Agra
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2005
1
37
122
Trip End
Ongoing
Agra, India
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Our hotel room was right next to the home of a Muslim family, and for the first few days of our stay we were kept awake by their little goat "baaaaaing" constantly. We didn't hear the poor little goat after that though :(
There was a festival in the street of our hotel with rides and a rickety old wooden ferris wheel, and all of the kids were dressed up in their finest. Glenn decided to head out into the street with his camera to have fun with some of the kids, and after finding a suitable subject he got mobbed by all the kids wanting to have their photos taken and to see the results. In the end it got a bit out of control and he had to escape.
The following day we took the local bus to the nearby town of Fathepur Sikri. When we first saw the bus we weren't sure it was going to make it, it looked like it was held together with glue, and the front windscreen was all cracked - very bare bones. But after an hour we arrived and took a walk through the old bazaar before heading up the mountain to see what we had come for, the old royal buildings of Fathepur Sikri.
As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, we were set upon by kids trying to sell postcards, asking for the usual "pen, money, chocolate" - we pointed them in the direction of a tour group that had just arrived and we were on our way :)
The first area we went into was still a functioning mosque and square used for festivals. We found this part pretty interesting even though we had a "guide" following us around most of the time. After that we went into the no longer used, preserved section of the buildings which had a huge entry fee. We thought that we had come all of this way so we might as well see it. Unfortunately we were disappointed, it actually got to the point where we were down right bored! So after seeing the "must see" buildings, we decided to get some lunch and jump back on the bus to Agra.
The following afternoon we were due to take the train to Jaipur. Unfortunately Christie suddenly came down with a case of Delhi Belly and we weren't sure that it was a wise idea for her to take a 6 hour train ride. But she soldiered on and we got to the train station, only to have her throw up in the garden in the front of the station with a bevy of onlookers (nice!). Positively she felt much better after that(!), and after a one hour delay, and our carriage on the train going "missing" and having to upgrade to a more expensive class - we were on our way to Jaipur.
