Day 302 September 6th 2007, India's most famous - Delhi to Agra to Bharatpur


Shelley has a notion that unless we travel the hard way we have somehow cheated. After seeing some of the buses on India's roads I was not in agreement with this. I also didn't hear any complaints as we set off with our Driver and car towards Agra, home of India's most famous landmark the Taj Mahal.


The Taj Mahal is considered to be one of the finest examples of Mughal architecture, a combination of Persian, Indian and Turkish styles. This magnificent building was built in 1648 by Shah Jahan as a memorial for his wife. It took about 12 years to complete with 1,000 elephants carrying material from all over India, the cost 32 million rupees about 400,000 UK pounds. Quite a sum of money in the 17th century.


The building is certainly very impressive. After seeing so may pictures of it I wonder what the impact would be seeing a sight like this for the first time, never having seen a photo or TV coverage of it. I had volumising moose in my hair again today and forgetting my sun glasses I could hardly open my eyes with the mid day sun blazing down on us.


After convincing our tour guide that we didn't want to buy any carpets we were on our way into Rajasthan and the small town of Bharatpur.On route we stopped off at the ghost city of Fatephur, which was the capital of Mughal India from 1571 to 1581. Built during the reign of Akbar the Great it had one design flaw there was no access to water. I guess a few Roman aqueducts would have been useful.


Shelley had chosen a set of Heritage hotels and home stays for our trip. I was starting to get a little concerned as we approached Bharatpur, cows and other farm animals blocked the roads as they turned to mud. The small brick houses with thatched roofs that made up the village were certainly interesting, but I was glad when we turned the corner and saw the hotel, a large building with walls.

Highlights: India's most famous tourist attraction.