This morning we were up bright and early at 5:30am for our sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal - we were picked up from our hotel at 6:30am and met Imran, our guide for the day. Once through the tight security (we had to queue up separately to be frisked) Imran walked us though giving us lots of details - it was amazing to see the Taj Mahal so close - he was a keen photographer and got us in many different poses - We, of course, like trained monkeys just did what he said but some of them did make us laugh when we were checking them out in the evening (such as getting us to look at each other with the Taj Mahal behind us) and some didn't make the final cut!
We were at the Taj Mahal for a couple of hours and then went back to our hotel for breakfast, and to pack to move on to our next location. On the way we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, which was an old city built by one of the Mughal Emperors in 16th century - it was only lived in for 16 years as the city ran out of water and it was then abandoned. Imran explained the story of the city very well and we were glad that we had a guide with us as we wouldn't have had clue otherwise on what we were looking at!
Imran was very good, and we enjoyed the day with him and discussing not just about what we were seeing but also about Indian way of life, but boy did he work for his tip - from saying what a lovely name I had, to that he liked my hair, and oh what a beautiful wife you have Mr Peter.....
Our journey on to Ramathra Fort, which was our stop for the next two nights, was bumpy and long! It took us 5 hours to get here along very bumpy roads. However the journey was fascinating as we passed through many towns and villages and saw a lot of everyday life....and the children that we passed loved to wave as you went past and were so pleased when I waved back - so sweet!
We arrived just before dusk so didn't have a chance to look round the fort, but it looks lovely. There are only a few rooms, and we met the other people staying this evening whilst we had drinks before dinner around the fire pit before we sat down to a delicious dinner outside under the stars - definitely our best meal yet!
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| Our bedroom |
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| Part of the restored fort |
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