Gaurav Hotel Goverdhan

... like this, as a Westerner you are still an attraction!

I also start chatting with a group of 5 guys from Delhi, whom I meet again in the evening for some beers. One of the things discussed is the cultural difference and the wish to marry a western woman. How can they expect that we would marry and then live with them and their family-in-law for the rest of our lives. We are too independent for this. Just to mention one.

Roel, the Dutch biker, also arrived in Agra, so a ...

... departed from Japan, but it was tougher. Thankfully, our guide was very kindly helping her on behalf of me.

Just next the palace, there was a sage's tomb and he was admired by Emperor Akbar. It looked a great tomb, but we didn't visit there and I didn't care. From my travel experiences, I know that visiting too many sights spoils the whole travel, because we realize that we are likely to waste so much time in boring sights during very limited vacation time.

... by little and it is huge! We saw a small portion of it so I will have to come back and explore it some more. Courtyards, temples, audience halls, gardens ....... that was living! I really like this architectural style with the mixture of red sandstone and marble, lots of symmetry and columns. In the first courtyard as we entered the Fort complex was the Hall of Audience, where the ...

... it in his building of Fatehpur Sikri. In the palace of each of his wives and his own, he incorporated the building styles of every religion. For example, in the house of his Christian wife, he put the Star of David, the Swastika, and the crescent moon. The only semi-major religion not included (possibly) was the trident of Sikhism. The palace itself was in the shape of the cross, as seen from above. It was supposed to ...

... at the hotel where they did some chanting (of course, he stopped when I got my video camera - seriously). Dinner was buffet style and it was decent. Tried another Indian beer - Indus Pride - their bottles are twice 12 oz, but I was told that's the normal size in England. There was supposed to be a puppet show after dinner, but I could not keep my eyes open long enough to stay afterwards. Came back to the room and promptly fell fast asleep!

Despite not seeing that much of Agra the next day we travelled onwards. We were trying a bit of a complicated trip, but everything worked out very smoothly, much to our surprise. We caught an auto to the local bus station to try and find a bus to Fatehpur Sikri, which was the political capital of the Mughal Empire for a short time before being abandoned due to lack of water. As a consequence it has been very well preserved. A ...

... Jami Masjid, ktera je opravdu krasna, za povsimnuti stoji hlavne 54m vysoka vstupni brana zvana Buland Darwaza. Komplex je to pekny, ovsem dojem docela dost pokazili mistni lide, hlavne zebraci, samozvani pruvodci a ruzni prodavaci vseho mozneho, protoze byli neuveritelne agresivni, stokrat horsi nez kdekoli jinde (a to uz bylo dost desny pred tim). Musim rict, ze jsme byli docela dost nastvani, no ale den nam to nakonec nepokazilo.

... just amazing. Floating on the horizon, crooked, yet perfect. The morning light adds a soft yellow glow to the white marble, and I got a reflection in the nearly empty fountains in front. Its quite well preserved, mostly I think because of the ban on any metal objects from being taken into the grounds. Many of the other historical sites we went to in India had a lot of graffiti and marks on the walls. You even wear booties over your ...

... y que tambien tienen una ceremonia -que en mi opinion se parece a tener un bautizo- y que basicamente consiste en elegir a un adulto querido/cercano a un bebe de 6 o 7 meses para darle su primer bocado de comida solida y a dicha ceremonia se invita a mucha gente. Los musulmanes tambien tienen una ceremonia parecida al bautizo y su "salam" o saludo respetuoso toca puntos de la cara muy similares a las bendiciones del hinduismo y catolicismo. Uuno de los lugares ...

... Am flughafen wartet natuerlich niemand auf mich nur das Hotel habe ich schon reserviert und Delhi nervt wie eh und jeh. Ich fahre so schnell ich kann nach Agra weiter und schaue mir an was man in Indien anschauen muss, das Taj Mahal. Und ich bin wirklich ueberwaeltigt. Es ist ein Indien wie ich es bis jetzt noch nicht kennen gelernt habe. Ein idylischer Garten umgibt eine architektonische Meisterleistung, ein Traum realisiert von 20.000 Arbeitern ...