Agra We were so looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal again after 3 years. With the beauty of the building and the background story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan the site provokes a strong emotional response. You see people bursting into tears when they first catch site of those four minarets and the magnificent dome. Set in the gardens it is simply perfect. We left the hotel at 6am to be first in the queue at the Eastern Gate. At 7.05am the massive gates swung op...

Village People Tordi is supposed to be a typical Indian rural village with different castes and religions living together in harmony. The pictures speak for themselves. Everyone we met in the village was keen to speak to us, show off their children and tell us about their lives. The children, in particular, were very outgoing and desperate to engage with us. They demonstrated their proficiency in English and mathematics by reading a paragraph from the life of ...

Jaipur The city was first painted pink in the 1800's to welcome a visiting Prince of Wales. Pink is the colour of hospitality.They say that the royal family think that the world smells of wet paint - well this is where it all started. Jaipur is also known as the city of kites and, sure enough, as we approached town the sky was dotted with little square kites in all colours bobbing up and down, swooping and diving. If you have seen "The Kite Runner" or read the ...

Delhi We are leaving Delhi on a 9 lane highway which has come to a grinding halt. The reason that the traffic has stopped is that the highway reduces to 3 lanes a mile or two further on. Clearly, the standard method of clearing the backlog is for everyone to blast their horn simultaneously and continuously. Strangely, this seems to work and we are soon on our way again. As we taxied to our stand at Delhi International on our Bravo flight from Kochin we spotted ...

On the beach It was just what the doctor ordered. Total peace and relaxation, wonderful food, discrete but attentive service in our secluded private garden in the mornings and evenings and our private area of the beach in the afternoons. We were entertained watching the never ending struggle between predator and prey as the crows and kites attacked the crabs which were trying to get from the waters edge to their holes at the top of the beach. When the crab spot...