Fathepur Sikri:
Nice little town. We toured the Mahrajah palace there. It was pretty elaborate ! The government has taken over it and is updating the place and cleaning it up. Here's a picture of the place:
Afterwards we went to the mosque next door. I didn't enjoy it that much. It had some really neat architectural features, but the hawkers in the place really drive you crazy. We had lunch in the town afterwards and hopped back on a bus to Bharatpur.
Bharatpur:
A lot of the national parks around India are former hunting grounds for the maharajas back in the day. The bird sanctuary at Bharatpur was one of these places. The place was really dry due to insufficient rains this season. They were pumping water from underground wells to create some ponds to attract birds, but they were just starting that when we were there so we didn't see much. It was still nice to go out in nature away from the noise and business of the urban areas. We hired some bicycle rickshaws...Chelsea and I ended up with a tiny 4ft-nothing 50 year-old guy. I felt really guilty having this tiny man cart my ass around. He made a good wage off of it though and we gave him a good tip.
Madhogarh:
Nice area. We stayed at a fort that used to be a residence of the local landlord when India still had a fuedal system. The system no longer exists so the family was renovating the place into a hotel. The idea was nice, but I had the worst night of sleep there and the food wasn't that great. The setting was excellent though...will be really great in a few years. We met 3 americans there...Paul, Katelin, and Jordan (I hope the spelling's right ?). Interesting people...nice to talk to.
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