India 31 March to 3 April

From Phuket we set out across the bay of Bengal to Cochin in the south of India.

Arriving in Cochin a small group of eleven of us were picked up in a bus and taken to the Cochin Airport where we caught a flight to New Delhi via Hyderabad. As it was quite late in the afternoon by the time we arrived in New Delhi we went to our hotel, Le Meridian, to relax until dinner time. Dinner was a buffet of an amazing array of Indian food which tasted as good as it looked.

The next day after breakfast we drove to Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal. The drive took us about four hours and was mainly on a new highway but we passed through some small villages en route.

After checking into our hotel, ITC Mughal Agra, we set out to explore the town. First stop was the Taj Mahal which is breathtaking. The temperature was high – around 37C/100F which made the activity very tiring, particularly as the grounds are huge.  You have to walk a fair way from the ticket office/entry area to get to the gate of the Taj Mahal

And once through the gate you get your first view of the monument

After taking hundreds of photos we went to the Agra Fort, also called the Red Fort because of its rusty red colour. The Fort, dating back to 1566, is another large and impressive monument that takes a long time to get around.

From the Red Fort we visited the Tomb of I’timād-ud-Daulah also called the “Baby Taj” because of its similarity to the Taj Mahal, although it predates the real Taj Mahal.

After spending time at the Baby Taj, we headed back to our Hotel for a cool drink, shower and dinner.

The next morning we were on the bus at 0530 heading to the Taj Mahal again to see the sun rise on it. It was much more pleasant wandering around the grounds in the cool of the morning rather than the blistering heat we had endured the day before. After many photos (again) we went back to the hotel for breakfast and checked out at 7.30 am so that we could get on the road to Jaipur.

The rising sun created a completely different lighting effect from the previous midday sun.  This shot is taken from the same position as the one above.

While I was taking photos I saw lots of people holding their hands in a funny way and having their photo taken – once I realised what they were doing I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity!

About an hour out of Agra we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, a 16^th century town that was abandoned due to lack of water. Another monument with a large campus and fascinating sights but we could only afford to spend an hour there, and then it was back on the road to Jaipur, a drive that took us about four hours.

On the drive to Jaipur we came across a few interesting sights.

Occupational Health and Safety at Work

Tuk-Tuks, the ubiquitous taxis 

Cows Rule

Cow pats are dried, stacked and used for fuel

cow pats drying on a pipe

Street Procession for an unidentified religious festival

Mobile Disco Machine supporting the procession

Street Markets

Street Markets

Street Markets

On arrival in Jaipur, we did a city tour which included the Observatory and then the City Palace. It was hot and the group was tired from the early start and long drive so we were glad when our guide said it was time to go to the hotel. Our hotel in Jaipur was the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, an old palace converted to a hotel which was beautiful. All three of the hotels we stayed in were worthy of several nights due to their opulanece and facilities and it was unfortunate that all we had time for was to sleep in them.

The next morning we headed to the Amber Fort and it was another early start at 7am to ensure that we were at the head of the queue for the elephant ride to the summit where the fort is located, as we needed to be sure we completed our tour of the fort in time to get to the airport.

The Amber Fort is a very popular attraction and the usual way to get there from the tourist bus car park is by elephant but the queue to get a ride can get very long later in the day.

After the Amber fort we headed to the airport where we caught a flight to Mumbai and then a bus ride to our ship.

As we drove through Mumbai we saw the stark contrast between the very rich and the very poor.  This is the fishing village in Mumbai which is probably a step up from the slums of Mumbai.

There are lots more photos… click here to open a new window to see them.  I haven’t done much sorting or applied captions yet but that will come… if you are an “early clicker”, please bear with us 🙂