The Golden Triangle. I was originally going to make this entry very simple. It was going to read; "The Taj Mahal, go and see it". After consideration however, I have decided that a fuller entry is probably a better idea. The Golden Triangle is the route that most tourists take if they are only in the country for a short space of time as it encompasses the Capital city, Jaipur which is famed for its textiles and other crafts and of course the must see attraction in india, the Taj Mahal. Its a well travelled route but its one that contains a number of fantastic sights along the way.

Jaipur is another of the large cities in India, the largest in Rajasthan and our driver Ganesh doesnt like driving around it all that much. With it being a big city however, there is a lot of sights worth checking out. Starting with the fort, and although we had seen a few forts by this time the fort in Jaipur was one of my favourites, not quite as impressive as the fort at Kumbulgarh but certainly better than those in Jodphur and Jaisalmer. Its a large fort with a man made lake at the front where the Elephant tours commence from. The elephants used for the tours are huge, of course not as big as those found in Africa but to me they were massive. Cadge, however showed me a video of a tiger leaping out of long grass to attack some men riding elephants so I guess they are not big enough. There is a lot of history to the fort and it was built over a period of 150 years. The mirrored palace inside the fort is one of the more beautiful of those that we visited with the sunlight bouncing off the many glass tiles which decorate the outside of the palace. There are also a number of other nice buildings contained within the forts walls and the decorations of the Ganesh Gate are fantastic. The fort is set up as a bit of a maze and I can imagine that it would make for a great game of hide and seek.

When you visit the fort in Jaipur you are able to buy a two day ticket to a number of attractions for only 350 rupees. One of the attractions included in the ticket is the UNESCO Heritage Site of Jantar-Mantar. I have since learned that Jantar Mantar is actually the term used to describe an equinoctial sundial and that there were five of these built throughout northern India during the reign of Jai Singh II of Jaipur which was in the 18th C. The most impressive of these was built in Jaipur The site contains numerous other time tracking structures along with observational and astriological buildings. Its a very interesting place, the main sundial is massive, taller than my house back home and it is able to record the time to an accuracy of 2 seconds which I think is pretty impressive. Need a Swiss watch to get that kind of accuracy these days.

The palace in the city is not included in the 2 day ticket and aside from a beautiful throne room which has welcomed some of the highest delegates from around the world, it is not that nice a palace. Of note though, I got to witness a lady taking a photo of the archway into the main courtyard and in the photo was one of the security in the palace. He also noticed and promptly went over to the lady to ask for a tip for being in the photo. The naive women then proceeded to pay the chancer just for being in one of her photos...just one example of the oppurtunistic nature of the people in India. On one hand down right cheek, on the other if someone is willing to part with money for something so small and in my eyes ridiculous, then well why not chance it. A short walk from the palace is the Haveli house, built by the Maharaja in the 18th C. Its included in the 2 day ticket but I didnt think it was really worth the visit.

We also decided to get out photos taken with one of the snake charmers (when in Rome right). The best bit about it was that when Cadge was getting his photo taken, the Cobra decided that he was fed up of having his photo taken with daft tourists and so went for Cadge. Ive never seen him move so fast. True the snakes have their fangs removed but the poor boy wasnt to know that. Highlight of the holiday, Cadge being attacked by a Cobra.

So on to Agra. The Taj Mahal, go and see it. Its one of those wow moments. Not as wow as Machu Picchu I would have to admit but certainly in a similar brachet. Everything about the place is perfectly laid out. From the gates to the courtyard to the perfect symmetary of the Taj itself and the pure white marble that it is constructed from. Deserves to be one of the wonders of the world I say. I am not going to try and describe it any more than that, youll just have to wait till I get the photos up (which is proving somewhat of a problem in Asia) There is also a fort in Agra, well worth a visit but do so before the Taj or it will feel like a totally insignificant construction.

The final stop with our driver Ganesh was the massive capital of this bursting country, his least favourite city in all India. The whole time from entering till we found the hotel Ganesh just muttered away to himself about how busy the roads were and how big the city was. Delhi had been getting a bad rep from the other travellers that we had met saying that it was too big and yet there was not a lot worth doing. I must disagree. I felt that there was plenty to see in the city and that judging by the amount of new looking buildings and construction work taking place, its on its way to become a city people enjoy. We were only there for a day and a half and so decided the best way to see as much as possible would be to hire a tuk tuk for the day. There is another red fort similar to that in Agra which is huge and very impressive. There is a clever network of streams throughout the fort flowing through the grounds and the buildings acting as a source of fresh water and an early air con system. I liked that. Of course, Delhi is where Ghandi was killed and although we thought we were going to visit the place where the act happened, we in fact visited the park in which the great man was cremated. There is an eternal flame burning there and as you may expect, it is probably the best maintained piece of land in all India that we saw. The tomb of Humayun, the grandfather of the Maharaja who built the Taj, is an amazing place with other tombs for family members and friends throughout the grounds. The masoleum built for Humayun himself is seriously grand and if you were to visit there before the Taj then you would be quite blown away. Unfortunately we went to the Taj first and so there wasnt quite the same sense of wonder about this place. Its actually a template for the Taj and is the first of the great masoluems built by the Maharaja's of Delhi and Jaipur.

The Lotus Temple, home to the religion of Baha'i (hadnt heard of it before) is the most visited site in all of India. Its kind of cool in design but it reminded me too much of the Cathedral in Rio which to me felt like it wouldnt look out of place in Cumbernauld Town Centre. So I guess that means I didnt think much of the Lotus temple either. There is no sense of history to the place being so young and it feels lifeless inside. No decorations or any real energy about the place. Final stop of the day was to Qutub Minar Tower and the ruins that lie in the grounds surrounding this. Its an interesting place and we could easily have spent much longer there checking out all the ruins and reading up more on the site itself. Unfortunatley we had a plane to catch that night and had to get ourselves to the airport.

So, Golden Triangle, aptly named really. Two large and interesting cities to visit with a good amount of sites that are worth a visit. Then inbetween you have the jewel in crown of the jewel in Queen Victoria's crown, the Taj Mahal. Fantastic place. All I would say though is that if possible, leave visiting the Taj Mahal till last. Then all the cool and interesting sites in Delhi and Jaipur will have that feeling of being cool and interesting as opposed to, "Nice but not quite the Taj is it".