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Published: December 1st 2016
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Coral tree homestay.
It was such a colourful building and I loved sitting in the gardens. Day twenty two was not such an early morning, we had curry and strange fried bread 'doughnuts' for breakfast then met our driver and headed back towards Jaipur along our favourite bumpy roads. Playing I-spy kept us occupied and stopping at a little way station we bought some supplies and fed some Pringles to a dog who clearly had puppies. Everywhere we bumped into children they always got so excited to see us, calling out 'hello' and waving frantically.
We took the car directly to the train station, stopping along the way to try and find a cash point with no success. With only a small delay we hopped on the train towards Agra. The sleeper carriages in India are very different to those in Vietnam, there are six beds with two tiers in each area - one perpendicular to the other two and on the other side of the corridor. You can close curtains in front of your bed for privacy but there are no doors, and people walk up and down the corridor selling all sorts of things like noodles, samosas, pakoras, crisps and chai. All vegetarian which suited me very well!
It was only a four
hour journey and it flew by, we had been warned to watch out for people in Agra station as, being the home of the Taj Mahal, it is a major tourist destination and so lots of people are waiting to try and scam you in some way or other. However it was surprisingly easy and we met our driver outside with no hassle. He just about fit all our luggage into the boot and we had only a short drive until we got to the hotel.
The hotel 'Coral Tree Homestay' has to be one of my favourites so far. We entered from a dusty side street through a tall gate and into a candlelit garden space full of plants and trees and little tables dotted around. It was family owned and for dinner that evening we sat in the family's dining room and ate beautiful home cooked (and vegetarian!) food with some of the other guests. I loved the room; the walls were painted in bright colours and the bedding was decorated all over with elephants.
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