Diane

May 1: Agra, India

This morning we went early to the Taj Mahal so we could enjoy the Taj Mahal at sunrise. We got to the gate in the dark and before it opened and it was the first time on the trip that I noticed mosquitos. I helped myself to the guide’s bug spray and soon after there were no more bugs.

Our guide directed us to a good spot to see the sunrise and today we got to see the inside of the Taj Mahal. Photography is not allowed inside.

After visiting the Taj Mahal we went back to the hotel for breakfast before heading out for our afternoon visits to Fort Agra and the tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah also know as ‘baby taj’ or Bachcha Taj.

Sunrise at Taj Mahal

Sunrise at Taj Mahal

Gate entrance at sunrise

Taj Mahal at sunrise

Tibor admiring the Taj Mahal inlay work

Jennifer admiring the stonework at Taj Mahal

Inlay work

closeup of inlay

Even the walkways have marble. The red sandstone gets worn out but the marble is so hard it doesn’t get damaged. We wore the little cloth slippers before going inside the Taj Mahal mausoleum to keep it clean and damage free.

automatic rickshaw at Taj Mahal as we are leaving

Fort Agra

Agra fort walls

Agra fort rules- most are standard prohibited items but the one that surprised me was the markers- they are not allowed because people have graffiti-ed many places

Bathtub that was moved whenever the Raj went anywhere-it’s multi ton stone

Palace room in fort with lots of inlay- the son imprisoned his father at the fort and the father was exiled in this fancy area of the fort

Closeup of inlay

tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah

Tibor Diane Jennifer at Baby Taj

tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah also known as ‘baby taj’ or Bachcha Taj

Baby Taj stonework

Inlay

Interior- inlay on the bottom, fresco on the top

Ceiling in baby taj

view of one side of baby taj- the building is completely symmetrical

view of another side of baby taj- the building is completely symmetrical
April 30: Ranthambore National Park, India to Agra, India

No game drive today. Instead we got to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast before driving to Agra. The hotel packed us a very nice lunch for the drive

We left about 8am and after about 5 hours we arrived at Agra and checked into our hotel rooms. We had another lunch at the hotel when we arrived. We slept a bit and relaxed for a couple hours before heading to see the Taj Mahal at sunset.

More wonderful Pepsi signs at the roadside shops, full motorcycles and large trucks on the road.

Funny thing is that the hotel staff were using the ‘tennis racquet’ bug zapper to get rid of bugs in the hotel and restaurant.

The Taj Mahal was amazing. The inlaid marble was incredible.

Drive to Agra

camel cart

Pepsi stand

line of trucks. We think the drivers are sleeping or having a meal before starting another leg of their journeys

Beer with lunch

Yummy bagged lunch

Return room key

Taj Mahal at Sunset

One of the four gates. They are almost as fancy as the Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal from an entrance gate

Diane and Tibor at Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal
April 29: Ranthambore National Park, India

Today we are in Zone 1 (for the third time)in the morning and Zone 5 in the afternoon.

More fun birds in Zone 1 and higher elevation.

Zone 5 nets a fish and a softshell turtle!

Morning Game Drive Zone 1

spotted deer

We took a different road in Zone 1 and went higher than usual

Ruddy Mongoose on the cliff side

Bee-eater nest

Bee-eater at his nest

Indian paradise flycatcher

Jungle nightjar

Afternoon Game Drive Zone 5

Scenery zone 5- dry

Scenery zone 5- green

Indian boar

Indian softshell turtle closeup

Indian softshell turtle

We actually saw a good size fish today!

baby jungle bush quail

jungle bush quail

Painted spurfowl

Asian openbill stork
April 28: Ranthambore National Park, India

Today we are in Zone 4 in the morning and Zone 1 again in the afternoon.

We saw some fun birds in Zone 4 and one short sighting of a wonderful tiger.

Zone 1 had lots of birds too plus a monitor lizard and the highlight was a sloth bear with cub as we were leaving the zone.

Morning Game Drive Zone 4

Crocodile near entrance to park

Zone 4 entrance

Zone 4 scenery

Beautiful tiger we saw today- look at the size of the paws!

Crested bunting

Anhinga

Great stone-curlew

Red-wattled lapwing

Afternoon Game Drive Zone 1

Close up of Monitor lizard in tree

Monitor lizard in tree

Brown Fish Owl

Mama Sloth bear with cub
April 27: Ranthambore National Park, India

While we are at Ranthambore we will go on two game drives a day- one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each game drive is about 3 1/2 hours. The park opens for the morning game drive from 6:00am to 9:30am and for the afternoon game drive from 3:00pm to 6:30pm. The hours are slightly different at different times of the year.

We wake up early, have tea/coffee, go on the morning game drive, have breakfast/brunch as soon as we get back, rest for a few hours, go on the afternoon game drive, cleanup and finally have dinner.

There are a total of 8 people in our tour group. There are two people per vehicle plus the driver and the local guide. Sometimes the expedition leader(Adi) or the additional leader(Varun) would join in our jeep. We saw many very large safari vehicles that would hold 20 or more people so we were very happy with our two per jeep.

The park assigns a zone for each jeep and each game drive. The tour company doesn’t get to pick the zone and you may have the same zone multiple times during your visit. There are 10 zones in the park- 5 zones (1-5) are close to our lodging and 5 zones (6-10)are a 20 minute drive from our lodging.

Today Tibor and I are in Zone 6 for the morning and Zone 1 for the afternoon. Yesterday we were in Zone 3. They drove us in the van to the Zone 6 entrance since it is more comfortable than using the jeep.

Morning Game Drive Zone 6

Our jeep

Zone 6 scenery

Rufous Treepie. This is the bird that stole a cookie out of my hand while I was eating it

Sloth bear checking out termite mound

Blue bull or nilgai- the largest antelope of Asia

Owl

Red-vented Bulbul

Finding our first (and only) tiger of the day

Tiger marking her territory

Tiger crossing the road to mark her territory

Tiger after marking- returning the way she came

Afternoon Game Drive Zone 1

Entrance to the park with cow- The cows are all over outside the park and none are inside the park

The entrance to zone 1 has a nice large banyan tree

Spotted deer

rabbit

We crossed paths with Jennifer’s Jeep

thick-knee with chicks

Brown Fish Owl

plum-headed parakeet

Rose ringed parakeet
April 26: Delhi, India to Ranthambore National Park, India

Today we had about a 5 hour drive from Delhi to Ranthambore. We left about 8am and arrived about 1pm- in time for lunch. Later in the afternoon (3pm) we had our first game drive to look for Indian Tigers.

The rest stops are pretty fun- they are small shopping centers that have great bathrooms and places to get food or tea.

We saw many different vehicles on the roads from large trucks to small motorcycles. Pedestrians, horses, cows and camels were on the road too. The most we saw on one motorcycle was 5 people. Periodically we’d see 4 on a motorcycle but we only saw 5 on a motorcycle once.

I also liked the Pepsi signs on many of the small roadside stores.

We were super happy to see tigers on our first game drive. The first tiger we saw wasn’t in very good shape- she had a baseball sized tumor on her back leg and was very skinny- but she moved well and still looked powerful. The other tigers we saw today were much healthier.

Drive to Agra

Rest Stop with great signs for the restrooms

Tibor really liked the disposable cup for his Masala Chai. The cup is clay and can be thrown away and it will biodegrade. He wasn’t as happy when he learned that he got the tourist price (100 rupee) versus the local price (20 rupee) for his cup of tea. Our guide, Adi, is next to Tibor.

Pepsi sign at roadside stand

cows along road

4 on a motorcycle

Truck with cow feed

horse cart

Camel

motorcycle and park wall. The wall keeps the cows and livestock out of the park rather than keep the tigers in the park

Afternoon Game Drive- Zone 3

Entrance to Zone 3

Our very first sighting of a tiger

Full view of the first tiger we saw- even tho skinny with baseball size tumor, she is still powerful

Second tiger of the day- we saw a few more and then as frosting on the cake we saw one just as we were leaving the park

Backing up at speed to change direction to look for another tiger

Peacock

Monkey

Scenic View- we had beautiful weather- not very hot and we didn’t get any rain from the clouds tho they threatened

Franklin mom and chicks
April 25: Delhi, India

We spent the entire day in Delhi. NatHab(our tour company) typically has a day in the arrival city at the start of the tour in case flights get delayed.

We visited Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque,went on a rickshaw ride to a market and then Tibor and I went to a rug store while Jennifer had a massage.

We officially met our India Tiger Safari tour guide and had dinner with our safari group.

During the excursions the guides mentioned that Delhi is a very green city. Trees are planted before development starts so that the trees are large before the buildings are occupied. Also it’s illegal to cut down a tree.

Diane and Jennifer at Jama Masjid Mosque

Jama Masjid getting ready for prayers

Diane and Tibor in rickshaw

Jennifer in rickshaw

Closed stores along our rickshaw ride. The stores were closed in tribute to the 26 India tourists killed in Kashmir by a militant attack on April 22nd

An open shop in the market area. Some of these shops have been in existence for 100+ years. Many of the stores also sell wholesale. The almonds are from California!

Tea at rug store. There were many, many rugs to choose from. Tibor and I both found one to purchase.
April 24: Delhi, India

Straightforward travel to Delhi- flights were on time and we got a little sleep. Since we were escorted by our local guide thru the airport, security, customs, and immigration it was very quick to exit the airport.

We arrived at the airport about 5:45am and were at our hotel a little after 7am. We couldn’t check in right away so we had breakfast and I booked a massage. Jennifer enjoyed the fancy hotel lounge

Tibor met us at the hotel about 3pm.

Jennifer and Diane in front of the fresh flower arrangements in the hotel lobby

India vs USA graphic; presented by our expedition leader to give context to our experience in India
April 23: Perth, Australia to Delhi, India

Today we woke up to thunder and lightening. We took our time packing and getting ready for our travel day because we were able to get an 11 am late check out. We didn’t pay extra to get noon check out.

Drove to the airport, returned the rental car and checked in. It’s all automatic and self-service to check in and drop off our bags. Jennifer paid extra since her bags were a few pounds overweight.

We got to the airport very early since our flight is 17:10 and we were finished with check in about noon. The lounge is a wonderful place to wait.

We fly to Singapore tonight and after a 4 hour layover we fly to Delhi arriving 5:40am tomorrow.

lounge mimosa and snack
April 22: Perth, Australia

After doing our laundry and visiting a quilt store, we are sticking close to the hotel to rest and relax. It was pretty painless to do the laundry after we found the pharmacy that would sell us laundry detergent. The laundry machines don’t take coins but use contactless cards to pay.

Our first try for a quilt shop ended up at a yarn shop that had a tiny bit of fabric for sale. They gave us the name of a ‘real’ quilt store. It’s too bad I don’t knit because the yarn shop had some amazing yarn.

We found the quilt store and enjoyed our time there and of course ended up with some fabric to take home.

So far both Jennifer and I have had to purchase another suitcase so we could carry all the goodies we’ve purchased. Since we’re coming up to the end of the trip we shouldn’t need to buy any more suitcases.