25th to 26th July - Agra & New Delhi
We arrived in Agra last night and our first thoughts were this looked much more like an India we expected! Our hotel was the best so far with what i was personally hoping for.. Really friendly staff, its a long cry from Karol Bagh, any time we mentioned where we began for 48 hours everyone pulls a face. That kind of face that tells you immediately you did something wrong! It was definitely not a good place to be. We awoke at 4:00AM ready to capture sunrise at the Taj Mahal, this would be a dream, i've seen stunning photographs of this and would of loved to capture my own twist on such an icon piece of architecture. Unfortunately and typically of me, timing and photography, it was cloudy. None the less we met our tour guide along with the same taxi driver from yesterday, Pardeep, and we headed into the Taj Mahal. Our guide explained all the history and details which was fantastic and incredibly insightful, i love to know information about places i visit, typically i would hate a guide but for this, it was well worth it. By 8:00PM we were back at our hotel having a quick breakfast (finally had my first traditional Indian breakfast which was brilliant but spicy) and then off to Agra Fort, a huge structure build on the other side of the Yatzy river, again it was hugely impressive and great to be learning about Indian history. After a few complimentary stop offs to our tour guides commission paying shops which has now become a tradition we set off back to New Delhi to relax with Jess at her dads house out of the city centre.
It was so relaxing to have some beers, play some music and laugh about the crazy time we've had so far! We met Goats, Jess' house manager who is both hilarious and a genuinely amazing cook, he threw together some stuff and within no time we had an array of amazing food which literally blew my mind, if anyone wants to taste traditional home cooked food, he's your man! Dim Sum, just ask for the dim sum. He even organised our hotel just 20 minutes away, takes the pressure off me so i'm not complaining.
Our next morning was great! We had a lay in until 10:30AM, actually the first night we had a normal amount of sleep and woke up refreshed from it. We got picked up straight from our hotel and taken back to Jess' and got a full day of relaxing! Swimming, beers and again, amazing food. Tandoori chicken and garlic naan's, food cooked traditionally and right in front of us, couldn't ask for anymore and i'm so grateful to our host, Jess. We met a family who worked for Jess' dad Nigel, lovely people! Their son Ruben is a brilliant lad and far too smart for only being 8 years old. All four of us swam, played football, tag and some how we got high powered water guns, the GoPro footage will be brilliant. By sunset the three of us we're so tired, broken by a day and actually being active whilst Ruben was still of energy. His family left and we all only hacked a few more beers before calling it a night after having Indian Dominos, it was homely in some aspects to have something i'd normally eat! Tomorrow we're up early again and heading up to Dal Lake near the Himalayas, from what i've seen it looks amazing and i've researched the boat house we've booked. It literally looks like a manor home crossed with grunge.. Difficult to explain but i'm sure i'll get a photograph.
We arrived in Agra last night and our first thoughts were this looked much more like an India we expected! Our hotel was the best so far with what i was personally hoping for.. Really friendly staff, its a long cry from Karol Bagh, any time we mentioned where we began for 48 hours everyone pulls a face. That kind of face that tells you immediately you did something wrong! It was definitely not a good place to be. We awoke at 4:00AM ready to capture sunrise at the Taj Mahal, this would be a dream, i've seen stunning photographs of this and would of loved to capture my own twist on such an icon piece of architecture. Unfortunately and typically of me, timing and photography, it was cloudy. None the less we met our tour guide along with the same taxi driver from yesterday, Pardeep, and we headed into the Taj Mahal. Our guide explained all the history and details which was fantastic and incredibly insightful, i love to know information about places i visit, typically i would hate a guide but for this, it was well worth it. By 8:00PM we were back at our hotel having a quick breakfast (finally had my first traditional Indian breakfast which was brilliant but spicy) and then off to Agra Fort, a huge structure build on the other side of the Yatzy river, again it was hugely impressive and great to be learning about Indian history. After a few complimentary stop offs to our tour guides commission paying shops which has now become a tradition we set off back to New Delhi to relax with Jess at her dads house out of the city centre.
It was so relaxing to have some beers, play some music and laugh about the crazy time we've had so far! We met Goats, Jess' house manager who is both hilarious and a genuinely amazing cook, he threw together some stuff and within no time we had an array of amazing food which literally blew my mind, if anyone wants to taste traditional home cooked food, he's your man! Dim Sum, just ask for the dim sum. He even organised our hotel just 20 minutes away, takes the pressure off me so i'm not complaining.
Our next morning was great! We had a lay in until 10:30AM, actually the first night we had a normal amount of sleep and woke up refreshed from it. We got picked up straight from our hotel and taken back to Jess' and got a full day of relaxing! Swimming, beers and again, amazing food. Tandoori chicken and garlic naan's, food cooked traditionally and right in front of us, couldn't ask for anymore and i'm so grateful to our host, Jess. We met a family who worked for Jess' dad Nigel, lovely people! Their son Ruben is a brilliant lad and far too smart for only being 8 years old. All four of us swam, played football, tag and some how we got high powered water guns, the GoPro footage will be brilliant. By sunset the three of us we're so tired, broken by a day and actually being active whilst Ruben was still of energy. His family left and we all only hacked a few more beers before calling it a night after having Indian Dominos, it was homely in some aspects to have something i'd normally eat! Tomorrow we're up early again and heading up to Dal Lake near the Himalayas, from what i've seen it looks amazing and i've researched the boat house we've booked. It literally looks like a manor home crossed with grunge.. Difficult to explain but i'm sure i'll get a photograph.
Taj Mahal
"Please can you take a picture"
'Shoe socks' - To keep dirt out of the Taj Mahal
Agra Fort
Agra Fort - Courtyard
I always lose my shades!
Traditionally cooked tandoori chicken
My Hubby Ian says that your photography is one of the nicest photographs of the Taj that he has seen :-)
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