After a good breakfast (mini idli, dosa) in plane, we landed in Frankfurt 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Needed to brush our teeth and use the bathroom. We cleared the immigration before heading to baggage claim. I could not convert my dollars to Euro ahead of time. I had to get to an ATM first to rent a cart for the luggage. We inquired and found the ATM. My card did not work! We tried calling the number on the back that was 'call collect' from outside US. For some reason, the operator said that the number rejects calls. We were pretty much stuck not able to use my debit card. This was frustrating initially. I rushed to a nearest money exchange place and converted 100$ to 62 euros. The commission was 5 euros! After checking ... read more

We planned to check out after completing the Agra fort tour. We left the hotel around 8:40 after a filling breakfast. The fort is only 15 minutes from the hotel. Nadeem, our guide was as usual very informative, full of quips and stories about that period. Agra Fort is a UNESCO heritage site. Only 25% of the fort is open was visitors and the other 75% that used to allotted for Mughal army at time is occupied now by Indian Army. I have never seen such a big fort and a well planned area for living. There were multiple palaces within that compound for various Mughal kings, queens, harem, priests etc. Court of common man, court of nobles were setup very nicely. View of Taj Mahal from certain privileged rooms were spectacular. There is Yamuna river ... read more

Today we decided to start our tour by 9:30 am. After shower, we headed to buffet breakfast. Pretty good spread. Highlights were idli/sambhar, yogurt, coffee, fruits, ajwain paratha and omelettes. Driver and guide Raj were ready by 9:30 am. first stop was Juma Masjid. Since it was Saturday, it was open to public. It is in Old Delhi. The roads were narrow and congested. This mosque is a beautiful place. Since P1, P2 and myself were wearing shorts they provded us lungis to cover your legs. We were able to climb up the towers for a panoramic view of the city. After that, we took rickshaw tour of Chandni Chowk. This part of the city consists of spice, nuts and other types of wholesale markets. we hired two rickshaws. It is sad to see these human ... read more

There has been lot of talk about visiting the snowline. We were told that it would be better if we left Manali early around 6 am. Traffic could be bad in this section. Our alarm was set for 5:15 am and we were ready by 6 am. We frooti, paratha and veggie sandwiches. Mustafa, the driver was ready at the reception. He drove for about 3 kms and then stopped. He requested us to get on another vehicle since only Himachal Pradesh (HP) vehicles can go on the mountain roads. All visitors need to use HP cars/vans. There was a shanty shop close and couple of guys came out and started selling snow suits to us. We refused rent them since we were not planning to ski. IN few minute of this conversation we realized that ... read more

Chandigarh to Kullu/Manali Driver requested that we leave the hotel by 8 am in the morning. He had said depending on traffic we might have a commute of 9 to 12 hours. Note how broad the range is. I was skeptical about this. By end of that night, I realized how this is an acceptable range here. First for the breakfast and Taj. It was excellent. They serve a combined North, South and Continental style breakfast. One thing that was missing was Oat meal. Both Sandhya and I wanted to try it here but could not. Here is a case of "eager to please". Pranav wanted hot sauce for the omelette. For some reason the waiter understood this differently. Out came chocolate sauce in a bowl for Pranav! Kids went ga-ga over cold coffee. After a ... read more