Today was one of our less eventful days on the journey so far. We were traveling from Agra to Ranthambore which was about a five-hour journey according to google maps. I wasn’t sure if google maps was true though since mileage wise it wasn’t that far. Only about a 125 miles away. What I failed to take in to account was the towns we would be passing through on the way. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
Amber and I had yet another early morning. We hung out in the room and packed our stuff from when I got up again at 4:52am until about 7:00am. We decided to get breakfast earlier than we had planned so we still had a toilet available should we have any GI issues. Side note, we have had no issues thus far on the trip. We had the buffet again, though they changed the menu on us. Today, we both decided to gorge ourselves on pancakes. These are not the traditional American pancakes though. Instead of being light and fluffy, they were dense and chewy, but not in a bad way. It was as if naan and a crêpe had a baby. Doused in syrup and smattered with butter I was a huge fan.
One of the cool things about traveling with Amber is that I am getting to know her better. I thought I knew her pretty well, but traveling and sharing every waking minute with one another, you get to know little quirks about one another. Like how she doesn’t like anything sweet with her pancakes. Or how she doesn’t like anyone touching her head (I made that mistake when I patted her head twice). What’s even better is that both us are entirely compatible with one another.
Once breakfast was done, our fantastic driver, whose name is Bablu (I found this out today when he texted Amber who he was), met us and we were off to Ranthambore. On the way were set to stop at Sikrit, the capitol of the Mughal Empire prior to it moving to Agra. It was about an hour outside of the city so we settled in for a nice drive.
We arrived to the carpark for Sikrit in decent time. It actually only took us about forty-five minutes. Bablu introduced us to our guide who would take us around the fort. The guide informed us that in order to preserve the fort and protect it from pollution we would have to take a natural gas bus to the entrance. It would be 20 rupees one way for both of us. We gladly paid and hopped on a bus.
Once it was packed to the gills with both tourists and their Indian guides we were off. It wasn’t a long ride, but in the five minute drive up the hill pass ruins on both sides of the road. Once at the fort our guide let us know that the ruins we saw were the ladies market where the queen(s) would go shop with their allowance they were given by the king.
The very first, and probably most morbid, thing we saw at the fort was a small rock in the center of the side lawn of the first courtyard. The guide told us that that rock was where the elephants would be chained. The elephants didn’t have any other function in the court except for executions. Apparently the death penalty back in the day was to have your skull crushed by an elephant. The guide did tell us this was a particularly effective deterrent though, since the executions were public.
As we walked around the fort, our guide mentioned that the king, the grandfather of Shah Jahan, also had three wives. Interestingly each wife was different religion: Hindu; Muslim; and Christian. Each wife had their own palace, but the Hindu queen’s palace was ten times larger than the other two since she was the favorite wife who bore the succeeding male heir. The story goes that the king and queens had been trying for a long time, to no avail. The king heard of this Islamic mystic living at Sikrit who was very close to Allah. The king said if the mystic would pray to Allah and bless the king with a son, he would move his capitol to Sikrit. A few months after their meeting, the Hindu wife became pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy. The king kept his word and moved the capitol there and built this beautiful fort.
Once we had toured the Christian queen’s castle, which had been built in the Islamic style, we headed to Hindu queen’s massive palace, which was built in the Islamic style. The guide said that each queen would live in a palace with a different style of architecture than her religion so as to prevent infighting amongst the queens. Though if I were the Muslim or Christian queen I would be pretty pissed at the size of my tiny twenty room palace when compared to the virtual compound the Hindu queen got. I guess that’s the petty queen in me.
After we had our fill of red sand stone palaces, we exited the compound and headed to the mosque. As we left, the guide pointed out this stage in the center of a fountain. He said that since this was the age before Netflix, the king would have a singer stand on the platform and perform for the court. The would fill the moat around the singer because the acoustic properties of water helped reverberate the sound of the singer to king and his court. One thing that has always impressed me was how spaces were built for sound.
After leaving the fort, we headed to the mosque next to it. I was wearing shorts so when we entered I had to wrap myself in cloth to cover my knees. As I wrapped it around myself I quickly realized this cloth was not made for a man of my size. The attendant who gave me the cloth and was the designated shoe watcher had to tie it. And the slit went right up to my hip. It was probably the closest to Jessica Rabbit I will ever feel in my life. Once modestly covered, we entered the mosque. This housed the tomb of the mystic who blessed the king. Our guide introduced us to servants of the descendants of that man, who gave us flower petals and two strings. Apparently, you are supposed to take those strings and tie them to the carved marble divider in the tomb and make a wish. I’ll tell you if my wish came true after November 3rd.
After we tied our strings and made our wishes, we were done with our tour of Sikrit. We headed back to the main entrance, all the while hoping that we would pass a bathroom. I am not sure what has happened to me in my old age but two things have changed in recent years. Firstly, I went from being a night owl to a morning person. Secondly, I am now a tiny tank. I used to pride myself on not needing to use the facilities except at the time mutually convenient for the group. Now I am THAT guy who makes the group pause while I relive myself. C’est la vie I guess.
Unfortunately the bus was idling as we got to the gate so I couldn’t use the toilets at the fort. I had to wait another five very bumpy minutes to find a restroom near the car park.
Fortunately, and thanks to the expertise of our local guide, we found a restroom with no queue. The best part was that our guide suggested Amber use the men’s room since there still was a queue for the women’s. Actually scratch that. The best part was how quickly Amber used the facilities because she didn’t want to use her American privilege to make the locals hate Americans. Folks, find someone like her and hold on tight.
On the walk to the car, we walked through the marketplace the Indian government had built for the locals to sell their wares. Our guide specifically wanted to show us the local artisans who carved the sandstone into trinkets. Unfortunately I had depleted my souvenir coffers the day before, because the stone carvings were true works of art. I sort of regret not getting a tea light over… But I am convincing myself I will find something equally as cool when I get to Jaipur.
After politely declining to buy anything and giving our guide his gratuity we were back in the car. We now had a four hour ride from Sikrit to Ranthambore. I thought driving in Delhi was crazy, but some of these towns made Delhi look downright civilized. Bablu told us (many times) that there are no rules. And that was evident as we went in the exit of the toll check point because he didn’t want to wait in line. All in all though, he is a fantastic driver and I rarely have to cover my eyes. Pro tip: get a driver like Bablu because it makes the journey that much easier.
The drive from Agra to Ranthambore took you from vast plains to what I assume are the non-Himalaya equivalent of mountains in India. It was absolutely stunning seeing the striations in the mountains, knowing that these were the areas mined by the Mughals. I did my best to stay awake for the drive. I was pretty tired but I didn’t want to miss out on observing what I wasn’t sure I’d ever observe again. I wanted to be able to take in all that I saw. This trip has helped me recognize the gifts I was given, not through any work on my on behalf, but by the sheer luck of my birth. I know it is cliché and tired, but this has been an eye-opening experience.
When we arrived in Ranthambore after not knowing exactly if our fantastic driver knew where we were going. He did have to stop on the highway (and by stop I mean literally just block a lane of traffic and wait for someone else to stop) to ask for directions to Ranthambore. But we several dirt roads later we arrived at the Bagh Palace.
Our hotel here was probably the most beautiful that we’ve had in India to date. We were given room C15, on the first floor (American second floor) right next to the pool. They again gave us one king bed. Fortunately we discovered that we can share a bed quite well, despite the gap in the covers caused by both of us sleeping on our sides that allows cold air to rush in to the space under the covers.
We settled in to our room quite well. Unfortunately the bucket was displayed prominently in our shower, situated in our rather large bathroom. This did not bode well for our bathing habits. I have become a two shower a day guy in this country, washing off the grime I’ve accumulated over the course of my waking days and then washing off the sleep in the morning. Fortunately Amber found a way to make the shower actually work. I realized the best approach for this shower though, was a hybrid bucket and shower head combo, but that realization wouldn’t occur until the following morning.
After a bucket shower and a melatonin, we settled in to a good nights sleep. We had tigers to see in the morning! And our wake up call was at 5:30am… But luckily that wouldn’t be an issue given my regular sleep cycle now.
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