India

We spent 2 weeks in Rajasthan in November 2004. We flew to Delhi and had a car with a driver for the trip.

We spent one night in Delhi and saw the Red Fort and Connaught Place. We were too late to see the Jama Masjid mosque as it was evening prayers but after getting slightly lost in the market we had an exhilarating ride in a cycle rickshaw.

    The Red Fort

We then drove to Jaipur but stopped off for lunch in the Sariska Palace (the former hunting lodge of the maharajas of Alwar) and visited the Sariska Tiger Reserve. No tigers but plenty of monkeys and deer.  

    School children in Jaipur

We spent two days in Jaipur (the "pink city").  First we explored the city highlights such as the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds), the City Palace and the Jantar Mantar (Observatory). The following day we went to the ancient city of Amber and the fort-palace. We rode up to the entrance on elephants and the view was amazing. We went on to see Jaigarh and Galta forts nearby, on the ridge overlooking the city.

       Amber Fort         

We then traveled to Udaipur and the famous Lake Palace from Octopussy. We had a fantastic lunch overlooking the palace with kites circling above. The City Palace was well worth half a day and then we relaxed by our hotel pool. Unfortunately the meal we had at the Lake Palace was very expensive, and not very good. We won't be going back there!

     Crossing Snake Ridge outside Pushkar    

The next day we moved on to Jodhpur (the "blue city"). We stopped off en route at Ranakpur, the biggest Jain temple in India built in 1439. Bill spent the day in our hotel as he had picked up a bug. I did a whistle stop tour of the city including Meherangarh fort, the Clock tower and markets, Umaid Bhawan Palace and Jaswant Thada memorial.

     Jodhpur                 Ranakpur

From there we drove to Pushkar for the Camel Fair. We spent two nights in Pushkar exploring the Fair and town (And a certain amount of escaping the crowds to relax by the pool.)  

      Sunset over Pushkar

Next was on to Ranthambore National Park to try and see a tiger. We were very lucky and managed to see a female tiger  relaxing after a feed for about 10 mins. She was well hidden by the bushes but binoculars did enable us to see a bit clearer. The photos, taken with an ordinary digital camera, didn't show anything other than the bushes.

    The Palace of the Winds

On the way to Agra we stopped for a night in Bharatpur at the Keoladeo Bird Park. As non-twitchers we were dubious about the pleasures of bird watching but as it turned out we spent an enthralling 5 hours with a guide, and took far too many photos.  

    A banyan tree in Ranthambore

We arrived in Agra on a Friday and the Taj Mahal was closed so we saw the fort that day and had to get up early on Saturday to see it as we were flying from Delhi that afternoon. This worked in our favour as there were far fewer tourists then and the dawn was stunning.

    Us at the Taj Mahal