Fatehpur Sikri
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2003
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22
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Trip End
Nov 14, 2003
Fatehpur Sikri, India
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Fatehpur Sikri is an ancient city some 40k away from Agra, which was ultimately abandoned because it was build in an area where it was difficult to sustain life due to the distance from the nearest river. It is now a well preserved fort area, and a large expanse of ruined buildings.
But Fatehpur for me is probably just as memorable for the bus-ride there from Khajuraho. It was a 12 hour overnight journey. For the first couple of hours I had some little kid on the seat in front who wanted to play with me. But when I got bored and tried to sleep he decided he wanted to slap me around the face instead. When that family got off I breathed a sigh of relief, only for a family of 5 to get on and proceed to wedge themselves onto my seat (it was a seat for three people). So . . . for most of the jouney I was wedged into a tiny amount of space, with the mother asleep on my shoulder and two kids asleep across my legs. At the time it was hell, but as always with bad journeys in India, it ceases to be so bad once you've got off - maybe it's the thrill of the escape that does it.
Anyway, spent a nice day wandering around Fatehpur Sikri. I drew the line at paying another extortionate 500% mark-up for westerners to enter the royal enclosure, but had a great time just wandering around the fort and the ruined city itself.
