Tiger

Next morning we were on our open topped bus before sunrise. You have to get up early to catch a tiger. There are apparently about 40 tigers at Ranthambore National Park; about one per square kilometer. The guide broke the news gently; it is a bad time of the year to see tigers – he and our driver had not seen one for two weeks. (We read a week later that 18 tigers are now believed to have been poached. Sickening)

We saw this fresh tiger print on the road ½ an hour out. We had a toilet stop at this game keepers camp, and then continued on our way. After driving across a high area for a few kilometers we came to a fork in the road and a jeep full of people waved to us, and sure enough, crossing the road in front of them was the brightest orange tiger you ever saw J

The first picture shows the scene and the second one has been blown up a bit. This was taken like a shot from the hip – we had very little time. The camera was on the smallest picture size (600kb) and there was no zoom used, facing into the sun.

We drove up and saw him (or her?) casually loping of through the scrub. I got more photo's, but you need some imagination to spot the tiger.

There were heaps of other birds and animals too.

Chittorgarh

Back to the train and then on to Chittorgarh, which was a huge plateau walled fortress. It is most famous for a few mass suicides of women, rather like Masada. Except the women leapt onto a huge fire. Not a nice way to go.

It also was overrun with monkeys and had some leaning towers of Jain and Hindu monuments.

Udaipur

Next morning we had to bus to Udaipur because there were no train tracks from our direction. Udaipur is probably the most well known, after the Taj Mahal, of all the palaces. It is the one in the center of the lake. Trouble is they have had a few years of bad monsoon and the lake was 90% dry L.

That's the summer palace right out in the middle of the paddock. On the right is one taken from the shallow muddy water they have managed to pump into one side so you can take a boat across rather than just walk the 200 meters.

We had a wonderful lunch there, and then toured the regular palace which was just behind the position where the photo was taken in the boat. Here are a few photo's showing first the family tree (which was unbroken for all those generations – but there were a few cousins invited when the guys could not manage to produce a male heir!!!)

Ganesh

No journey through India could be complete without a description of Ganesh. The 4 armed elephant head God that brings good luck and prosperity is everyone's favorite. This was an advertisement inside the palace museum for a nearby exhibition. I felt more than a little Ganshish after all the eating we did!

A little mirrored opulence counter pointed with the utensils for the kitchen – but this was the kitchen for food for the God's preparation.

The ornamental doors on the left were sculptured in 3D relief – about 6 inches (15cm) deep. The peacock was made of millions of glazed tiles; peacocks and monkeys roam wild every where, just like the cows.

Now this would have to be the world's most uncomfortable rug. It is literally studded with gems. Lapis, Turquoise, garnets, tourmaline, coral, low grade star rubies, amethyst, pearls and mabe' pearls and more!

After a scary bus ride back to the train, we ate, slept and jumped back on the bus for the last day touring. We began with a rickshaw bicycle ride through Bharatpur bird park with a nice young guide with sharp eyes and binoculars supplied. This too was meant to be covered in water – but they only had about 10% coverage from pumped ground water. (I did put a couple of birds from the Tiger park here too, and note on the left the jackal.)

Lost City

We then drove to Fatehpur Sikri which is the “Lost City”. It was surrounded by the most aggressive hawkers we encountered. By now we were all forted out, but this was an interesting place. We also watched some stone carving being done as part of a major restoration effort.

Then back to the bus and off to Agra for a quick lunch in another old palace now run by the Taj hotel group. Then to the grandest of them all. The Taj Mahal. These first photo's are of one of the entrance gates.

In itself this is an amazing bit of architecture. The stone work inlaid into the marble is various shades of agate and jasper with blue lapis. This type of work is called Petra Dur (petra = rock and I guess Dur is latin for picture?) which was supervised by artisans from Florence where this was very popular during the renaissance. Well fortunately this is a digital camera and we don't pay for film:

Close up and inside the inner chamber you can see the tombs of the Maharaja's wife in the center, and his to one side. The entire structure was built for his favorite wife (ask me about the Turkish ‘Fav' story) and was symmetrical. The Raj intended to build a black version across the river, but his son thought he was balmy and locked him up till he kicked the bucket, then buried him beside his fav wife; thus destroying the symmetry of this amazing place.

Here are some inside shots (the actual tomb is 1 floor down – this one was built because it is again Moslem law for other than close rellies to visit a tomb.)

After touring another palace for thankfully just 1/2 and hour, we ate on board the train which had gone a different route to Agra. In the morning we were back in Delhi and headed off to the Taj which was just south of the centre of town. We did quite a bit of shopping there – because Indian women mostly wear sari's, I had a ball – for once I got more stuff than Drena, boy was she put out!!!

The weather was just perfect – cold at the Tiger park very early in the morning, and occasionally a little warm thru the day – as good as it gets though. It was probably lowest of 10°C and highs of 28°C, but 18-22 most of the time.

Garry Holloway