Late Trains and Leopards. Oh, and the Taj thingy

 The journey from Delhi to Agra on Thursday (yes, it was Thursday, I bloody well checked and double checked) was both amazing and thought provoking.

First there is the dirty, gritty sprawl of Delhi itself. Buildings are sliding into rubble, or perhaps more accurately, are made of rubble. Amongst the ruins are makeshift beds of old blue plastic sheeting and filthy blankets, the odd cooking utensil made of a silver metal, plastic cups, or instead, the cut down bases of plastic drinking water bottles. Sometimes there is a fire, usually contained in a cut down metal container, perhaps a large tin with the top removed, burning thick black rubbery smoke. Men, women and children are scavenging in the areas of rubble and rubbish between dwellings. This is at 6.30am, so there are hundreds of men and young boys with their backs to the train on their haunches, trousers pulled forward towards their knees, shitting. 

Then there are kilometres of land occupied by people that live in makeshift tents, constructed of small, roughly shaped tree trunks, orange sizel like rope and blue and yellow plastic sheeting. These tents have grown organically, so they consist of older and newer sections of different colours, the older sections sagging and more tired, both sections dirty, with the grime from the railway and the pollution of the city and just plain dirt. Pigs, cattle and monkeys search for whatever they can find, together with children. There doesn’t seem to be a hierarchy of life.

Beyond that, the rural landscape is flat. There are a patchwork of small, multi-coloured fields as far as the eye can see, a myriad of greens and yellows, dotted occasionally with people walking, apparently in the middle of nowhere, or in fields in brightly coloured lines, sitting or on their haunches, scything corn and grass and other crops I don’t recognise. There are amazing conical or elliptical structures, intricately patterned as though someone had coiled heavy duty rope into a cone, but which are in fact constructed from pressed discs of cow shit which are used for fuel. The fields are filled with twisted stooks of corn, like ice-creams once turned with a triumphant flourish but which have now wilted in the sun. Now and again the fields are disrupted by tall rocky outcrops and escarpments of deep red sandstone.

There are occasional settlements. First there are the plastic tents, although not jostling for such a tiny amount of space as in Delhi. Then there are single story, angular, almost art deco buildings, often with outer walls falling away, but richly coloured, white, yellow, deep ochre, pink, mint green or blue. These are open to the front and sit behind a lean too made from the ubiquitous blue plastic sheeting. Usually, these are divided into two parts. On the left, presumably, is the living and sleeping area and on the right, signified by cooking utensils and large blue plastic drums, is the cooking area. At first, I couldn’t tell whether the third type of dwelling was for people, cattle or storage. They are very small, without windows and constructed of mud or straw walls, with thatched roofs, usually constructed in two’s and three’s and four’s. The taxi driver in Agra confirmed that they are the homes of agricultural labourers and their families.

Agra is a busy, bustling city, but not as hectic as Delhi. There is a terrible contrast between the crowded, filthy streets, the tickets touts and tut-tut drivers and the souvenir sellers all noisily vying for business and the calmness of the Taj Mahal itself. I really can’t describe the overwhelming feeling I got when I saw it in its entirety, except to say that I could easily have cried. I have never seen such an incredibly beautiful building in all my life and I suspect I never will again. I have certainly never been brought to the point of tears by a building before.

The train ride from Agra to Ranthambhore yesterday was good but the train was 6.5 hours late, so spent almost the whole of yesterday at Agra Fort Railway Station, watching the people, which was great, but I didn’t arrive until 9.30 yesterday evening.

This morning was up at 6 for a tiger safari in the Ranthambhore nature reserve. I thought it would be a bit touristy naff, but in fact it was brilliant going over very rough, side dropping terrain and small rivers in an open top jeep. We didn’t see any tigers, but we did see a leopard, which is extremely rare, as there are only two in the park, (which covers an area of 1600 square kilometres), so very fortunate indeed. Also, there were Spotted Deer, Antelope, Samba Deer (bloody huge things, largest deer in India) and lots of amazing birds including peacocks, of course, and stunning butterflies.

I’m taking it easy today, hence the extended bon mot. Took the chance to wash my one shirt (dry in about 30 mins, it’s 36C here today) and my jeans, which are still hanging in the hotel garden (yes, this one is a palace compared to some of the dives I've been in, it has a garden!). They both really could have done with it!

Anyway, hope this publishes. The electricity and wifi have been off and on every 5 minutes for the last 2 hours!

There are many doors in the Taj. Here's just one

The Baby Taj. A copy built before the original

One legged shoe thieves and anyone out on a limb, this way!

Agra Fort

Trains? Who gives a monkeys?

Peacock attacks building. Few will survive.

Bird watching tourists watching bird watching tourists

Interesting tyre tracks. Oh, some tiger prints too!

Are you a Samba Deer, stuck in the same old rut?

Spot the leopard. Very shy animals and only 2 in the whole park, so very rare