Last Chance Saloon

After our day in Agra, we stopped at Fahtepur Sikri on our way back to Delhi.

I'd heard bad things about the vendors/wannabe tour guides, and they were a bit of a pain. But we managed to find an honest guide and had a look around. It was a really great complex and as we'd found the day before, there were not many tourists. The palaces for the three different queens of Akbar - a Christian, Muslim and Hindu to support his multifaith ideas - were really beautiful and all very varied from each other.

After looking around the palaces, we moved on to the mosque. The mosque was nice enough though I didn't find it incredibly striking, with a small marble fronted tomb and the usual red sandstone construction.

We headed on to Delhi, which was about a six hour drive, and decided to make an early start in the morning.

We got up the next day and headed to the Red Fort. We'd been told that you shouldn't bother with Agra Fort because the Red Fort is so much better. I couldn't disagree more. Despite the fact there were very few people in there because of the early hour, it still had no real feeling of atmosphere. Some of the buildings were beautiful but it didn't feel as much like a fort, and it lacked the striking views enjoyed by Agra Fort. I got a bit fed up in Delhi because Indian guys kept taking photos of me, often without bothering to ask for permission. It felt like having my own personal paparazzi, but without the famous person upshot of being completely loaded and this being the one downside.

After the Red Fort, we moved on to the Jama Masjid Mosque, which was again nice enough, and the Lotus Flower Temple, which was more beautiful from a distance than up close.

It was almost blisteringly hot at 45 degrees and I was seriously flagging. We had lunch then headed to Humayyun's tomb. This was my favourite monument of the day by far. It was beautiful, set in nice grounds and visually very striking, with lots of other smaller tombs, gates and temples nearby. Because of the heat, I made poor Elliott hop from patch of shade to patch of shade, so violent was my hatred of direct sunlight.

After Humayyun's tomb, our driver took us to the 5* Imperial hotel where we were spending our final night of travelling. We got upgraded so that we had our own suite - two bathrooms, two widescreen TVs, our own living area, a personal butler. Everything was so posh and I felt thoroughly out of place and skanky.

I settled in watching some TV and then we went for dinner in the famous hotel restaurant, 1911. Because we didn't have much money left, we didn't exactly go all out but it was nice food.

The next day we got up, had our free buffet breakfast then got a car to the airport. Everything for once went without much trouble and within no time we were on a plane heading home, which felt completely bizarre. Someone at the airline clearly hated me as they'd sat us right in the middle of the kid's section, so all the time there were kids swinging off my arm rest, making noise and throwing things around. It was not a good flight with really bad turbulence - I kept having morbid thoughts about how awful it would be if I got this close to being home and then had a plane crash.

But we arrived in one place, queued as only the British can and then before I knew it, I saw my family in the distance, holding a giant banner. I ran across the arrivals area to them like a cheesy film, and we took lots of photos much to my brothers' embarassment.

Since being back, I feel like I never left. Which is completely strange. But it is so amazing seeing my family again, and I'm really looking forward to catching up with all my friends. I guess that's the point of going away really - to realise what you have back home. But I'm glad I have the pictures and blogs to remind me that yes, one day I escaped the UK and actually DID something.

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