Our first 10 days in India have been spent both in Delhi, and touring the nearby sights. In Delhi we've been staying with my cousin Alison, and her family Dan, Ollie and Sia - Caitlin has been looking forward to seeing them again very much and they've all been having a good time together. We're staying on the High Commission compound, somewhat insulated from the "real" Delhi, but it has been interesting to catch a glimpse of the expat life. Caitlin has been able to join in with the "rumble tumble stumble" sports day at Ollie's school, and we've even been to the US embassy for some ten-pin bowling! As far as sight seeing in Delhi has gone, it has only really been the railway museum, which has lots of old locos for the children to climb over, and a picnic amongst the tombs in a nearby park.
We spent five days out of Delhi. First we took the train for 5 hours (plus an hour's delay, which isn't too bad) to get to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Over the next two days we took three trips by open jeep or 20 seat "canter" to look for wildlife. On the first morning we got a great sighting of a female tiger - and followed her for 20 minutes as she ambled along the track. We didn't get any more tiger sightings, but we did see lots of deer, monkeys, birds and four leopards (from a distance).
After that we were driven to Jaipur, the "pink city". We stayed in an old Mahraja's villa, with five massive wedding venues along the same block which entertained us with their parades of dancing and elephants, plus lots of noisy firecrackers. Our visit to the Amber Fort included an elephant ride to save our legs on the way up - it felt very high! We also toured other palaces and the observatory in Jaipur, before heading off the next day towards Agra. Along the way we stopped at Keoladeo national park for some bird spotting on a cycle rickshaw tour (the wetlands were absolutely teeming with various storks, ducks and other wildfowl). We also made a quick visit to the abandoned red city of Fatehpur Sikri.
We woke before 6am the next day to get to the Taj Mahal in time for sunrise (and before most of the crowds).
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