Friday 23-01-2009

Got up early this morning, had chick pea and curd curry for breakfast, then left for Agra about 9 o'clock. It took a long time to get out of Delhi, as the traffic was so bad at that time in the morning.The journey to Agra took about 4 bumpy/scary hour's drive.We stopped for coffee halfway there and saw our first snake charmer.

We finally arrived at a lovely tranquil palace just outside Agra, a beautiful palace with gardens to walk in, with deer. After our driver rounded us up (overstayed), we meet our guide for Red Fort Agra.Again well worth a visit some of it is built from the same marble used at the Taj Mahal, very beautiful. The guide we had was a local from Agra and took us afterwards to see the most amazing sun set over the Taj Majal, from a place across the river, there were very few people around. Just along the river from the Taj Mahal there was a Hindu funeral pyre where two funerals were taking place, there was lots of chanting which added to the atmosphere. Food in the hotel was Very good, curry again!

Saturday 24-01-2009

5:45 start; to see sunrise over Taj.The guide picked us up from the hotel and we walked through what was Victoria Park, to the west gate. Not too many people there at first light but it soon got BUSY. It was fascinating watching the colours change on the marble, as the sun came up.Left Agra for Jaipur.Along the way, having entered Rajistan, we had planned a walk in the National Bird sanctuary reserve at Bhartpur. Saw lots of birds and animals plus a dead water buffalo, but no snakes, thank goodness!Lots of school children there though who were very noisy and frightened a lot of the birds away, so we tried to avoid them.

The journey took about six hours by car; Jaipur is a cleaner city, but just as busy.Found a great rooftop restaurant and had curry for tea! We found a lot of the food was vegetarian; the hotel we stopped in served no meat dishes at all.