Tigers and Temples Pushkar Fair Adventure - India

Day 1: Arrive Delhi

Arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi where you are met and transferred to your hotel. Once the capital of the Moghul Empire, today Delhi is a sprawling metropolis - a fascinating blend of past and the present- which is an apt introduction to the composite culture of the entire sub-continent.

Accomodations: The Oberoi Maidens Hotel

Day 2: Explore Old & New Delhi

Your expert guide weaves you in and out of Old and New Delhi. Catch a rickshaw into the old walled city and walk through the bustling and crowded market of Chadni Chowk. Nearby you walk to the Friday Mosque, Jama Masjid - the largest mosque in India, and then on to the Red Fort - once the most opulent fortified palace of the Moghul Empire. Drive along the ceremonial avenue - Rajpath, past the imposing India Gate, Parliament House, the President's Residence, and see the famous Tomb of Humayun, the second Moghul Emperor. End the day near Connaught Place at Lxmi Narayan Temple (Birla Mandir), built in Orissan style with a tall curved tower. You can return to the hotel or stay in Connaught Place where you are free to spend the evening walking around the bustlling shops and restaurants.

Accomodations: The Oberoi Maidens Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 3: Delhi - Ranthambore National Park

Board a morning train to Ranthambore. Enjoy waching the country pass by on your ridee. Situated in eastern Rajasthan where the Aravali Hills and Vindhyan plateau meet, Ranthambore National Park was once the hunting preserve of the Maharajas of Jaipur. Today it is one of the most accessible tiger reserves in India with good chances to observe cats as they are known for their diurnal activity here. The park got its name from the Ranthambore Fort, which sits on a rocky outcrop in the center of the protected area. It dates back to the 10th century, probably the oldest existing fort in Rajasthan, and was a vital citadel for control of central India. Enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the hotel and lovely landscaped grounds with excellent bird-watching. Go for a walk to the Fort in the park in the afternoon.

Accomodations: Nahargarh Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 4: Ramthambore Tiger Safaris

Tiger safaris traditionally take place at dawn and dusk when the big cats are on the move, sometimes hunting. In the morning, after tea or coffee and biscuits you depart on your first tiger safari of the day. On your return, take breakfast and a few hours of leisure at the pool, walking the grounds, or napping. In the late afternoon embark on a second safari to catch the best time of the evening to view tigers and photograph the park.

Interestingly, naturalist guides use their hearing rather than their site to initially find tigers: when chital and monkeys sense a tiger approaching they give a distinctive warning call that alerts the wildlife and our guides to the tiger’s approximate location. Next, the guides will speculate where you can likely see the tigers emerge from the forest. In addition to the Bengal tiger, the park has a rich diversity of fauna and flora, including leopard, striped hyena, jackals, sloth bear, macaques, langur monkeys, sambar and chital deer, gazzelles, wild boar, mongoose, Indian hare, monitor lizards and a great diversity avifauna. Return before dark for evening meal.

Accomodations: Nahargarh Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 5: Ranthambore - Shapura

Enjoy one last wildlife safari and return to your hotel for breakfast before departing to Shahpura (200 kms / 4 - 5 hrs) with packed lunch. Eighty percent of India’s billion or so people live in the countryside. The route you travel through today is well off the beaten track and seldom visited by tourists. Stop along the way in villages to buy chai, and chat with locals. After arrival in your hotel, visit nearby Shahpura to see the stepwells, Ram Druwa temple built in 1826, the City Palace and wander the village market where you can find traditional leather footwear and other local goods.

Spend the rest of the day enjoying the lovely grounds and pool of your guesthouse. Opt to take a 45-minute walk to a hill-top tribal temple, or float on a nearby lake where bird-watching is a natural past-time. Overnight at Shapura Lodge.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 6: Nahar Sagar - Pushkar Fair

Visit the area’s largest lake, Nahar Sagar, stopping at villages on the way. Explore your guesthouses’ organic farm before continuing to Pushkar (140 kms / 2.5 – 3 hrs). The Pushkar Fair lasts for nine days, ending on the Kartik Poornima or full moon. People from all over Rajasthan and neighboring states come here with their livestock to trade. The fair is predominantly agricultural, with a gathering of camels, horses and cattle in the thousands, many of which are elaborately decorated. It is one of India’s most colorful and exciting cultural experiences. The fair is also a religious and auspicious occasion. Legend has it that the God Vishnu struck down a demon that was tormenting his wife Parvati by brushing him with a lotus flower. The demon was killed, but three lotus petals fell to earth forming three lakes. One of them is the lake around which Pushkar has grown, once surrounded by 500 temples and many palaces. Flocks of pilgrims come here to bathe in its holy waters. Unique in this respect, Pushkar is revered throughout India. Overnight at Royal Desert Camp.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 7: Pushkar Fair

Accompanied by your expert guide you experience Rajasthan‟s most impressive traditional cultural event. While Pushkar is primarily a gathering to sell livestock, it is also a century‟s old place for nomadic people to meet, perhaps exchange formal and informal marriage vows, and to go on a pilgrimage to the temples atop several distinctive hillocks which rise into the sky. Tradesmen sell every kind of goods, from clothing and jewelry to horse shoes and medicine. There are horse and camel races, various other competitions, auctions and private deals, with all the buying and selling, match making and betrothing that have been common to such gatherings since time immemorial. Overnight at Royal Desert Camp.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 8: Ajmer - Jaipur

After spending your last morning photographing the start of the day in the Pushkar Fair, drive to the “pink city” of Jaipur (160 kms/4 hrs) stopping in Ajmer, a bustling city surrounded by the Aravali hills. Here you visit the lovely golden Jain temple, the major Muslim pilgrimage shrine of Dargah and the 12th-century Ana Sangar tank (reservoir), a peaceful oasis. On arrival in Jaipur you will check into your boutique accommodation of Samode Haveli. Built over 175 years ago within the city of Jaipur by Rawal Sheo Singhji as the manor house for the royal family, Samode Haveli reflects the style and elegance of the family and the art and architecture of the times and culture, all of which have been impressively restored today. Enjoy the afternoon and evening free in the pool, rest in the luxurious environs of the samode, or ride a rickshaw in the old city to explore and shop: Jaipur is famous for fabric, gems, jewelry and handicrafts.

Accomodations: Samode Haveli

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Day 9: Amber Fort - Jaipur City

Amber Fort is the classic image of the romantic Rajasthani palace. You arrive in the morning light for the best photography of its forbidding exterior that belies a beautiful inner fusion of Mughal and Hindu architectural styles with exquisite filigree and lattice carving. Drive into Jaipur, the famed “Pink City,” painted pink to honor a British Viceregal visit in the late 19th century CE. The city palace is a delightful blend of Mughal and traditional Rajasthani architecture which sprawls over one-seventh of the walled city‟s area. We visit the museum, wander the palace to view the famed Peacock Gate, visit the Jantar Mantar - the largest and the best preserved of the five outdoor astronomy observatories built by Jai Singh II – still as accurate as a Swiss watch today. Leave the palace to view the Hawa Mahal - the "Palace of Winds", an ornamental five-storey sandstone façade of fine trelliswork, with 953 niches, windows and elaborate balconies.

Note: We use jeeps instead of joining tourist groups on elephant rides up to the fort because the animals suffer in the sun, and walking up and down the cobblestone ramps causes foot sores and damages their cuticles.

Accomodations: Samode Haveli

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner

Day 10: Agra - Chand Baori - Fatepur Sikri

After breakfast, depart for Agra (260 km/5 hrs) en-route visiting the ancient Chand Baori step well in the small village of Abhaneri. It was constructed in the 9^th century and at 100-ft deep is one of the largest step wells in India with 3500 narrow steps in 13 stories. Continue to Fatehpur Sikri, an ancient city built by Emperor Akbar the Great, Shah Jehan’s grandfather, the consolidator of the Mughal Empire and most farseeing and tolerant of all the Mughals. The entire city was deserted a few years after construction due to a dearth of water – posterity’s gain, as the entire city has thus been preserved. Drive another ½- hour to Agra and check in to your hotel. In the evening, enter the Taj Mahal during a special full-moon viewing.

Accomodations: ITC Mughal: Luxury Collection

Meals Included: Breakfast

Day 11: Dawn at the Taj - Agra Fort

This morning you rise at dawn and make your way to the Taj Mahal for its opening. Contemplate and photograph at leisure in the early light with few other visitors. Later visit the Red Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage site with massive 70-foot high walls 1.5-mile long, encompassing an astounding collection of well preserved buildings, many of them completed during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan (who built the Taj). The emperor intended to build a second tomb in black marble, a negative image of the white Taj Mahal for Mumtaz. Tragically, before he could begin, he was deposed by his son and imprisoned in the Agra Fort where he remained until his death, spending the rest of his life looking out along the river to the final resting-place of his wife. The afternoon is free to explore. Ride rickshaws in town, visit a marble workshop, relax in the quite grounds of the hotel or their highly rated spa, considered one of the best in India. Overnight ITC Mughal-Luxury Collection.

Accomodations: ITC Mughal: Luxury Collection

Meals Included: Breakfast

Day 12: Agra - Orchha - Khajuraho

After breakfast transfer to the railway station to board train to Jhansi. (Bhopal Shatabdi Express: departing 8:15 am, arriving 10:30 am or similar). Upon arrival in Jhansi proceed to Orchha (12 km) for sightseeing within the fort complex. Orchha's grandeur has been captured in stone, frozen in time, a rich legacy to the ages. In this medieval city, the hand of time has rested lightly and the palaces and temples built by its Bundela rulers in the 16th and 17th centuries retain much of their pristine perfection. Complementing the noble proportions of their exteriors are exquisite interiors representing the finest flowering of the Bundela School of painting. In the Laxminarayan Temple and Raj Mahal, vibrant murals encompassing a variety of religious and secular themes, bring the walls and ceilings to rich life. Enjoy lunch here before driving to Khajuraho (160 kms/3-4 hrs).

Accomodations: Radisson Jass Khajuraho

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Day 13: Khajuraho - Bandhavgarh National Park

Arise early in Khajuraho for an expert guided walking tour of the magnificent Jain and Hindu temples and intricate stone sculptures illuminated in the morning light. Known as the erotic temples, the craftsmanship exhibits images of gods and goddesses, celestial maidens and dancers, animals and musicians, all frozen in stone, many in the act of courtship. Khajuraho is a UNESCO World Heritage Site to preserve this collective glorification of life, love, and joy, and reflect the spirit of creativity and human relationships of the Chandela period (9th & 10th century CE). The Eastern group of temples include the Parasvanath Temple - the only Jain Temple surviving at Khajuraho with excellent sculptures on the outer walls of the Sanctum, the Javeri Temple dedicated to Vishnu, and other temples dedicated to Brahma, the Goddess Kali, the Visha Temple of Shiva, and the Bharatji Temple with a lovely image of 11 headed Vishnu.

Our 5 hour, 260km drive to Bandhavgarh National Park takes through one of the many productive agricultural regions of India. Set in the Vindhya Hills of Madhya Pradesh, the mixed habitat of bamboo, grassland, and a complex of deciduous forests make Bandhavgarh National Park one of the best places to see Royal Bengal tigers in India. In addition there are at least 150 species of birds in the park, along with other mammals such as leopard, jungle cats, sloth bear, macaques and langur monkeys, wild boar, wild dogs, mongoose and three species of deer: chital, sambar and barking. Once a hunting reserve of the royal family of Rewa, Bandhavgarh was declared a park in 1968, and it was in Badhavgarh that the famous White Tigers of Rewa were discovered. Upon arrival at Bandhavgarh check in to the lodge. Enjoy cocktails on the terrace overlooking the forest before dinner.

Accomodations: Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 14-15: Bandhavgarh Jeep and Elephant Safaris

During your visit in Bandhavgarh you have the opportunity to go on 3-4 jeep safaris and one possible elephant safari. After an early morning wake-up call followed by tea and coffee, dawn breaks and we depart the lodge in 4x4 open jeeps accompanied by a resident naturalist and community forest park guide acting as our scout. In the winter months morning safaris require insulating clothes, woolen caps, and gloves to protect from the wind in the open jeep. We take a picnic bush breakfast with hot tea/coffee to maximize time in the field, or depending on sightings have breakfast on your return at the lodge.

During your visit you have a chance to look for tiger and get an up close view from elephant back (subject to availability). Because tigers have little fear of elephants, this is yet another way to experience tigers in the wild tromping through the bush on an elephant to areas inaccessible by road. (See note below.)* After lunch and relaxing at the lodge e take the afternoon safari by 4x4 open jeep. In the evening back at the lodge chat with your naturalist about the game sightings of the day. During one evening you can join a lecture or film about wildlife of India, focusing especially on the tiger and its natural history, threats of extinction, and conservation initiatives of the Sankhala family, our hosts who have dedicated their lives to tiger conservation and ecotourism.

*Note on elephant safari: Every day a limited number of elephant safari permits are issued for park visitors. Each morning park authorities send elephants with their mahouts into the jungle in search of tiger. When a tiger is spotted a message is passed on to park rangers via radio who then release visitors one vehicle at a time to the location where you mount an elephant which ambles off into the bush to see the tiger from close range. Availability of elephant rides is subject to the park authority and tiger sighting, usually one permit per visitor at each park.

Accomodations: Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 16: Return to Delhi - Evening Departure

After breakfast drive to Khajuraho airport to catch the flight to Delhi with connections for optional stopover in Varanasi. Upon arrival in Delhi, transfer to the Radisson Blu Airport Hotel for dinner and day room before transfer to the airport for evening departure.

Accomodations: Radisson Blu

Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner