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Published: February 2nd 2008
Taj Mahal
Sunset Over The Taj!Namaste!
Greetings From India!!
We arrived safe and well you'll be glad to know and have enjoyed an exciting but tiring first week in India
Here's our first blog and some nice pictures for those of you who get bored easily!!
Delhi:
Arrived in Delhi early in the morning after a smooth, uneventful journey from Manchester, including a beautiful sunrise from the plane window and many video games and movies!!
The reality of Being in Delhi didn’t take long to hit home. The journey from the airport to the hotel, involved driving through some less than attractive areas with no apparent rules on the road, something that we have become well accustomed to since!
Once we arrived in The Tibetan Colony (Majnu-Ka-Tilla) what was to be our home for the next 3 days, an all together more relaxed atmosphere took hold. With the smell of incense and spices and the sight of numerous maroon clad monks wondering the narrow alleyways.
Our Hotel proved to be a bargain at 3 pounds a night, with a nice large bed and beautiful view over the Yamuna River. The only downside being the lack of “Hot water” in the bathroom that was
Sunset Over The Yamuna River
The view from our hotel in Delhi advertised!
We spent the next few days trying to readjust to the Indian way of Life, seeing as many of the the local sights in Delhi as we could cope with. The Red Fort was a particular favourite of ours with its beautiful gardens and arched buildings, an oasis in the middle of a manic city!
We also spent time seeing the largest mosque in India (Jama Masjid) Which can apparently hold up to 25,000 worshippers.
Booking our tickets out of Delhi was not quite as simple as a session on the trainline website!!
Despite warnings of touts trying to con you and send you to unofficial ticket offices that harass and overcharge you, it is difficult to know which people you can trust and which are trying to take advantage. Eventually we found the Foreign ticket office after being misguided once or twice along the way and managed to book our tickets down to Agra, The city of the Taj.
Agra:
We awoke early to catch our train to Agra.
Not really knowing what to expect, we boarded the train and were pleasantly surprised to find nicely padded seats with tables and leg room. Even better was
the constant supply of free food and drinks, that included a litre of water each and a hearty Indian style breakfast with tea/coffee!
We left the comfort of the train on our arrival at Agra and were greeted by a friendly Rickshaw Driver called Vikram (VK) who was to be our guide for the day. He happily drovr us from sight to sight in Agra showing us the Baby Taj, Agra Fort and best of all drove us to the back side of the Taj on the opposite bank of the Yamuna River. Here we had the whole riverbank to ourselves barring a few local kids and some friendly wildlife. We spent time enjoying the peace and quiet and taking some great photos of a truly memorable moment!
After our tour came the reason we came to Agra, to see the Taj. We paid our 750 rps entrance fee and strolled through the gates to be greeted by an awe inspiring sight.
To Emma’s disgust I’m sure we were not allowed to take Lola in as she was seen as a terrorist threat but we snook her in anyway and do have a photo for you Em.
We spent a
Jama Masjid
The Largest Mosque In India few hours gazing at the Taj until the Sun went down over the beautiful monument, and although the weather was not bright and sunny the misty atmosphere and slight sprinkle of rain gave the place an even more atmospheric appeal. (In my opinion anyway!!)
We have now travelled to Jaipur (The Pink City) but more of that in our next blog.
Hope you are all as well as we are! Thinking of you all.
Love Steve & Laura xxxx
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Graeme
non-member comment
I want to see pictures of you two...........................