Rajasthan Holiday Part 2 - Ranthambhore and Agra

Following our two night stay, we travelled south from Jaipur on a two hour train journey to Ranthambhore. Travelling by train is a quintessential part of the Indian tourist experience, so we'd reserved six tickets in Sleeper class (mid-range, open windows but you do get a reserved seat).

The journey was one of two halves, with David, Cecilia and Alf focused on perking up a sick Alf with electrolyte solution, whilst Henry, Phil and I sat on the upper bunks reading and playing the 2048 game.  It was pretty hot and the train station and train were rather crowded, but we settled in and enjoyed the journey once we'd found our seats (and cleared lots of other people off them!).

Henry ready to board the train 

Tackling the 2048 game, prior to David's 2048 addiction developing later in the holiday

Ranthambhore is a national park covering over 1000 sq km and is famous for its tiger population; there are currently over 50 in the park.  The size of the tiger population in India is miserable; there are only 2000 left in the wild, but they are now heavily protected and there is hope that numbers will increase.  A sighting of a tiger is never guaranteed, but I had been reliably informed that the chance of seeing a tiger at Ranthambhore was better than almost anywhere else in India.

We went on two safaris, in a private jeep on the afternoon that we arrived, and in a large canter (seating about twenty people) early the next morning.  We saw antelope, spotted deer, peacocks, a crocodile, many monkeys and even three sloth bears (there are only 20 in the whole park) but, sadly, we did not see a tiger. The closest that we got to a tiger was this:

A tiger footprint which had been circled by the national park rangers who track the tigers

The lack of tiger sighting was clearly disappointing for all, particularly since plague was now dissipating through the group (Alf, Cecilia and Henry were all feeling under the weather) but I still thoroughly enjoyed the safari experience owing to the wonderful landscape of the park.  Ranthambhore is full of sheer craggy cliffs and knarled creeping trees, and we still saw plenty of other birds and wildlife.  We didn't see a tiger this time, but this gives us a good excuse to book a trip to another tiger park in the near future. 

The watering hole in zone 6 of Ranthambhore 

Another jeep similar to the one we were travelling in 

Colourful birds 

A hot and pensive Alfie  

Two crocodiles 

Monkey mums

From Ranthambhore, we travelled to Agra, again by (a hot and crowded) train.  The main reason for going to Agra was, of course, for the Taj Mahal but there is a lot to see in Agra aside from the Taj itself.  Several hundred years ago, Agra was a great capital ruled by the Mughal kings and hence there are various impressive monuments scattered across the otherwise uninspiring city.

Whereas for the first three nights of our trip we had been staying in independent Indian-style bed and breakfast accommodation, in Agra we moved to a large western chain hotel, the Radisson, and everyone was more than ready for the comfort and air-conditioned environment by this stage.  I relished having a hot, powerful shower - it's amazing how quickly you get dusty and dry when this facility is not available.

On our first evening in Agra, we ate in the hotel and were prepared to retire for an early night before the hotel manager persuaded Phil, David and I to attend the Radisson's special Taj Mahal presentation, including a model of the Taj with four different lighting settings.  He was particularly proud of this and keen that we had a group photograph with every lighting option.  David, Phil and I were the only people in the presentation which started with the presenter interrogating us regarding what we each felt was the true definition of love. Eek!  It would have been a bit easy if he'd just asked for a composition of Magic Blocks instead.  Only in India.

The Taj Mahal model in its moonlight setting, with the presenter

At 7am the next morning, we set off to see the real Taj Mahal.  We were staying within walking distance and, as expected, the streets were lined with people selling tourist tat and offering transport to the big attraction.  The final 500m before the Taj Mahal has though been closed to traffic in an attempt to protect it from the pollution of Agra, which made for a fairly peaceful walk.

I'll admit that I was expecting to be underwhelmed by the Taj Mahal, and that whatever it has once been would now have been destroyed by mass tourism, but I'm happy to admit that I was mistaken.  The Taj Mahal is astonishing and truly beautiful; it shimmered in the early morning light and the scale and precision of the building is incredible.  It took 22,000 workers over 20 years to build and the main mausoleum is built from white marble inlaid with intricate marble designs.  Anyone can read the amazing statistics online, but this doesn't prepare you for the real thing.  My top tips to anyone planning a visit are to go early and miss the crowds and heat.  We had finished our trip by 9am and it was already getting uncomfortably hot.

The glorious Taj Mahal, monument to love.

Team Pipe

Team Earis minus one

You can see some of the black marble inlay in this picture

One of the other buildings in the Taj complex

One of the four towers surrounding the Taj, each angled 2 degrees off vertical to give the impression of being straight when viewed from a distance

Behind the Taj, getting a bit hot now...

As you can see, the crowds were fairly light at 8am...

There's much more to see in Agra than the Taj Mahal and, after breakfast, we set our to explore some of the other key sites; Agra Fort and the "Baby Taj".  These are all very interesting and we had a fun day being transported around Agra by a local guide called Vicky.  Vicky is a very cheeky 14 year-old with excellent English who knows how to lead a tour and make a sale.

The great fort

David gets pounced on by a television crew wanting his opinion on Agra tourism

More fort focus

Boys at the fort with the Tak Mahal in the background

Baby Taj, the inspiration for the Taj Mahal

Taken from inside the Baby Taj

Baby Taj at an angle

The Taj Mahal viewed from across the river

Our cheeky 14 year-old tour guide

The next day, we travelled from Agra back to Jaipur by car and took a short de-tour to see an impressive stepwell on the route.  I'll admit that I didn't have high hopes for this beforehand - Phil's description of "a stepwell, along a track 10km off the main road, which hasn't made it into the guide book" didn't really sell it to me - but it was pretty good in the end and had some super geometric patterns.  I will be more open to the idea of visiting stepwells in the future - not something I thought I'd be saying at the start of our trip...

Top stepwell focus.

Stepwell.  Just look at those patterns.