Ranthambore and Agra

From Jaipur we headed to the dry jungles of Rajasthan to search for tigers in Ranthambore national park. About 20 tourists piled in to a giant canter jeep which bumped and trundled and tossed us along dirt tracks. the car sounded like the rumble of an earthquake and I was a a little sceptical that we'd see anything at all thundering through the wilderness like that. After about an hour of spotting birds, deer, crocodiles, lizards, mongeese and monkeys, our sore butts were rewarded with the sight of Shere Khan himself, taking a very public rest from the searing heat next to a lake. Apparently we were very lucky to spot a tiger on our first and only excursion - some people take up to 5 trips and don't see any of the 32 resident striped cats. The park is over 1000 years old and was originally the hunting ground the maharajas and wasn't opened to the public until 1970. As well as wild life you can also spot clues as to its former life with the odd palace, fort, temple or hunting pavilion scattered around.
The grand finale of our road trip was a visit to the city of Agra and a 5am wake up to see the Taj Mahal just after sun rise... My goodness do you see and read a lot about that darn building before you get there but I don't believe it diminishes the experience of stepping through those gates and seeing that glittering (literally -it is inlaid with semi-precious stones) white marble facade with your own eyes. The Taj Mahal was built by the emperor Shah Jahan for his 3rd wife, Mumtaz, who died giving birth to their 14th (!) child. It was originally intended to be a live-in palace which came to him in a dream. He told Mumtaz about the dream and described the palace that he would build for them but sadly she never survived to see work on the structure even begin and so it became her mausoleum instead - he is now also buried there with her.
I think of all that we have seen so far, what has actually left the most lasting impression on me has been the roads themselves. There is nothing quite like the circus that is India's road system with cars jostling for position amongst goofy camels, uninterested cows, proud horses, rabid dogs, scampering monkeys, wide-eyed goats, and brave, brave rickshaws, mopeds and cyclists. As well as all that there are scores of lorries heaving at the seams with all sorts of goods and urging you to 'blow horn' in ever more elaborate and colourful designs - turning highways into death defying high speed art galleries with their paintwork and their baubles. With horns as the only weapon on these crazy battlegrounds you can bet that they are used liberally and vigorously - I think the highway code here is about one sentence long and reads something like 'He with the loudest horn shall pass first.'.
We are now on a night train going south to Aurangabad and although I can't say I'm as entertained or as comfortable, I definitely do feel a lot safer!

Delhi

I've heard so many horror stories about India that I got off the plane in Delhi with a lot of apprehension mixed with a large dose of jet lag: It is somewhat of a surprise that I didn't just stay on the plane and head straight back to London... We're only a few days in , but so far I'm loving it... Check back in a week or so!
While in Delhi we decided to make our lives considerably easier (and somewhat more expensive) by hiring a driver for 2 weeks to take us around Rajasthan. The agency arranged our car, our hotels and our train to Arangabad and Goa as well as a camel safari and tiger safari... We probably overpaid but to be fair it's still ridiculously cheap compared with anything we would get in Europe, it has so far been hassle free and I'm currently sitting in the plushest hotel I've ever paid for so I'm not complaining.
I found that Delhi as a city was nothing to write home about but then again we were only there for 2 nights and suffering from exhaustion. First impressions pretty much matched up to expectations - an overload of the senses - colours, sounds, smells and crowds, some of it good, some of it not so good! Though the culture shock that I was expecting was thankfully not quite as violent as I had imagined! Yes, we get stared at and random strangers take photos of and with us but so far none of it has seemed malicious - just a general curiosity about the white folk. Of course you are seen as a walking piggy bank as well which is a little annoying but we're getting used to that now after 2 months of being tourists!
On our second day we visited The Red Fort, Ghandi's Memorial and Humayun's Tomb - we luckily happened to arrive on 'World Heritage Day' which meant all entrance fees were waived though they would have been well worth paying anyway.
I've been trying to read up on India's history to give some context to its sights and monuments but it is bloody confusing so I'm not even going to go there... This is as far as I got... The Red Fort was built as a royal residence in the 17th century when the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan decided to move his capital from Agra to Delhi. You can sadly tell that the past 4 centuries have not been kind to the fort which must have been unbelievably stunning in its prime. The site is still impressive, but hints at its former glory such as dried up moats, crumbling fountains, weedy flower beds and empty pavilions leave you wondering what the place must have looked like in its prime. Humayun's tomb however, which actually precedes the Red Fort, seems to have managed to retain its beauty thanks to extensive restoration. The tomb was commissioned by the wife and cousin of the Mughal Emperor Humayun (clue is in the name) and was designed by a Persian architect which explains its Arabic feel. The structure is stunning and acted as inspiration for the Taj Mahal which would later be built in the Mughal capital of Agra by the same man who commissioned the Red Fort.
Ghandi Smriti is a memorial built on the spot where Mahatma Ghandi was shot in 1948... Unfortunately heat and tiredness seemed to have got the better of me and I didn't appreciate my visit properly because according to my guidebook, as well as the central pavilion which I did see, there are concrete footprints marking his last steps and a museum in the house where he had been staying with his few possessions on display, which I did not see.