We're currently sitting just outside the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda enjoying a particularly enthusiastic thunderstorm which has given me the time to finally write up the last portion of the Indian leg of our journey. If today is anything to go by I'm going to need a lot more memory cards here...
My last post took us up to Jaipur, where we spent three days in and around the city. The taxi driver who took us there said he loved driving around India as it was like being in a zoo all day. From what I saw it was like being in a zoo where paying customers had turned up in every vehicle imaginable and started their own version of wacky races. He also said you need 4 things to be get around India safely; a good driver, good brakes, good horn and good luck. Thankfully most people seem to have the latter more often than not.
Our first day in Jaipur featured a tuk-tuk driver who seemed to know almost every Alan Partridge catchphrase, a jewellery shop where I could apparently by a ruby ring for £10 and every smell under the sun, a tall member of the staff in the hotel who kept saying how embarrassed he was that there was someone taller than him in the hotel and a wedding planner who was recommending beer pong to his client. Oh, and a couple of nice buildings:
Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Winds. The irony was that there was no wind at all, which was great as otherwise I might not have sweated so much.
City Palace - this colour is the pink which gives Jaipur it's nickname of the "Pink City"
Bec admiring yet another door. I genuinely think she's beyond help at this stage
Jantar Mantar - Everything you can see was used to as an astronomical instrument. You get told off if you sit on them.
Looking down on the pink city. You can see it's basically pink along the main roads, and not so much in the middle..
One of the streets in the old town. The only one which wasn't wallowing in trash pretty much. Also the only one which we could really stop in as otherwise Bec was being driven mental by the noise/smell/requests to look around shops. You've never seen someone sight-see at such speed....
Whatever he was selling, I wasn't buying
Jaipur's version of the Lake Palace
The next day we went to visit Jaipur's main attraction, the Amber Fort (weirdly the b is silent).
It took about an hour or so to get round, or 3 bottles of water if you'd prefer. As a result we decided to take a break in the garden before
heading to our next destination, an elephant sanctuary. The only problem
was that we hadn't counted on becoming an attraction ourselves, resulting in a continual request for photographs. These always follow the same pattern; person asks for one photo, photo is taken, person taking photo swaps places, then entire family queues up. Naturally we acted like good
tourists and ran off before it got any worse.
The Amber Fort
A nicely timed sandstorm was visiting at the same time
Some fancy gateway or something
A garden built by some dude who was determined to successfully grow saffron despite everything about the conditions being wrong. He built the lake later to help the saffron grow. It didn't. Berk.
Can't really see this but they love mirrored surfaces in Rajasthan, and this whole ceiling shone in the light.
This also beautifully doesn't really show the effect.
The garden next to the winter palace inside.
After being followed around for our entire time in the fort, it was quite pleasant to make someone else the centre of attention. Cue this awesome elephant which we spent a few hours with in the afternoon:
Bec got eaten here. Sorry to break the news to you like this. RIP Bec.
Thankfully the elephant didn't find her tasty so she was able to help me paint this beauty
Horrific elephant photo. Sorry.
From there we headed to Ranthambore, one of the best destinations to see tigers, as supported by all the wildlife filmmakers and photographers we saw around the place. I'll let the pictures do the talking here but just to say we did 6 safari drives, and that it was on the 5th that we finally saw a tiger properly:
Not sure the Queen needs this photo to go public...
Samba Deer
Blue Bull (I think, I forget, sorry again)
Female samba deer
Some lake or other
Another lake or other
This lake will feature again later in a much better fashion. Sorry for the lake photos, I think I was just amazed there could be any water left here considering the crazy temperatures.
Ranthambore fort. Built before most of the other forts in Rajasthan it looks very impressive from below. Sadly most of the temples are overrun by monkeys who seem to have taken great care to crap in most of the temples.
A bird - (It's in the middle and looked beautiful in person)
Spotted deer. These guys will feature later too.
As will some crocodiles
My first view of a tiger. What do you mean you can't see it?!
Some of the expansive scenery
Another of the many habitats in the park
These langur monkeys were everywhere
A river! (It was fed by a lake!)
A lake! And some tigers.
This tiger kept getting in the way of my lake photos. Sorry about that.
See
As did this one
Full disclaimer, there are 20 cars to my right full of other tourists just out of shot. There are only supposed to be 5 in any one area. There was obviously some textbook bribing going on.
The mother and three cubs together
This is tigerless. I just really liked the lake.
Tiger/Crocodile face off. The tigers basically tried to bully it back into the water. Karma would settle this score later.
On the hunt
The video above shows a deer getting trapped against the lake by 4 tigers. It then decides to make a break for it by jumping into the lake right at the end of the video. Sadly we drove forwards to get a better view, so we missed it instantly get taken underwater by a crocodile. It literally took less than 2 seconds.
The cubs staring out into the lake waiting for their prey to come back. After about a minute I think they worked out the crocodiles weren't about to share it with them.
At the train station we acquired our usual group of people who just stand around and stare. Thankfully the train was delayed so this lasted 30 minutes.
Our final destination in India was Agra, which we thought would be a fitting end to the trip. First though we went to Fatephur Sikri, an impressive moghul town which has been heavily restored. To be honest at this stage it felt like just some more old buildings. I think we'd have liked it more had we started there. And had we not just been having an amazing time at Ranthambore...
So it got a big thumbs up
How lovely
The animals in this carving all had jewels for heads at one stage. They are now all headless...
From there we headed to Agra and its impressive Red Fort, from which we got some great views of the Taj Mahal further downriver.
The impressive entrance. Sorry about the tilt...
Looking across to the Taj
More ornate carvings
Bec being, well, Bec.
It was so hot in the fort this is how much mowing the gardener accomplished before giving up.
Next were some gardens across the river from the Taj which afforded these views and the opportunity to pose with yet another group of children.
Token selfie
Finally we ended the day at Itimad-ud-Daulah, otherwise known as the Baby Taj. While this is obviously a really cheap way to market it, it's still a beautiful building. (And is much cheaper and quicker than visiting the actual Taj, which saved us a lot of bother).
However Bec said this was stupid, and that we should see the Taj itself, so we did:
It was a fitting end to a memorable month in India. It was also just about the only building we could stomach at that stage following all of Rajasthan's forts and palaces.It really is stunning from afar, up close it's a very big whiteish building...
After Agra we had one night in Delhi (Jurassic World since you ask) before stopping in Doha (ramadan, spent all day in the room as it was the only place we could get food and drink during the day). We've since flown to Bwindi via Entebbe, but that will all feature in the next update...
Until next time,
Rob&Bec
ps: We didn't get sick once despite eating random street food from time to time. Don't know what everyone worries about...
It was a fitting end to a memorable month in India. It was also just about the only building we could stomach at that stage following all of Rajasthan's forts and palaces.It really is stunning from afar, up close it's a very big whiteish building...
