The overnight journey, spent on one of the upper bunks in coach S3 was very pleasant, being rocked to sleep under 3 fans which make a/c at night an unnecessary luxury, and arriving a mere hour late into Agra Fort station. We found our hotel right by the south gate of the famous Taj Mahal, the roof views were as promised though the rest of the building was grubby with surely
staff...fine for 1 night. We walked the 100 yards to the entrance and found ourselves face to face with arguably the worlds most iconic building. It was spectacular! The marble gleaming soft impressions of blue to white to gold and the walkways full of excited tourists, colourful Indians and babbling school children. We spent several hours in the buildings presence, admiring its elegance from all angles as well as exploring the two flanking buildings which are sites in their own
right. An autorickshaw sped us to Agra's other principle site, the red fort, where we were greeted with the red stone, yet more gleaming marble and superb views of the Taj and adjacent river. The mosque to the north and its associated bazaar were frenetic, the streets gridlocked with pedestrians, but refreshingly
hassle free and providing a good lunch break. An early start and another rickshaw hired meant that we could watch the sunrise light up the marble domes from the opposite side of the river, accompanied only by a soldier and young litter of street dogs.
Our early departure from Nepal meant that we had a couple of "spare" days in hand and so the next port of call was Bharatpur, arriving on the bus mid-morning before then retracing our steps by half an hour to see the old ruined city of Fatepur Sikri. We could not avoid a guide for the mosque and its giant entrance gate and marble shrine, and then spent a quiet 2 hours ambling through the em
pty stone buildings of the royal residence. Definitely not a must see as the guide book had suggested but worth popping into if you happen to have an afternoon free and are in the area! Now the main draw of Baratpur is the national park that is home to rare wetland habitat that draws thousands of migrating birds. This is all well and good but we found out at the guesthouse that there was little of either, that is wetland or birds. The monsoon has been awful for several years now resulting in the conversion of lakes into puddles and the knock-on effect is that the birds have decided to give the place a miss. Still, we had come all this way and so decided that for 6 quid each we really could afford a cycle rickshaw and guide to take us round for 4 hours in the morning (bikes are not currently allowed as the authorities have fallen out with the hire companies!). Eager to see what was on offer I grabbed my bag off the bed to go and watched in horror as my camera performed a perfect pirouette with backward somersault before crashing to the floor, and no there was not a shag pile carpet to cushion the impact. With the lens wobbling on the body and little sign of life you will just have to take my word for it that there were a few birds, though in groups of ones and twos rather than hundreds, the guide and rickshaw wallah did a great job pointing everything out for us, we must
have seen at least 25 different avian species and a few mammals to boot including kingfishers, egrets, eagles, parakeets, stalks, woodpeckers, antelope and boar. Again it was not a spectacular as it may have been but we had an excellent morning and it was a relief to escape the bustle of city life for the countryside. We did wonder around the town itself, the streets were bustling with last minute shoppers preparing for the upcoming Dewali festival (think Christmas and New Year rolled into one) with tinsel and twinkling lights strung between the pylons. High spirits were the order of the day with no hassle and plenty of hellos.
A 4 hour bus took us to Jaipur, the southwest point of the "Golden Triangle", the Pink city, and our final stop before starting work in Pushkar. First impressions for me were indifference, apart that is from the amazing guesthouse that we found ourselves in. At the Pearl Palace we felt in luxury at a budget price and a rival to the Jade Emu in Dali and the Outside Inn in Yangshou. Our evening wonder revealed an old city that was
more a peach than pink and the buildings we saw nothing spectacular. Amy had a more favourable impression but this is my blog so indifferent it is! What we did find though was a little back street electrical repair shop. I had found that the lens mount of the camera body had come loose with a few screws to tighten. As feared these had threaded and could not be simply tightened but what The repair hero did after putting aside the DVD player he had been fixing was to somehow still secure everything in place so that any movement was tiny. The lens now does not focus 1 in
every 10 shots and I am sure the fix will come undone at some stage but at least I do not have to fork out for an upgrade and am back in the land of photography, phew! Our one full day in town and we booked ourselves onto the exhausting 9 hour RTDC coach tour of the local sights, the 5 hour half day we had our eye on was not running. We must have gone to about 9 different forts and temples with 2 separate shop stops thrown in for free. I did not
feel there was any absolute standout though Amber fort was impressive but having seen it at the end of the day fatigue had set in. The observatory was also a good distraction with the worlds largest sundial accurate to 2 seconds alongside assorted other contraptions to tell star sign, hemisphere of the sun, month and day. The actual highlight of
Jaipur came in the evening when, nestled on the rooftop patio of our guesthouse, we were treated to a megatons worth of fireworks set above the illuminated city center. These continued well into the early hours, earplugs (travel essentials!) ensuring a good nights sleep.
The overnight journey, spent on one of the upper bunks in coach S3 was very pleasant, being rocked to sleep under 3 fans which make a/c at night an unnecessary luxury, and arriving a mere hour late into Agra Fort station. We found our hotel right by the south gate of the famous Taj Mahal, the roof views were as promised though the rest of the building was grubby with surely 
staff...fine for 1 night. We walked the 100 yards to the entrance and found ourselves face to face with arguably the worlds most iconic building. It was spectacular! The marble gleaming soft impressions of blue to white to gold and the walkways full of excited tourists, colourful Indians and babbling school children. We spent several hours in the buildings presence, admiring its elegance from all angles as well as exploring the two flanking buildings which are sites in their own 
right. An autorickshaw sped us to Agra's other principle site, the red fort, where we were greeted with the red stone, yet more gleaming marble and superb views of the Taj and adjacent river. The mosque to the north and its associated bazaar were frenetic, the streets gridlocked with pedestrians, but refreshingly 
hassle free and providing a good lunch break. An early start and another rickshaw hired meant that we could watch the sunrise light up the marble domes from the opposite side of the river, accompanied only by a soldier and young litter of street dogs.
Our early departure from Nepal meant that we had a couple of "spare" days in hand and so the next port of call was Bharatpur, arriving on the bus mid-morning before then retracing our steps by half an hour to see the old ruined city of Fatepur Sikri. We could not avoid a guide for the mosque and its giant entrance gate and marble shrine, and then spent a quiet 2 hours ambling through the em
pty stone buildings of the royal residence. Definitely not a must see as the guide book had suggested but worth popping into if you happen to have an afternoon free and are in the area! Now the main draw of Baratpur is the national park that is home to rare wetland habitat that draws thousands of migrating birds. This is all well and good but we found out at the guesthouse that there was little of either, that is wetland or birds. The monsoon has been awful for several years now resulting in the conversion of lakes into puddles and the knock-on effect is that the birds have decided to give the place a miss. Still, we had come all this way and so decided that for 6 quid each we really could afford a cycle rickshaw and guide to take us round for 4 hours in the morning (bikes are not currently allowed as the authorities have fallen out with the hire companies!). Eager to see what was on offer I grabbed my bag off the bed to go and watched in horror as my camera performed a perfect pirouette with backward somersault before crashing to the floor, and no there was not a shag pile carpet to cushion the impact. With the lens wobbling on the body and little sign of life you will just have to take my word for it that there were a few birds, though in groups of ones and twos rather than hundreds, the guide and rickshaw wallah did a great job pointing everything out for us, we must 
have seen at least 25 different avian species and a few mammals to boot including kingfishers, egrets, eagles, parakeets, stalks, woodpeckers, antelope and boar. Again it was not a spectacular as it may have been but we had an excellent morning and it was a relief to escape the bustle of city life for the countryside. We did wonder around the town itself, the streets were bustling with last minute shoppers preparing for the upcoming Dewali festival (think Christmas and New Year rolled into one) with tinsel and twinkling lights strung between the pylons. High spirits were the order of the day with no hassle and plenty of hellos.
A 4 hour bus took us to Jaipur, the southwest point of the "Golden Triangle", the Pink city, and our final stop before starting work in Pushkar. First impressions for me were indifference, apart that is from the amazing guesthouse that we found ourselves in. At the Pearl Palace we felt in luxury at a budget price and a rival to the Jade Emu in Dali and the Outside Inn in Yangshou. Our evening wonder revealed an old city that was 
more a peach than pink and the buildings we saw nothing spectacular. Amy had a more favourable impression but this is my blog so indifferent it is! What we did find though was a little back street electrical repair shop. I had found that the lens mount of the camera body had come loose with a few screws to tighten. As feared these had threaded and could not be simply tightened but what The repair hero did after putting aside the DVD player he had been fixing was to somehow still secure everything in place so that any movement was tiny. The lens now does not focus 1 in 
every 10 shots and I am sure the fix will come undone at some stage but at least I do not have to fork out for an upgrade and am back in the land of photography, phew! Our one full day in town and we booked ourselves onto the exhausting 9 hour RTDC coach tour of the local sights, the 5 hour half day we had our eye on was not running. We must have gone to about 9 different forts and temples with 2 separate shop stops thrown in for free. I did not 
feel there was any absolute standout though Amber fort was impressive but having seen it at the end of the day fatigue had set in. The observatory was also a good distraction with the worlds largest sundial accurate to 2 seconds alongside assorted other contraptions to tell star sign, hemisphere of the sun, month and day. The actual highlight of 
Jaipur came in the evening when, nestled on the rooftop patio of our guesthouse, we were treated to a megatons worth of fireworks set above the illuminated city center. These continued well into the early hours, earplugs (travel essentials!) ensuring a good nights sleep.
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