India

Day 1 - Agra

Today we have had a little lay in but we are up and out by 8.30 and heading to Agra Fort which is 16th century - it’s a very impressive structure.

We enter through an imposing arch into a small courtyard and through another gate to a slope up to the main fort entrance.

Our guide tells us that the fort is surrounded by two moats for protection, the first would be filled with water and have crocodiles

swimming in it, the second would have Bengal tigers roaming around in it and should any enemy penetrate this and get through all the gates then they would be met by large circular boulders that would be rolled down this slope.

WOW – if you could survive that it would be a miracle
The main fort is red sandstone.

As you progress through the fort it becomes more and more elaborate with detailed carvings and paintings on every surface.
These rooms would have been decorated with the best Persian rugs, tapestries, soft cushions and curtains all hand made.

As you continue from courtyard to courtyard the buildings change to marble and are even more elaborate with different inlays of contracting marbles on many of the surfaces.

The main state rooms would have been even further enhanced in their day with diamond, sapphires, ruby’s and gold inlaid into the roof and walls. Unfortunately the precious and semi precious stones no longer exist.

When the Palace was left robbers stole all the jewels and started fires in the buildings to melt the gold to remove it from the walls and ceilings. You can see it has left parts of the rooms charred from smoke damage.

We spend a few hours more here exploring before we head back to the hotel and have some free time. Andrew and I decide when we get back we will have a walk along the street where are hotel is, we pop into Costa for a quick coffee first.

The street is again manic with cars, people, motors bikes, horse and carts, oh and tuk tuks trying to entice you to take a ride.
We also have a spot of lunch, today a change from Indian cuisine, Pizza Hut, just to give our stomachs a rest from spicy food though when we get the pizza it has a definite spicy tang to it.

After lunch we head back and the group reassembles ready for the highlight of the day.

The Taj Mahal.

We arrive there in the afternoon about 4pm, you have to go through security the same as at an airport but you can’t take your bags in, only a camera and water. Men and women have to enter separately and you go through a scanner and get frisked by the guards , the girls even find there boobs felt by the guards for anything that may be concealed in their bra’s, security is very tight.

We head through the main gate and now get an amazing view of the Taj which is right in front of us, our guide tells us the story of why it was built, it look 22 years to complete which is amazing when you thinks of the scale of the place and the work involved.
The Taj Mahal was built for the emperors third wife as this was his favorite and on her death bed he promised her that he would build a temple to signify his eternal love and devotion to her and her memory.
The place is breathtaking from all angles, you can’t really explain it. If you ever get the chance go and see it for yourself do, pictures don’t do it justice and don’t give you any real idea of the scale and proportion of the building within the landscape.
Today and the next three days are special for Muslims as the tomb in the temple will be open for visits so there are more crowds than

usual, the queue for the crypt is over 45 minutes and it’s mostly in the baking sun, stood out on the white marble, we decide to give that part a miss.
After sending 2 hours or more walking around and appreciating this magnificent place we head off back to Agra and our hotel for a quick freshen up and to go out again to eat with the group.

Our guide Jai takes us round the corner to a small Indian restaurant, again a great menu to choose from. As a surprise the whole group is invited into the kitchen to see the food being prepared and cooked, it’s a very interesting experience, not one that you usually get to do. Its very hot in there, not somewhere I would like to work, it’s hot enough outside as it is.
As we sit down for our meal there is thunder and lightning and soon it pours down with rain, it stops before we leave but it has cooled it down a bit and made the evening air fresher.

Day 2 Agra to Dhula

The next day we are packed, back on the bus and heading for Dhula and the Fatephur Sikri palace.

This palace was also built in the 16th century and as we approach it on the coach we drive through the main gate and park up, looking back you notice the huge fortified wall which surrounds the area, apparently six miles long. This would have been a city.

We have a guide to show us around here which is great, the architecture is stunning with lots of carvings and a few wall paintings.

In the central courtyard there is a meeting chamber where the Maharaja and ministers would meet to discuss the country's issues. The carvings in here symbolize all the faiths, Hindu, Muslin, Christian, Judaism etc. as the ruler wanted to show he supported and wanted to bring all religions together and treated them equally. This symbolism is seen throughout many fort and palace of the era.

It is hard to believe that when the ruler who lived here had enough the court just upped and left and moved to a new palace. Luckily the building has been left for us to enjoy.
One of the views from the back of the palace shows wide open dry, almost desert land with a few trees stretching as far as the eye can see, this was once a lake.
From here we head down the motorway to and on the way visit a site called The Step Well

This is quite a site, built at the beginning of the 6th century and then improved upon after this, the structure with its clever step formation was built so water could be extracted from the ground, The water table is very low here as the area is almost dessert.

You weren’t allowed to swim in it, bathe in it or wash your clothes, you would have to walk down the steps to the bottom and back up again to collect your water and take it away to be used outside of the water hole.

Onward we go for another 1.5 to 2 hours to our next stop which is a small village and we will be staying in tents this evening, It has been hot again today so we are all wondering what the experience will be like ?

The coach turns of the main road and we head down a single track road which heads though very arid terrain and turns almost into desert in places, there are mountains in the distance. As the fields level out it looks like crops are grown here, we pass clusters of houses along the way and many of the locals wave and smile as we pass.
We arrive at our destination for the night and from the road we can see the tents, we pull into a farm yard area which looks pretty basic but behind this are some temples which look beautiful, as we walk round we enter the site from a walk way under one of these temples which opens on to a beautiful swimming pool, ah relief things are looking up.
We are allocated a tent and we go and settle in, it’s not the usual tent, it has electric, lights, fan, proper beds and each one has its own ensuite bathroom, wow, I think this is what you call glamping.
We have a little time to ourselves to chill so have a walk around the site and then relax with a beer around the pool with our group.

As the sun sets and the girls drift off to get ready for dinner after their swim Andrew and I sit on the edge of the pool and watch the swallows swoop down onto the pool and by 7.30 the light has faded but we are joined by lots of bats many of them probably a foot across in size, they perform aerial acrobatics and skim across the pool to drink the water, how lucky we are to be in such a beautiful place and experience that.

Well time for dinner and the owner and this team put on a wonderful vegetarian spread of cubed potatoes in a spice, dal, which is lentals and chick peas, spinach with cheese, this is followed by fresh mango that we bought on the way.

After dinner we retire to our tents for an early night as tomorrow 5 of us are off on a bike ride through the countryside and villages sightseeing,

Day 3 – Dhula to Jaipur

Before we set off for Jaipur we go for our cycle ride at 7 am before it gets too hot.

The scenery is really beautiful and the people along the way very friendly. We stop at one home where they are weaving carpets, we are invited to watch and then shown the families home, they also ask to have their picture taken.

The bike ride takes about one and a half hours and when we get back breakfast is waiting for us, great, feel hungry and thirsty after all that peddling.

Time to pack and back on the road again to head for Jaipur.

Jaipur is up in the mountains so we travel through some stunning scenery to get there, on the outskirts of the city are shanty towns, as we get further into Jaipur the builds are packed in, we thought Delhi was a crammed city but this place is tightly packed and extremely busy, the traffic is manic and its amazing no one crashes into each other.
The walled city of Jaipur is know as the Pink City. The city got it’s name because when India was under British rule the viceroy to India visited the Maharaja and in the viceroy's honor the city was painted pink and has remained that way ever since.
The City Palace is the home of the Maharaja and his family and is still in use today so we are only about to see certain area’s of the palace, it has some stunning architecture, beautiful chandeliers and interesting exhibitions talking about the history of the Maharajah.

In one of the courtyards there are four entrances, these are beautifully decorated with scenes of birds and flowers and depict the four seasons.
We then head for lunch and our next hotel, some of the group have decided to go shopping for saris but five of us opt to head to the hotel as shopping for clothes is not our thing, Jai our guide organizes a taxi for us, that turns out to be quite an experience as our taxi driver negotiates the unbelievable hectic and chaotic roads, there are cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks, people, and animals coming from every angle and when you get to a roundabout it’s a free for all. The taxi driver is a local so just takes it in his stride and just swerves between them at the right time, everyone beeps their horns to make others aware as they jostle for a position on the road.
We are staying at the Jaipur Inn this eve (5th May, 2016,) it looks ok from the reception and what we can see of the lounge area, we will have to wait until we have had a night here to make our mind up.
The room is basic but clean the bed soft but the curtains have seen better days, they are falling apart on the back, that evening we comment on the room to our guide and the owner apologizes and sorts us out a better room for the following night . There is only wi fi available in the lounge area downstairs, oh no, well we are in India !!
We sit down stairs for a while, have a drink and chill, all of a sudden the sky has changed colour, the wind has whipped up and it’s raining, a fierce storm has blown in. It doesn’t last for long but it does clear the air and temperature cools off.
We head out that evening again as a group to get dinner, tuk tuks are arranged for our journey to the restaurant, 4 plus the driver squashed into one of these vehicles whizzing through the city streets at night and now raining a little to add to the excitement, we all arrive at our destination safely and have a great meal.

Day 4 - Jaipur

The following day we are off to the Amber Fort which is situated high up the mountains over looking Jaipur. On the way we stop for a photo opportunity of The Palace of the Winds.We continue on our way and fom the distance as we approach you can see it is a magnificent Fort and Palace.
We park up and need some water so go to the vender on the side of the road, he charges us 100 rupees per bottle, our guide then gets water and is charged 20 rupees per bottle so we feel ripped off. Just have to put that one down to experience.

To get up to the Fort you have several options, you can walk, take an elephant ride or go in jeeps, we opt for the jeeps. Many tourists take the elephants but this is now discouraged by some tour operator’s as the elephants trek up and down all day in the scorching heat which is not seen to be humane, they are trying to change the owners attitudes and visitors to consider these lovely animals welfare, but it is a difficult balance as the money earnt by their owners does make sure they are fed.

We meet our guide and the tour begins, the palace is 10th to 16th

century and has some amazing architecture and wall paintings, the most impressive part of the site is the Palace of Mirrors which has the walls and ceilings covered with intricate designs inlaid with mirrored glass.

The rooms would have been lit so at night would have sparkled like hundreds of thousands of diamonds , it would have been the ultimate in style and bling for the period.

We head out of the main palace and re-group under a tree in the entrance courtyard where some of the girls decide to have a Henna tattoo done, the Indian lady is very skilled at her art.

After that we head back to the city, we have some more free time so some of the group go shopping at the bazaars, Andrew and I decide to

go back to the hotel, have some lunch and then go for a massage, it is all arranged by the hotel, taxi pick up to and from the venue and the treatment all included in our price, Andrew’s treatment cost 12,000.00 rupees and mine 10,000.00 rupees, unbelievably cheap.( £12, and £10 ) The treatment was called Ayurvedic massage, we are taken into a room and undress, a piece of cloth is put over your private parts and tied likes a G string for your modesty.
He starts by pouring warmed oils onto your head and massaging it in, then you are laid on the bed and he starts with the face, neck, shoulders work down the whole of your body rubbing, pulling and tapping as he goes, by the end you are well and truly covered in warm oil. After that he then starts to splash you with warm water and use fresh clean towels to rub you down and remove the excess oil which leaves very little residue, I was quite surprised I didn’t feel oily after and no need for a shower at that point as you are told to do that an hour later, it was a very enjoyable experience.

Later that evening we met back up with some of the girls on the roof top terrace where they were having a Bollywood dance lesson, it looked pretty complicated learning all the steps but the girls made a great job of it and looked like they enjoyed it.

Well that’s it for our tour just dinner tonight at the hotel which We decide to have butter chicken curry with rice and garlic naan bread and a few beers, perfect.

Day 5 Jaipur – Delhi

Bags packed, breakfast done and we are off at 8am to head back to Delhi and the end of tour, it’s a six and a half hour drive with no sight seeing today.

Its an interesting journey though along the motorway which is very busy with many lorries stacked high with all sorts of goods, by the side of the road we see marble works and some wonderful carved statues, there are clusters of shops and houses, lots of garbage, old tyres and anything unwanted just littering the sides of the road.

At one point as we travel down the motorway we see a man and a herd of goats on the far side of the road and he is going to cross this six lane road, gulp, amazingly the Goats undeterred by the traffic head off across the road whilst the traffic changes lane to avoid then or stops, no one it hurt, and all get to the other side ok and the traffic continues.

We are now back in Delhi for our last night, we all have flights tomorrow at different times so it’s fair well to the group we have met on this trip, we have one last meal out, it's been a great time.

Day 6 - Delhi

We are back at The Grand Park Inn hotel and this time have a much better room, air con is still noisy though . We have managed to arrange at late check out for 5pm which is great as our flight isn't until 10pm and we can’t get into the airport until 6pm as we have been told we may be turned away if we arrive early so we’ll have to decide what we are going to do tomorrow during the day.

As it turns out we walk down to the city centre and go for a Costa coffee, have a walk round the park and then decide to go on a tuk tuk ride. The driver is very friendly and shows us a few of the sights, the India Gate, the Presidential Palace and government buildings, then back to our hotel to freshen up and get our taxi to the airport.

At Delhi airport security is a nightmare, the guard on the terminal entrance wants proof you are flying before they will let in you, the bag drop off point won't take your bags and check you in till 3 hours before, passport control does have enough people on the desks and some are empty then one breaks down, the queues are stacking up and people getting agitated.

Eventually we get through the security check and boarding pass check, then through the body scanner and the boarding pass is checked again, phew we are through, only took 2 hours.

Anyway we are sorted and off to our next destination, Singapore, we are flying with Air India on a 787 Dreamliner plane and we are very impressed, lots of room and very comfortable even in economy. The flight will take approximately 5.30 and we will travel 2856 miles on this leg.

We arrive in Singapore on time, the airport is well organized, signage is easy to follow and immigration and passport control pleasant, a complete contrast to India.

We take the metro down town to Ortram which is about 12 stops and one change, it's a very good system and easy to use, from there we get a taxi to Clarke's Quay, this is the area we are staying in at the Holiday Inn Express, we are greeted with a warm welcome.

I must say that after being in Delhi and now coming here it's very refreshing to see a very clean and green city.