Our flight to Delhi was uneventful. Our driver, who drove us
for the entire trip, met us at the airport. He took us to our hotel and we went
to bed. (It was pretty late for me)
The next day we toured Delhi, before driving to Agra. It was
pretty busy! We started the morning by heading to Old Delhi and Jama Masjid,
the largest mosque in India. It was mostly outdoors, with only a small portion
indoors. Our next stop was Raj Ghat, where Ghandi was cremated. It’s a
beautiful park, with a hill surrounding the memorial. Next we headed out to New
Delhi to the India Gate, which is a memorial for Indian Soldiers that died in
World War I. Their names were carved all over the gate. While we were looking
around I saw my first mongoose! Then we drove up to the Presidential Palace and
were able to take a few pictures before hopping back in the car. They don’t
really like you to loiter there. We had a lovely Indian lunch before heading to
Qutub Minar, the tallest minaret of the world. It was absolutely stunning. It
was in the midst of ruins of a religious college that was built at the same
time. It was my favourite site that we visited that day. Before leaving Delhi
we did a bit of shopping, where I bought a rug and stopped at the Lotus Temple.
We didn’t go in, because the line up was insane, and the outside is the most
interesting part. It is also in a lovely park. Afterwards we headed to Agra.
A lot of travel guidebooks for India talk about how Indian
streets are dominated by men. In Pune, there are definitely more men out than
women, and even less women at night, but I often see women walking alone. In
Delhi, not so much. I don’t think I saw a single woman walking on her own, or
even just with other women, in Delhi. It could be the areas we were in and the timing,
but it was a strange feeling. This trip definitely taught me a lot about Pune,
simply by being able to compare it to other Indian cities.
The original plan was to go see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.
But we woke up at 5:15 to thunder and lightning. So we went back to bed and
woke up at 8:15 to not a single cloud in the sky. It was a gorgeous day and the
Taj Mahal was magnificent. We had a wonderful tour guide, who despite being
there many times was still very enthusiastic. After the Taj he took us to a shop
that sold jeweled tapestries. Despite them being out of my price range, I
enjoyed looking at them and having someone on hand at all times to ask about
the pieces. Next we went to Agra Fort. It was pretty impressive. It is made of
red stone and it is quite large. Only a small portion is open to tourists as
the army uses the rest of the complex. We had a nice lunch and then began
driving to Jaipur. The drive was through the countryside making it pretty
interesting. We passed lots of farms. I found it interesting that even when we
felt like we were in the middle of nowhere there were still men loitering or
walking down the road. About an hour into the drive we started driving into a
thunderstorm. It was really intense. We arrived at our really nice hotel at
around 20:30. I think our room got upgraded and it was definitely the nicest
room we had the whole trip. The bathroom was the nicest bathroom I’ve seen in
India.
The next day we toured Jaipur. We weren’t big fans of our
tour guide but the places we went to were pretty nice. We started out by
heading to Amber Fort. They have elephants that can take you up to the Fort.
Our tour company assured us they are treated ethically, so we did ride one up.
My motion sickness was not super thrilled with the ride. The fort was quite
lovely, with beautiful views. It had an amazing Mirror Hall that was entirely
covered with pieces of mirror. Afterwards we went to Jantar Matar, an
observatory. It has the biggest stone sundial in the world. It was full of
these amazing structures that were completed in 1738. We had a lovely lunch and
then flew back to Pune. We were back at Sangam by 19:30. 
