2025 India

We left Singapore at 9:10am on May 3rd and arrived at San Francisco airport at 9:40am on May 3rd after a 15 hour 30 minute flight!

In the first hour and a half on the flight we’d been offered a snack and meal already!

My seat was still in premium economy but it wasn’t as nice as the seat in the earlier leg but I still managed to get some sleep.

Eric picked us up at the airport and we filled the car up completely with luggage and people. Jennifer’s friends will pick her up from our house.

Tibor and I went to a San Jose Earthquakes game this evening and they won.

We slept in today and then headed to Delhi for our flight to Singapore and then onwards to home. It’s typically about a 3 1/2 hour drive to the airport hotel and we left a little after 9am. The hotel packed us a lunch for the way.

Today was a rainy day with lightening and thunder. And the drive to the airport hotel was slow with lots of traffic and downed trees from the rain. We arrived at the airport hotel about 2pm where I was reunited with the bag I forgot when we left Ranthambore.

We had a couple of hours at the hotel where multiple times the power went off for 30 seconds or so and then started back up. We ate, had lunch and repacked for the flight home.

I can’t believe it but Tibor said he was tired of Indian food- I’m sure it’s just temporary.

The hotel is a 10 minute drive from the airport, we arrived at the Delhi airport 6:45pm and by 7:30pm we were checked in, past security and waiting for our flight- once again proving that greeters, porters and guides make a difference in how quickly one can navigate airports.

My lounge pass had expired and I took about 45 minutes to get logged back in so I could get the un-expired pass so we didn’t get to spend time in the lounge in Delhi.

It was a smooth 5 hour 45 minute flight from Delhi to Singapore and I slept a bit in my nice premium economy seat.

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.

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Sunrise at Taj Mahal

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Fort Agra

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tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah

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.

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Drive to Agra

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Taj Mahal at Sunset

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!

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Morning Game Drive Zone 1

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Afternoon Game Drive Zone 5

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.

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

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Morning Game Drive Zone 4

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Afternoon Game Drive Zone 1

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.

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Morning Game Drive Zone 6

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Afternoon Game Drive Zone 1

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.

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Drive to Agra

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Afternoon Game Drive- Zone 3

We spent the entire day in Delhi. NatHab 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 Indian 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.

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 & immigration that was very quick.

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.