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Published: March 4th 2007
We left Agra at 10:00 a.m. with a new driver, Dharmo, and our guide Lolita in tow. The plan was to visit Fatehpur Sikri, 36 kms outside of Agra, and drop her off after she showed us around.
Fatehpur Sikri was built by the same Akbar you have read about (three wives, different religions). Amazing place -- it was only used for fourteen years presumably because, as the population grew, there was not sufficient water to sustain everyone. We also visited the Mosque there, which was not as pleasant an experience. While the mosque was lovely, the hawkers there were the most persistent we have met yet.
As we dropped Lolita, she passed me a package of bindis for my forehead and wished me a happy birthday. I will bring them home for Tiana and her friends to wear. We are getting bindis every time we buy a shirt!
The drive to Jaipur was lovely. While the road between Agra and Jaipur is heavily under construction -- making four lanes out of two no doubt in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games being in Delhi in 2010 -- the countryside was stunning. We saw field upon field of wheat, mustard and other crops that we could not identify. People working everywhere -- in the fields, on the roads.
Road construction here is a bit different. Yes, there is heavy machinery in sight, but a lot of the work is done in a labour intensive way. Women work alongside men breaking rocks and carrying basins of rock and brick on their heads from one point to another. It looks like hard physical work, but the women still manage to look like beautiful birds in their colourful saris, even so.
The drive was punctuated by lunch in a tourist spot. We missed the bird sanctuary we were supposed to see and drove through to Jaipur.
Jaipur is the first stop in our week in Rajasthan. Known as The Pink City, it is one of the prettier towns we have seen. It has a wall surrounding the old city, reminding me of fortified towns in France.
We were deposited to our hotel at about 6:00 on Friday, March 2nd and stayed in for a quiet dinner and to bed.
We met our new guide, Mr. Singh, at 7:00 a.m. and got underway early Saturday morning.
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Andy & Betty
non-member comment
At last!
Okay I have finally figured out how to forward a comment, it takes time for one of my age! Happy, slightly belated, birthday! Continue to have a great trip, keep writing like this and you can become a professional. Love & Hugs