Handley Family Big Adventure 2011: Day 174 15 Dec Thur AGRA fort to JAIPUR

Ok... so Agra has the Taj Mahal, but it also has one of the finest Mughal forts in India - and Shah Jahan also had a hand in this one. The building, also on the banks of the Yamuna River, was initiated by Emperor Akbar in 1565 and gradually added to by the generations which followed - particularly by his grandson Shah Jahan who transformed it into a palace - mostly with white marble. The fort was primarily a military structure and ironically when he was overthrown by his son eight years later Shah Jahan was imprisoned here until he died twelve years later.

So it is here that we spend our last hours in Agra, exploring the grounds and maze of buildings, a city within a city.

The Taj Mahal just visible on the horizon through the mist and murk!

We are all tired though, a bit "palaced, templed and forted" out and our appetite for tours and new place is dwindling with each day that passes. Sadly the majority of the fort complex is off limits and one courtyard begins to look like the next and the next. We have a bus to catch to take us to Jaipur and so call time on the fort and promptly get stuck in a traffic jam "Indian style" as a herd of cattle is driven down the street stopping traffic for some time.

We finally arrive in Jaipur and, because we are travel weary and craving comfort, have blown the daily budget and booked a half decent hotel for the next two nights.Or so we think. A comfortable, clean, warm room with hot water and a few luxury touches are the order of the day - but the pick up from the bus station in a tuk tuk with a driver giving us the hard sell for his "tour" of the city the following day is just a taste of what is to greet us. The hotel is not as we had hoped, it is no better than we have been staying in throughout our time in India and yet it is more than three times the price. We all lose our sense of humour, cool and temper and after some protracted discussions we call our "reserve" hotel who send a driver to collect us. Ironically we would never have seen the spectacle of this wedding party weaving and dancing through the backstreets on their way to the wedding reception venue and the very loud fireworks which went with them, had it not been for he issues we had with the hotel. Every cloud has a silver lining!