Train to Jaipur

After spending the night in Ranthambore, it was now time to head up to Jaipur for the last leg of our wonderful two weeks in India. We thought of hiring a car, but we were still extremely weary of the crazy drive into the natural reserve. We opted then to take the train; after all we had heard and read from everyone that the best way of seeing India was by train. Were we in for a ‘memorable’ ride: we arrived at the station well in advance, guided by the driver who had picked us up at the Tiger Den Resort (Ian’s non-favorite) and taken us into town. As every single sign was in Hindi, he was kind enough to buy the tickets for us. We knew there were several classes of service in the Indian railway system, but apparently on this train there was only one class. The tickets were insanely cheap, less than $1 dollar each (50 rupees), which is remarkable considering we were embarking in a ~200 km (3 hour plus) journey. We got into a ¨2^nd Class¨ wagon, where it was more like free for all, especially given that there were probably 75% more travels than the designed capacity of the wagon. Ian found ´half´ of a seat, and Felipe climbed up to one of the ´bunks´, neither of us had a pleasant journey. Ian had half of his ‘you-know-what’ hanging in delicate Cirque du Soleil balance on the seat. Felipe rested his body on what felt the hardest surfaces ever known to man, boy, did we wish he had done more yoga during the trip so he could contort his limbs into the tiny space. We endured the three hours or so, and jumped happily out of the train and headed through Jaipur to our restful 24 hour retreat at Le Meridien Jaipur.

Waiting at the train station

Station sign

Leg space galore

Ranthambore National Reserve

RANTHAMBORE

The road to Ranthambore was bumpy – literally the road was lined with potholes instead of asphalt.  Somehow we managed to sleep for part of the trip.  However, as nightfall approached our driver got more and more aggressive on the road.  Keep in mind that about an hour after the Rajasthan border crossing we saw a semi that had crashed into a small truck and killed two people.  These roads are not safe!  And we were starting to get scared.  At one point Felipe told the driver to slow down, which he laughed at.

Our loyal Kumar... even though he is a maniac!

Thankfully, we arrived unscratched at the Tiger Den Resort, around 6:30 pm.  Calling the Tiger Den a “resort” is a bit of a stretch.  We’ve been pretty spoiled by fancy hotels paid for with Felipe's Starwood points or by our generous hosts.  Now we’re on our own dime and we didn’t exactly splurge here.  That said, our room was clean (if cold) and the food was mostly appetizing.  Anyway, we were in Ranthambore for tigers not posh hotels!  We made a brief appear…and I just saw a rat run by our feet as I’m typing this.  We’re outta here!!

Okay we’re back in the (relative) safety of our room.  Now for the main event…the reason for our trip to Ranthambore…tigers!  Let me put it this way: we didn’t see any.  (Addendum: we saw five Jewish tigers lighting a Menorah. Ed note: inside joke) Not a single tiger crossed our path during the two 3- hour safaris we took into the park today.  We would be more bummed if we hadn’t had a great time anyway.  Our guides were lovely and pointed out all kinds of other interesting creatures of the nature reserve – a sloth bear (apparently an even rarer spotting than the tigers, sanbar deer, spotted deer, two different kinds of kingfisher, peacocks, partridges (for Christmas!), tons of crocodiles, black faced monkeys, a wild boar, an owl, etc.  Oh, and lots of tiger paw prints and poop. 

This bird visited us on our jeep as our guides were clearing our paperwork

A paw print... the closest we got to the tiger

Female sambar deer

The colorful kingfisher

Spotted deer - Bambi!

Ian and Feli with the jeep

We were also accompanied on both safaris by a sweet Swedish family from Stockholm.  We bonded quickly over not seeing any tigers on our first safari and chatted most of the way through our second safari (could that have been why we didn’t see any tigers?).  BTW, when we arrived back at the Tiger Den Resort, one of the Indian busboys, upon hearing that we had not seen any tigers, said, “Ooohh, you must be very unlucky!”  We came to find out that almost everyone else in the Tiger Den Resort had seen tigers.  One of the women from another group even wrote on the “tiger spotting board” that she had seen two tigers in Zone 6 (we were in Zone 4).  Next to her entry the woman wrote, “best Christmas gift ever”.  WTF?

Our Swedish friends

Tonight we’re going to splurge on a nice dinner at the Taj resort up the road.  Tomorrow morning we’re debating one last safari before we head to Jaipur, the last spot on our tour of Rajasthan.  I’d say at the moment we’re leaning toward no.  We’ve made peace with not seeing tigers at the tiger reserve – we had a great time hanging out with each other and our new Swedish friends.  We’ve made a promise to take ourselves to the San Diego zoo when we get back to Southern California.

Beautiful sunset over the crocodile-infested lake

TAJ MAHAL - sandwiched in between 10 hours in a car! - Dec 24

We awoke at 6:00 am this morning to make the 3 hour trip from Delhi to Agra.  Our destination: The Taj Mahal.  We checked out of the hotel and our favorite driver, Kumar, picked us up at 6:30 sharp.  There was a bit of traffic on the way, so we didn’t arrive in Agra until about 11:30 am.  On the journey we crossed from Delhi to Utar Pradesh.  This was one of the most chaotic border crossings Felipe or I had ever seen.  There were trucks, taxis, and tuk tuks crowded along the road.  Our driver had to get out to pay to toll on the opposite side of the street.  While he was gone, our taxi was bombarded.  There was a man who had two monkeys on a leash that he had trained to bow and huddle together on command.  There was a man with no legs who asked us for money, which we gave him.  And then there was a man with a little wicker basket – when he lifted the lid, out popped A LIVE COBRA!  We’re not sure if he was trying to sell it to us or have us pay him for a picture with it.  Either way, we were terrified.

Posing monkeys, part of the insanity at the border crossing

Once we arrived in Agra, our driver parked the car and pointed us toward the Taj Mahal.  We waited in the “foreign visitors” line.  At all the major sites there seems to be one line for Indians and another for tourists.  The line for tourists was short compared to the long (gender specific) lines of Indian men and women.  However, they paid 20 rupees (40 cents) for entry and we paid 750 rupees (15 dollars).  Once we went through the metal detectors and were patted down by security guards we entered the Taj Mahal comlplex.  It was very crowded but very beautiful.  A large red sandstone arched gate, which perfectly framed the Taj Mahal itself, was our entry point.  From there we could see across the courtyard, which is bisected by a reflecting pool, to the large white marble monument.

Drum roll.... Ian by the West Gate

Walking through the gate... a peek into the Taj

A bit of history: The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Muhal.  The building was completed in 1643 after 12 years of work.  Both the inside and outside of the Taj Mahal are decorated with verses from the Koran in black marble calligraphy.  The other decorations were inspired by the image of what a house in paradise might look like, and include flowers (tulip, lily, iris, poppy, narcissus) carved using the “pietra dura” technique, which was borrowed from Florentine craftsman, and involves carving slivers of precious stones and laying them into the white marble.  Under the main dome of the Taj Mahal is the mausoleum for Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.  The intricate marble screen that surrounds the tomb was chipped out of a solid block of marble. 

The Taj Mahal... one of the Wonders of the World

Ian framed by the pietra dura designs

Unbelievable calligraphy with verses from the Koran

One of the four minarets with the tomb in the background

Needless to say, we were totally blown away by this incredible building.  We walked around the structure and the gardens for about two hours, taking many pictures from many angles – don’t worry there will be a lengthy slide show when we return.  At around 1:30 pm we met Kumar back in the parking lot and hit the road for our next stop – Ranthambore Tiger Reserve!

Postcard perfect - Ian and Feli at the Taj Mahal

Delhi - part 2 (December 23, 2011)

Our first stop was the Qutb Minar, India’s highest tower, which marked the site of the first Muslim Kingdom in India in 1193.  This was the center of the Delhi sultanate and is a series of pretty damn impressive buildings.  We took a bunch of pictures by ourselves and then were accosted by throngs of school children for pictures with them.  We felt like celebrities must feel – slightly flattered and then very annoyed.  We avoided the school groups for the rest of the day.

The impressive Qutb Minar

Felipe and his fans

Ian with his fans

Ian posing for his glamour shot with some ruins

Felipe at a doorway at a mosque

Our next stop was the Baha’i Temple, which was built in 1986 by an Armenian architect.  The temple is the shape of a lotus blossom with 27 petals.  It’s really cool! While we were waiting to enter the Temple we got a brief description of the Baha’i faith, which originated in Persia and views humanity as one race.  It’s a very peaceful religion.  Once we were inside of the building we walked around looking at the series of concentric nine-point stars which are formed by the inside of the lotus blossom points (no pictures in the Temple, sorry).  We sat for a few minutes in the pews and enjoyed the cool air. 

Felipe with the temple in the background

Humayun’s Tomb was next.  Humayun was the second Mogul emperor and built himself this enormous monument to himself.  The tomb is quite beautiful, made of red sandstone and white marble.  In the center of the tomb is Humayun’s white marble sarcophogas.  After we viewed the inside of the tomb we took a walk around the gardens.  Felipe developed a fascination for chipmunks, which were EVERYWHERE.  

The tomb behind some trees

Posing in front of the tomb - seems like the photographer needs a level indicator

Chipmunks! (they know how to pose!)

After Humayun’s Tomb we journeyed into the old part of the city.  Our driver, Kumar, informed us that this was now a mostly Muslim neighborhood.  The wide boulevards of New Delhi were replaced by narrow streets crowded with taxis, tuk tuks, and rickshaws.  Kumar pulled over the to side of the road and wrangled us a rickshaw to take us the rest of the way to the Jami Masjid, the largest mosque in India.  To get inside the compound, we had to walk through one of the craziest street markets yet.  It was crowded, people were roasting meat on the street across from vendors selling clothing and crafts.  Of course, we stuck out in this all-Muslim crowd and we were approached by all kinds of vendors asking us to buy their wares.  We politely declined and made our way up to the Mosque compound.  The mosque was built in 1656 and is quite beautiful; the square around the main building can accommodate 20,000 worshippers.  On the day we visited, most of the visitors were pigeons crowded around an enormous mountain of grain on the west side of the plaza.

Haji Masjid - the biggest mosque in India

Need to be respectful and take our shoes off

Pigeons in flight (outnumbered the pilgrims)

We made our way back to our “rickshaw man” (that’s what Kumar called him) and he pedaled us from the Jami Masjid to the Red Fort.  This is one of Delhi’s most famous sites.  The Fort was commissioned in 1639 and was the seat of Mogul power for over 200 years.  The emperor lived inside the fort in a gigantic compound that included a private mosque, baths, gardens, etc.  The main residence was cooled by an elaborate system of aqueducts that brought cool water into the house, which had intricately carved marble walls, many of which were lined with silver and jewels (back in the day).   There also used to be an elaborate peacock throne, which was embedded with precious stones.  Unfortunately, the throne was stolen by Persia in 1730 so we didn’t get to see it.

Ian outside the imposing Red Fort, Delhi

One of the palaces inside the Red Fort

Our final stop of the day was the spice market.  This was a major highlight for us.  It took almost an hour to travel the short distance from the Red Fort to the spice market.  We were stuck in wall-to-wall traffic – in a rickshaw!  When we finally arrived in the market we realized it was totally worth it.  Our rickshaw man took us into a small store lined with buckets of whole and ground spices – chiles, cardamom, turmeric, pepper corns, mustard seeds, poppy seeds, ginger – it was amazing!  We picked out several blends used to make our favorite Indian foods along with some Darjeeling teas.  The shopkeeper suggested we walk down to the end of the block and climb the market wall to get a view of the city.  We took his advice and made our way up the dark winding staircase.  When we got to the top we had an amazing sunset view of old Delhi.  We weren’t the only ones up there though – there was also a colony of monkeys!  It was cool (and a little scary) to see the large group prowling around the rooftop, eating fruit which we assumed they had stolen from the market below.

Old Delhi traffic!

Amazing spices!

Amazing variety of spices and nuts!

Sunset at the top of the spices bazaar

By the time we got back to our hotel, we were thoroughly exhausted.  This was one of our best days in India yet!

Addendum
- the next day we had a 6 AM train to Agra. We had to postpone our trip for a day, as Felipe was ordered 24 hours in bed due to laryngitis, bronchitis and sinusitis. Everyone at the hotel (ITC Maurya, Delhi) was absolutely amazing and attentive. Dr. Sud came back and pulled a bunch of potions out of his old briefcase.  Getting medications in the US is not this easy! Felipe is recovering, but at the time of this posting, Ian was falling sick... it's the air here!