Planes, Trains & Automobiles

This is what my tout-guide told me as we sat looking at the shrine of the Shaikh Salim Chishti inside Fatephur Sikri. As if he was going to teach me something new about English but it did make me think about what constitutes “amazing”.

Having recently visited mind-blowing Angkor, I am unfairly conditioned for viewing ruins. To one up the Khmers, you are going to need to bring your A-game.

Take this fort-palace for example: built in the sixteenth century by the greatest Mughal emperor Akbar the great, in a place with not enough water, it was abandoned shortly after his death. It’s constructed of red sandstone with impressive arches and multi story buildings but before getting too excited, let’s …

I landed in Agra at about 5:30am after barely sleeping a wink. Six hours of swerving to overtake slower traffic or avoid potholes was not very conducive to resting. Regardless, I was here to see the Taj and I wanted to see it at sunrise.

Half-awake, I was ushered by a tout into a tuk-tuk to Taj Ganj which is the bit of town that backs directly up against the Taj Mahal. It’s a bit like the Pyramids in Egypt which, looking one direction appear to be in the middle of the desert. Looking the other, they appear to be part of a downtown urban development project. He of course recommended his hotel where he received commission …