Oh Faitpur Sikhri!

"Faitpur Sikhri" what can we write about this place? It was very busy with people as it was the start of Ede, a big celebration after Ramaddan (Muslims can eat again!). So many people, and lots of happy celebrations fairground outside and inside the Mosque lots of Bazar stalls and wares to sell, we were approached by a young man who offered to tell us about the history and symbolism of the Mosque. It was quite a full on day as every two minutes we got stopped by young men asking to have their photo taken with me? It's a bit of a novelty, but soon wears thin after the 60th time it has to be said, if that's fame for you, you can keep it thankyou very much!!! He was really kind and took us around the whole place, then we met his father at a stall, who both runs a Hotel locally and is a Photographer. We ended up buying some carved Marble candlesticks, a thankyou for showing us around. The deserted City surrounding the Mosque is really interesting and it was wonderfully built, but the flaw in the plan was there is no water source for miles and so everyone moved away!!! Whilst we were here trying to get some sort of peace a beautiful girl whom I had noticed earlier on in the day approached me and asked if she could have her photo taken with me (a change from all previous requests) They even had a professional Photographer with them. Martin even managed to get a shot of us both. Later on after having seen the deserted city we went to look at the Photographers shots, he's got some really good wildlife photographs of Bats in particular.

Faitpur Sikhri

The bus journey back to Agra was a very bizarre experience as I was the only female and Martin told all the local young lads that he was my bodyguard when they asked are you her boyfriend/husband??? They were all keen to talk and take turns in sitting next to me (I felt like a zoo exhibit!). A bit of a fight broke out amongst themselves, too much competition and not very polite manners were the source of the problems and so it became a tense situation, this combined with some very polite deaf and mute lads whom were not impressed by the behaviour of the others (have you ever seen deaf and mute people get into a heated discussion before???) and a slightly mad ticket collector it was a tedious affair. Too much testosterone and too much oppression of cultural expectations in conflict with our western appearance methinks, so I was pretty glad to get off the bus, after the ticket guy asked for a kiss off not just me but Martin also!???

heike and her fans

We strangely bumped into Babu, of all the many people residing in Agra, and where we were staying (nowhere near our previous Hotel), our ricshaw driver from before, whom was playing table top pool,the rules were explained to martin and there was much slapping of foreheads in disbelief as martin won the first two games (beginners luck) we were on our way looking for food when we met them so we had some Chai then Babu and his pal took us to a local Indian restaurant which was totally Indian, Martin was given the chance to drive the ric shaw but he declined the offer!!( I was being polite, but wish I'd had a go) The food was excellent and spot on, that's twice we got lucky in Agra. Martin asked them to spice up his Butter Chicken (only to regret it later, he got heartburn from the heat factor). It was good to chat about the local food etc...The food was severed on little table's in the car park as the restaurant had a big party. So much of Indian life is actually lived out on the street. We said our farewells and wished them all good luck for the future and went to bed.

Mauseloum of Ackbar the great

Now time to move on westwards to Rajhistan now, we're ready for a change of scenery!

TEMPLE

THe butcher barber

Through archway