it two or three years later. I remember climbing the Rockies on the 'Enfield, riding westbound from Denver on I-70, not being able to reach more than 50 MPH. I weighed 275 pounds at the time. On the flats I could get 65 MPH to 70 MPH. I enjoyed having the bike. Just moved on to other things. Now I keep a 2023 Goldwing (12K miles) at my house in Ivins, UT and a 2021 Multistrada, my third Multistrada (15K miles) in the Park City house. With three riding friends, in early February this year, completed a 1600-mile round trip (Goldwing): Ivins, UT, Death Valley, CA, Palm Desert, CA, and Harris Ranch, CA, Ivins, UT.

Sorry... you got me started on a reminiscence. It was the mention of India that did it.

PS. Bharatpur. There were so many birds of all types that I asked our guide if the park was really a bird aviary (zoo). The guide also took us off the beaten track to show us a twenty-foot-long python.

PSS. Giorgia Meloni rocks.

SDT