Tag: bucketlist

Visiting the Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is one of the new seven wonders of the world – and rightly so! This stunning building is a magical place to visit and should definitely be on your India itinerary. Many travelers are put off going to the Taj Mahal due to the hordes of crowds and the long queue – I will explain the best way to visit so you enjoy your experience (although I can’t magic away all the crowds for you).

Spectacular details on the walls of the Taj Mahal

Top Tips for the Taj Mahal:

  1. GO EARLY. I cannot stress this enough. If you want to enjoy your time at a place as famous as the Taj Mahal you need to make sure that you are there when the crowds are lightest. Most tourists cannot be bothered to get up early while on holiday – you can benefit from their laziness. Many tourists also day-trip to Agra so you want to get there before all the tourist buses arrive. Having said that – even if you start queueing at 6:30am like we did there will still be a long queue. The Taj Mahal is busy day in day out all year round.
Take a look at how few people you can see in this picture

2. See the sunset view from the other side. Across the river Yamuna from the Taj Mahal is a park called  Mehtab Bagh (Moonlight Garden). This is a serene place to watch the sunset and get another picture perfect view of the Taj Mahal. Take a picnic along and get comfortable while laughing at all the people jostling for space in the Taj Mahal complex. A cycle rickshaw including waiting time should be about maximum 400 INR return to the Taj.

Sunset at Mehtab Bagh

Where to stay:

We stayed in The Coral House Homestay – a beautiful guesthouse very close to the eastern gate of the Taj Mahal. We were able to walk to the Taj Mahal very early in the morning and then return to the guesthouse for breakfast once we were finished. The house had a beautiful garden and had a very restful feel.

However, we don’t recommend eating dinner here – this was an optional extra and we found it overpriced.

Getting there and away:

To get to Agra, we took an overnight train to Agra Fort Station from Umaria (the closest station to Bandhavgarh National Park where we saw tigers). This took almost 14 hours.

We left Agra by train from Agra Fort Station to Jaipur (4 hour journey).

Many people would take the train to Agra from Delhi – this is 3 hour journey.

Getting around:

As in the rest of India, rickshaws are the best way to get around. The train station has pre-paid autorickshaws with prices displayed on charts. This will give you a good guide to help with haggling for trips around the city.

Food:

We didn’t really eat much while in Agra as we were still full from days of overeating amazing food at our resort in Bandhavgarh National Park.

What to bring:

Take as little as possible into the Taj as many items are restricted and this list seems to change on a whim. Key to remember is no tripods or food items are permitted.

What to expect:

  1. Purchase your tickets from the ticket office close to the gate – the office opens at 6:30am.
  2. The security line to enter the Taj Mahal is divided into men’s and women’s lines. So, if travelling as a couple don’t expect to be able to pop off to grab a coffee and leave your partner in line (as I was hoping to do – I hate having to survive 6am sightseeing without coffee).
  3. Your ticket includes shoe covers and a bottle of water – you will need the shoe covers once you get inside to protect the marble.
  4. The Taj Mahal opens at sunrise. There will already be a long queue by then but the line moves fast once the gate opens.
  5. Expect to be blown away by the beauty of the Taj Mahal!
Happy despite the lack of coffee

While you are in Agra visiting the Taj Mahal, check out some of the other great spots worth seeing in Agra such as the Agra Fort, The Baby Taj and Fatehpur Sikri.

Erika xx

Visiting Bandhavgarh Tiger Sanctuary

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Seeing wild tigers in India is a once in a lifetime experience and definitely something to tick off your bucket list. I was incredibly lucky during my visit and got within 5 metres of one of these majestic creatures, seeing 4 females in total.

Another great reason to visit a National Park is that India is EXHAUSTING. The cities are hectic and dirty and chaotic and hot. For me, heading into rural India to a national park was a great way to escape, recharge and relax. For this reason we also chose to spend more than we usually would and stay in a luxury resort (still waaay cheaper than you would pay elsewhere).

DO NOT MISS GOING TO ONE (OR MORE) OF THE NATIONAL PARKS WHILE IN INDIA.

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Top Tips for Bandhavgarh: 

  1. Book your Safari drives waaaay in advance. The best zone to be in is Tala. Other zones have good periods and bad but Tala is consistent and accordingly is the most popular zone.
  2. Book your own vehicle if possible. Shared vehicles have 6 tourists in them so you will be packed in. Its well worth the slight extra cost for the comfort; being able to move around the park at your own pace; and control your own noise levels (without having to stop for others to take that 100th photo of a deer or deal with someone else’s loud children). I understand if its not affordable but you won’t save much money sharing a ride if you are a group of 2-3. Sharing may be worth considering if you are alone and on a strict budget.
  3. Allow enough time. Don’t travel to rural India to go to a National Park just to do one drive into the park. Remember these are wild animals – you may not see any! Allow a minimum of 3 safari drives and you will hopefully get lucky. If you want to be sure  (as sure as you can be!) allow a week.

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We did 5 Safari drives over 3 days. 1 of these was in the Magadhi Zone (afternoon drive). We saw no tigers here but did come across an even rarer wildcat. We had 4 drives in the Tala Zone (2 morning and 2 afternoon) and spotted tigers on every drive. All safari drives were in our own vehicle with the same driver/guide.

Where to stay: 

We stayed at Tigergarh resort and can absolutely recommend it.

They organised all our drives for us; made us amazing food everyday (of which there was way too much), the rooms were comfortable and the staff were super friendly.

We were the only guests when we stayed there (which was a little weird) but the resort tends to receive mostly only local guests and it wasn’t a holiday time.

Getting there and away: 

The best way to get to Bandhavgarh is by Train to Umaria. We took an overnight train (definitely the best way to get around in India) from Varanasi: you can read about our trip here. It took 11 hours to get to Umaria from Varanasi. We left Umaria by train to Agra (this journey took almost 14 hours).

We booked pickup from the train station in Umaria through our resort. This cost 1,200 INR (one way).

Getting around:

You probably don’t need to go anywhere but the resort and the park – your resort will drive you here. We needed a pharmacy and to buy some dust masks during our time here and our driver happily stopped for us at the small town to purchase these items on our way back to the resort after a safari drive.

What to bring:

  1. Warm clothes in layers so you can remove them as you warm up (the morning drives are absolutely freezing)
  2. Dark, plain clothing (no bright colours as this can startle the animals)
  3. Dust masks (it’s great to have this or at least a scarf to cover your face)
  4. A neck pillow to sit on: the rides are BUMPY
  5. A great camera to capture it all!

What to expect: 

Expect to spend hours driving around a national park: it’s not all tiger sightings. But – enjoy the experience of straining your eyes to see them in the undergrowth and yet always having the guide spot everything first.

Expect to get up at a ridiculous hour for those morning drives – it’s worth it! Tigers are more active in the early mornings.

Expect to be exhausted between drives – you will go to sleep early and probably nap between drives also. You won’t need other activities to keep you occupied – although there is a pool at the resort if you do need something to do after lunch!

Expect to learn some amazing things about tigers and be wowed at the sight of one of these creatures in the wild along with the multitude of other animals you will come across in the park.

GO!

Erika xx

First Impressions of Rio De Janeiro

Half asleep at the airport the next morning, Peter ordered an orange juice and ended up with a ham and cheese sandwich, but customs was a breeze and we were quickly shoved in a ride to our hostel when we arrived in Rio De Janeiro. Lagoa Guest House was a teeny tiny little white house in the middle of the city, surrounded on all sides by huge apartment blocks that towered over the little building. First thing we did in Brazil was, of course, DRINK. We were here for carnival after all! Plus who can turn down an incredibly strong ‘welcome drink’ Caipirinha. Once we had settled in, our first stop was Copacabana Beach.

Our first few hours in Brazil and we are in a bus accident. Another bus driver drove into the back of our bus as soon aas we had stepped on! Not exactly a good omen but it was exciting at least…We were a little confused but everybody was friendly and helpful, gesturing for us to wait outside the bus until were were eventually on the road again. I think we first realised how craazy Brazil was when the other bus took off without a word to our driver about the accident, just carrying on with his day.

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Copacabana Beach was mindblowing – people were absolutely everywhere. A large proportion of these people were huge women in teensy weensy little g-string bikinis and old men sitting in bars in their speedos. We picked up our tickets for carnival, took a look at the beautiful Copacabana Fort, got dressed up and headed to a Scala ball.

Peter was – his words – patted down by a big black man at the door, and then we were in. We had a great time. The ball looked like a high school prom, we met a great canadian couple living in Cuba and danced all night.

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Until next time,
Erika xx