Keoladeo National Park

  Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India
Monday, January 19, 2009

Today is Taj Day!!! Yoohoo. After dreaming about it, we are finally there. It is a bit foggy unfortunately but that is the time of the year. The Pearl of India was built by Emperor Shajehan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Now, that's love (C'est pas à nous que ca arriverait les filles!). The marble is unbelievable and the details of the sculptures really impressive. It took 22 yrs to build. The guide takes pictures of us and we are really embarrassed (see pictures). Maman je me suis bien assise sur le banc de Lady Di comme promis.

Marble entrance

After Taj, we visited Agra fort on the heights of the city. Akbar's son was jailed here (quite classy cell actually with great view) and they even had rooms dedicated to sexual activities. Locals start to ask us to take pictures with them. It is funny and great to start a little chat. After this visit it was time for us to part with our guide who was apparently quite pissed off with what we gave him. Well, it is the rate and he was not that great for us to put something extra.

Indian dancing

We then drove to Fatehpur Sikri, another fort near Agra. It is deserted red stone city built by Mughal emperor Akbar. It is huge and built on several floors. We sneaked in the bus for free while a dirty kid is chasing us for a coin or a pen. That is what we should have brought: pens to give away to kids. We also visit the beautiful mosque there. Sean has to put something on  his head to cover it. It looks like a green plastic fruit bowl.  Wait outside with the shoes and 15 teenagers arrive with an old man who is blablahing me stuff in hindi with his camera and they all star to line up one by one to take a picture with me. I can safely say I know the red carpet feeling now. Sean comes back and they all realize he is with me and rush to shake his hand, like sorry mate, we did not know she was yours. It was hilarious.

New Maharaja

We get back in the car and drive to the Keoladeo bird sanctuary park. Sean manages to bargain for a room and we head for the tour with a guide n our rickshaw. He well knows his stuff and we are delighted with what he is showing us. All these birds are beautiful, we saw much more than the Pantanal in two hours. There are storkes (cigognes) who were learning how to fly. They were doing good but sometimes were losing their balance.So cute. We saw loads of antilopes, as well as dears. There ere these two owls sleeping next to each other squeezed between two branches. The were adorable. There was an Hindu temple at the end of the road and it was the occasion for us to ask a few questions about the religion. He was great at answering them. For example, every day is dedicated to one God. Monday was Shiva day, the one he prefers, therefore only has one meal that day. He also talked us through our next stop Rothambore park as he has been several times before. He says he attracts the tiger and gives us good vibes so that we can see one, too.