India part 2 = Agra and Jaipur

...comfortable with the whole India thing (ie. crowds/smells/crowds) after Delhi we arrived in Agra - home of the Taj Mahal - and were again out of our depths. Agra was an industrial city until the government realised that the smog was damaging the Taj and so they started closing a lot of the factories...less factories less work...less work more poverty... now the major business in Agra is tourism which means that there is loads of people hustling you at every turn...

But it did not take away from the beauty of the place which again really showed of how advanced the Mughal dynasty was...

we are now in Jaipur - the capital of Rajasthan - and we have completed our day of sightseeing. Jaipur is going through some major revamps - I guess the foreign investors have discovered the beauty of this place and are trying to capitalise on it...

anyways...here is some more photos...enjoy

(Photo of Humayan's Tomb)

After making our connecting flight from Singapore to Delhi with moments to spare we were over come with relief to see that our luggage had also made it to Delhi on the same flight.
Arrive in the wee hours of Sunday morning we were greeted by freezing temperatures and quiet Delhi streets.... Until..... Come sunrise and we stepped outside to start day one of sightseeing.

(Bahai Temple)

We though we would ease into the Delhi hustle and bustle by heading into Old Delhi... which for those that know Delhi, isn't the smartest move. Old Delhi is the poorer, denser (population wise) part of Delhi. The streets are jam packed with people going about their daily lives... cutting hair, cooking, eating, washing, and trading... let's not forget bugging the tourists sending us on wild goose chases.
Delhi is BUSY.. and very in your face! Theres more rickshaws here than people in Sydney and traffic chaos is everything you've heard and seen plus more.... As your traversing the streets or footpaths you need to continuously be on the look out for people, rickshaws, bikes and taxis coming from every direction.... having said that we have not seen any accidents yet which is a miracle. And yes the streets are full of animals mostly dogs and cows.. but we have spotted an elephant!


Attractions are many with beautiful monuments which unfortunately are not well maintained, the palaces and forts would easily rival anything Europe has to offer if only for some investment.

One more thing to note is the food which is unlike any Indian dishes in Australia... Indian food is extremely good.. spicy but not in the hot sense and the flavors are plentiful.

Drawing to an end on our Delhi visit we head to Agra tomorrow morning... til next time