Last Chance for Tigers (Ranthambore National Park)

Don't expect to see any tigers...

Tegan - We made this little pit-stop just south of Jaipur with the hope that maybe, just maybe, this would be the place where we would finally have the pleasure of seeing some tigers. It didn’t work out as planned, and instead of setting our eyes on some unbelievable creatures we had the pleasure of a rough ride through the national park (zone 7).

Leading up to the tiger no-show, things were actually pretty exciting . We had spent most of the early afternoon fighting to get spots in one of the gypsys (jeeps) instead of the huge rooftop buses that take safaris out. When I mean '’fight’, I actually mean more of a scrum. And by ‘we’ I mean, Mike haha! This was hilarious. A simple line-up just doesn’t seem to make sense in front of the ticket counter. Instead a scrum of men, young and OLD, are trying to squeeze passed each other. Myself and a couple of other women had the pleasure of sitting back and enjoying the show!

After the show, we had come out successful! Mike had gotten us seats on a gypsy and our departure was less than an hour away! After speaking to so many people who had been out earlier that day or the day before, things were looking great for us. Almost everyone had seen a tiger or two!

I think it was the zone we got sent out to, but we had no luck. The most exciting thing that happened on our safari was that we came across another gypsy coming towards us, while we were on this tiny path on the side of a huge hillside. Eventually things were figured out and the gypsy full of women and children, us, had to get out of the jeep while the it drove up the hillside a bit so the other jeep (full of men in leather coats) could get past lol. At the time this didn’t even phase me, all I was thinking was: “Maybe this is our lucky chance!!”

Mike – We saw some animals that we had yet to cross paths with – antelopes and gazelles, mostly – and we ran into many people who had the privilege of spotting tigers, but, in the end, “no dice”. We repel tigers. They must smell that there are true carnivores amongst them.

The highlight of this stop, if you can call it that, was when I went to buy our “safari” tickets. For the first time, we decided to forgo the price gougers at the hotels, and book our safari directly from the source – the park wardens. I thought the cost savings would entirely compensate the additional effort of procuring our own passes. Boy, was I mistaken.

Those hotel price-gougers I spoke of, yeah, the ones who charged huge commissions to get tourists their passes, well, now, I’m in line with all of them at once. We are jostling, fighting, (at times coming to blows), for a chance to get to the front of the line to get those damn passes. I’m using my height in order to stop people from reaching over me into the ticket counter, while simultaneously trying to wriggle my arm through the throng of screaming Indians, so I can acquire just enough room to perform the transaction. This went on from noon until 2pm, at which point, I finally cleared enough space to buy the tickets. Even after I’d got to the front, I was having to prop one leg up on the wall, for strength, in order to keep the sprawling mass of sweaty, commission-hungry, Indians from toppling over me while I’m in the process of presenting our passports and paying the park.

And, finally, it was done. I grab the passes and turn to leave, only to see Teg revelling in the situation from the background; laughing, snapping pictures, just having a grand ol’ time. I felt the urge to run a victory lap myself. Needless to say, that was the only safari we did at Ranthambore.

Jaipur

Photos of Jaipur...

Mike – Another lost day in Jaipur. No time to see forts, but we did get to walk around the pink city and check out the sights contained therein. The City Palace was very nice. It was nowhere near as extravagant as the Raj Palace we saw in Mysore, but it definitely had a unique flavour to it. The architecture looked to me like something of a Lousiana/Mughal hybrid.

I also had my first encounter with a snake charmer (Teg wouldn’t go near it). The cobra was surprisingly calm. It only snapped at me once when I was holding it’s neck too hard (it wasn’t poisonous, don't worry). Teg captured the moment in a pretty funny series of photos, if you're interested, click here...

The Jantar Mantar was an exhibition of ancient astronomy practices. Teg and I left it wishing we’d gotten a guide (which is unusual for us because neither of us are very keen on guides). From the little I picked up from eavesdropping on the guides around me, the whole thing was pretty ingenious.

My general impression of our short time in Jaipur was pretty positive. It has a very vibrant history, and some great restaurants. It was a tad bit expensive, relative to Indian standards, of course. Part of me wishes we had another day to spend here, but I think we are both pretty tired of cities and are excited to be out of them for awhile. Plus, we’re onto the final month of our journey, and suddenly, it seems we are very short on time…

Teg- I agree with Mike, Jantar Mantar was such an amazing observatory but it was so hard to figure out how it all worked. I found myself eaves-dropping on other guides as they described how this or that instrument could tell time, then excitingly asking their followers to check their watches which should agree with what he’d just measured. The time was always bang on. The other thing that made Jantar Mantar so great was that there was a nice park on one end where we were able to escape the madness within walls of the pink palace and relax for as long as we liked. I had to eventually (hours later) pry Mike off the book he was reading so we could continue checking out all the crazy astronomical instruments that were set up all around us!

The day was jam packed with different places to go, but what made it so do-able was that everything was within walking distance of each other. We entered the pink palace and wandered along a few crazy-busy bazaars before reaching Jantar Mantar. Within minutes of leaving the Observatory we had bought tickets and were walking through the gates to the City Palace. Oh wait, this wasn’t of course before Mike had a little snake-love on the street outside the gate! It was pretty funny to see Mike take a seat next to the man, wear his turban, and attempt to charm the snake with his squeaky flute playing!lol

Not too much to say about the City Palace really. The highlight for me was seeing a Christmas tree dead center of Diwan-I-Khas, this marble-floored private audience hall. The same hall that has holds the world’s two largest sterling silver vessels, once used to bring the Ganga river water up to England. Each with a capacity of roughly 4000 litres I was told!

Our next stop after the Palace was Hawa Mahal, definitely the place to go if your looking for great views of the city and surrounding area! Apparently this place used to be the home to all the women of the royal family??, It was amazing. Weirdest part about this place (that I found) was that instead of climbing up through a stairwell to get to the top, it was a narrow, small, ramp-well. Easy access for all I guess!!

We didn’t stay long, the views are amazing and that’s all you really get. After declining a few too many people asking for “1 photo?” with us, it helped quicken our departure back down the ramps. From here, our rickshaw driver offered - for a great price - to take us to a few places unlisted in the LP which sounded pretty cool. Sunset was fast approaching at this point so we didnt have too much time. A couple quick stops left and our time in Jaipur would soon be over!

We quickly stopped off to view Jai Mahal, what looked like a floating palace on this lake named Man Sagar. In actuality, it’s half under water, which when you get close enough you can see. Mike and I started making bets on how many floors this palace actually had. Neither of us won. As we hopped back in our rickshaw, our driver told us there are 5 floors, 2 of which are completely under!

Last stop, or so we thought at the time, was this elephant ‘something?’. I couldn’t understand what he was actually calling it, but it was this little open area in amongst some old buildings where 5 elephants were hanging out. We were told this is where they keep them in between festivities, and though it sucks to see them with a chain around one foot, it was still pretty awesome to get right up-n-close with them. Love them!

So lastly, as we think we are heading back towards our hotel to get some din-din, our driver insists on making a ‘quick’ little stop at this handicraft store. We agree - which is abnormal for us - but it turns out to be not the quick stop we were expecting. After maybe 30 different duvets are laid in front of us, we weaken and succumb to purchasing one of them!!! So in the end, we all win. Driver makes a percentage and we walk away with an amazing duvet!

Agra Beyond the Taj Mahal

Pictures...

Teg- Beyond the Taj, Agra itself definitely offered some interesting experiences. We arrived the day we think was the finale of Ramadan, because there was non-stop music all day and all night (till 4 am..)in the surrounding area around the Taj Mahal. On almost every street corner there were dangling lights and speakers where excessively loud music catered to little or no people. It was weird. I went up to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant that night at around 10pm to grab us some waters, and while there I was able to look down at what sounded like some crazy street party, only to witness bare and empty.Music was still on full volume.

Easy making conversation with other foreigners the next morning; few of us were able to drown out the streets’ festivies.

We had just enough time in Agra before our next train to see Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, both were well worth it! After taking it easy after our sunrise with the Taj, we biked west from the Taj over to Agra Fort, 5 km or so. Well when I mean bike, Mike biked. Though he wasn’t feeling all that great all morning, he suddenly had this massive boost of energy, allowing both me and the rickshaw ‘driver’ to sit and enjoy a great ride! Pretty smooth actually, handled the mad traffic well and signalled more than anyone else!!haha! Downfall: we still had to pay once we got there. The ‘driver’ was all smiles though, nothing beats a paid break!

The best part about Agra Fort was that it had great views of the Taj Mahal. Most of the grounds inside the fort were inaccessible, occupied by either the military or the Archaeology Survey of India. Part of the fort seemed relatively new, somehow recently renovated while other parts were quite old and dilapidated. The area accessible to us was much smaller than I had anticipated, yet it didn’t really matter as long as we had that eastern look-out.

Our last day in Agra was dedicated to Fatehpur Sikri, this beautiful fortified ancient city some 40 kilometres from town. It was a beautiful place. There were many well kept gardens and lawns all over, and the architecture, well, it was something else. It really did seem like a city because there were many buildings and halls everywhere, all over a relatively large area. The mosque too was beautiful, but it seemed almost expected after everything else we had seen that day. This mosque is still in use today and thus was quite busy. We didn’t end up staying there for too long.

We experienced one of the proto-typical moves played by drivers during this outing. Though we have come across this sorta thing before, this time it seemed a little more annoying.

 

Mike – Firstly, we overshot our Agra stop en route by train. It was the middle of the night. We both woke up and went outside to check and see where we were only to discover that we had overslept, and were an hour past Agra. Our only option was to stay up all night at the train station and grab a second class ticket for the 6:15am direct train to Agra. Two months in India, and we still haven’t gotten the hang of the trains…

It was our first experience riding second class, and it really wasn’t all that bad. It was actually pretty funny seeing all the men sleeping up in the luggage compartments.

Agra, itself, was quite a struggle. I got sick again the day we went to Fatehpur Sikri, so I actually didn’t get to see much as I spent my day within sprinting distance of the washroom. The night before was horrible, as Teg describes above. It was the most obnoxious festival I’ve ever encountered. It was so loud that you couldn’t sit in a restaurant within the Taj Gank area and have a conversation. It was an unrelenting assault on your patience; the same song over and over again. Even the next day our taxi driver to Fatehpur Sikri decided to play that song at full blast on his car stereo; you just could not escape it. I still haven’t been able to listen to my I-Pod. I feel I’ve lost my taste for music.

I can’t really comment on Fatehpur Sikri, but Agra Fort was very nice. We are now in Rajahstan, and I get the feeling that we are about to be overloaded with Mughal forts (Jaipur has three) and Raj Palaces, so I’ll keep this description to a minimum, as there will be many more to come...

The Taj Mahal

The Most Photogenic Monument in the World...

Teg- The Taj is exactly how you’d expect it to be. Breathtaking. Unbelievable. It’s funny actually, if you look at this blog backdrop it’s a shot of the Taj taken from the NE corner at sunset, with the Yamuna river to the right (North). Being out on that river was my best experience of the Taj Mahal. Though this backdrop is beautiful, it doesn’t really depict what an average day at the Taj is really like. Crowded beyond belief, like ants, we all roam. And I guess, rightfully so. But out there on the river, it was something else. Just Mike and I (and the two men who paddled us out) onthe only boat out on the river. We were able to view the sunset from a great, if not the best, view of the Taj. 

We went inside the Taj Mahal grounds the following day - where Indian/foreign price difference seems to have hit its peak (20/750 Rps) – at sunrise and this too was amazing. Not as crowded early on which was nice. But don’t be fooled, it was still swarming with photographers eager to make a rupee or two. My fondest memory at the Taj was the cool (relatively clean?) marble that I couldn’t keep my hands off of.

Mike – I echo Teg’s thoughts exactly. The touts and prices can be a real detractor for most people when they visit the Taj, but I say: “Get over it!” The building is truly a man-made marvel.

Arriving at our hotel, ascending to their rooftop restaurant, and being welcomed by a view of the Taj is a really great feeling. Not only did we not expect to be so close, but you realize, even from a distance, how detailed and well thought-out the structure really is.

The crowds really never phased us either, besides perhaps the jostling around that everyone has to go through in order to get the perfect shot of the Taj and it’s reflection (something that you just can’t resist doing). Otherwise, it’s very humbling to be in the presence of one of the most recognized buildings in the world. So recognizable, in fact, it seemed that each angle and each view-point we’d seen before on some poster or another. But, the act of simply “being there” just takes your breath away.

Salman Rushdie said it best when writing a piece for National Geographic:

Announcing itself as itself, insisting with absolute force on its sovereign authority, it simply obliterated the million million counterfeits of it and glowingly filled, once and for ever, the place in the mind previously occupied by its simulcra.

And this, finally, is why the Taj Mahal must be seen: to remind us that the world is real, that the sound is truer than the echo, the original more forceful than its image in a mirror. The beauty of beautiful things is still able, in these image-saturated times, to transcend imitations. And the Taj Mahal is, beyond the power of words to say it, a lovely thing, perhaps the loveliest of things.