Hear from Chris and Kits about their tailor-made travels around India’s Golden Triangle: Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, organised for them by our India specialist at Wild Frontiers, Sunita. View our tailor made itineraries around Rajasthan and North India here.
Monday 15th February
We attempt to grab some sleep on the 3 hour flight from Dubai to Delhi before leaving the plane in early morning sunshine and launching ourselves headlong into the Indian subcontinent. Our hotel for the next two nights, The Claridges, could have come straight out of Indian Summers. Lots of colonial touches and deferential Indians. Our guide Paramjeet was a Sikh with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Mr Singh was our driver who expertly steered his car through the streets of Delhi and miraculously didn't hit anything. It reminded me at times of that scene in an early Bond movie when 007 tips the car onto two wheels in order to drive down a narrow alleyway. Cars honked, bicycle rickshaws and tuk-tuks wove in and out of lanes that didn't really exist.
First cultural stop on our tour was to the Jama Masjid mosque, a lovely red sandstone building that can accommodate 20,000 worshippers at a time during festivals. We were duly impressed. Kits had to put on a gown that covered everything including her handbag and made her look a bit like Hattie Jacques! From there by bicycle rickshaw to Chandni Chowk and the narrow alleyways of Old Delhi.
Stopped for a delicious crisp paratha cooked for us in a street side, then plunged into the Spice Market where the sacks of red chilli made us cough and splutter. I think the official description for this is "reeking but in a nice way".
We left behind the mayhem of old Delhi by tuk-tuk, rejoined the ever faithful Mr Singh in his 4x4 and sped off with Paramjeet to Lutyen's cocktail bar for a very tasty meal of Murg Tikka Butter Marsala (chicken) and Mutton Saagwal (lamb) which we washed down with a surprisingly delicious Sula Chenin Blanc (I say surprisingly only because I had no idea India produced such lovely wine).
Tuesday 16th February
First trip today was to Delhi's Gurudwara Bangls Sahib Sikh Temple. Gorgeous white marble temple. Turbaned Sikhs everywhere. I was ticked off for not sitting cross legged as we listened to the three Sikh musicians playing prayer music on their sitars.
Paramjeet then took us down to the temple's kitchens where we saw volunteers preparing food for the 20,000 or so visitors each day. The woks were easily the largest I have ever seen, completely dwarfing the man whose task it was to stir them.
From Sikh Temple to Lutyen's Presidential Palace and the impressively broad avenue (Delhi's Pall Mall) down to India Gate, the memorial to the 70,000 Indians who gave their lives during WW1. If we were ever to return to Delhi I would want to walk rather than drive down this magnificent avenue.
Next up was Hamayun's Tomb, a perfectly proportioned vision in red and white marble built by Hamayun's wife Haji Begum as a tribute to her late husband. Last part of our morning tour was the trip to Qutub Minar, an astonishing five storey tower in red sandstone decorated in geometric designs and Koranic verses, built to proclaim the arrival of Islam in 11th century. We were ready for a cool beer by now and found one at Laissez Faire, an Indian restaurant that Kits rather liked where we also enjoyed Murg Tikka Butter Marsala (chicken tikka in tomato and onion sauce) and Adraki Champ (ginger flavoured lamb done to perfection in a creamy cumin based marinade). We ate with Parmajeet and chatted about all sorts of things including arranged marriages and religion, during course of which discussion he explained that Hindus and Sikhs believed in reincarnation, prompting Kits to exclaim that she believed in reincarnation too. I could have sworn that she meant resurrection!
Wednesday 17th February
Mr Singh, our daredevil driver (we think he may be The Stig from Top Gear), picked us up after breakfast and whisked us off to Agra, the drive into which was as exhilarating and fascinating as many of the sights we can had seen so far. Everyone and everything it seemed including dogs, cats, monkeys, donkeys, sheep, goats, cattle and camels was on that road. And all human life was on the edge of the road with men and women of all ages sat in doorways of houses.
People were selling food, fruit, vegetables, spare parts for cars, household furniture from shops whose doorways appeared to have been blown off or never existed in the first place. Kids danced and did handstands then knocked on our windows for cash every time our car came to a halt. And above all the noise you could hear the incessant honking of car horns as scooters and tuk-tuks jostled for space with the cars, buses and tractors. But nobody seemed to get cross when another driver did an unexpected u-turn, overtook on the inside or drove the wrong way up the street. Quite fabulous.
Sudhil was our guide for the next 24 hours to take us to Agra's Red Fort. Kits said "I think I've had enough of this culture mullarkey" but buckled down and did her best to remember the succession of Mughal emperors from 1526 to 1707. First there was Babur then Humayun, Akbar, Shah Hazan, Jahangir and finally Aurangzeb. Babur defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi to take control of India but only lived for 4 more years. Humayun's wife built the red and white marble tomb we had seen already in Delhi. Akbar was a contemporary of Elizabeth First, ruled for 50 years and was tolerant to all religions. Jahangir was a bit of a playboy. His son Shah Jahan built the astonishing Taj Mahal in memory of his beautiful wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died shortly after giving birth to their 14th child, and was then imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb, whose austere and authoritarian ways made him unpopular with his people and led ultimately to the decline and fall of the Moghul dynasty. Kits thought about it all for a moment then said “but I thought Baba was an elephant!".
From the Red Fort to the Baby Taj (aka Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah), a jewel in marble built by Nur Jahan in her father’s memory in 1622. Difficult to believe that a country capable of producing such beautiful works of art so long ago now has its streets piled high with rubbish and a significant proportion of its population living in abject poverty. Every inch of this fabulous tomb was decorated with semi-precious stones. Fruit trees and flowers were carved into the marble and inlaid with lapis lazuli, agate, jasper and onyx. Breathtakingly lovely.
Thursday 18th February
Very early start today to see the Taj Mahal at dawn. The sense of this being something very special was only heightened by the wait in darkness in a long queue outside the main gate. The Taj itself really was everything that has been written about it and more. A timeless wonder, a eulogy to sublime love, a flawless gem, an image of paradise on earth, the last and the greatest architectural flowering of Mughal art in Agra etc. Small wonder Shah Jahan felt he had finally found a suitable resting place for his beloved wife. We took lots of photos, recreated the famous Princess Diana pose sans makeup (Diana must have set her alarm clock a bit earlier) and, suitably mesmerised, returned to our hotel for breakfast.
Next stop was Fatephur Sikri en route to Jaipur. The Mughal emperor Akbar built this fabulous city on the site where an Indian saint predicted he would be blessed with a male heir. There were mosques, pavilions, palaces and gardens everywhere, and even a tomb to his favourite elephant. The elephant was chained to a stone outside the Diwan-i-Am or Hall of Public Audience where Akbar came to deal with those accused of committing crimes and helped pass judgement by stamping his feet. Apparently. We particularly liked the palaces of his three wives - one Christian, one Muslim and one Hindu - and his extraordinary bed chamber, reputedly the origin of the term 'king size bed'.
We left Agra and Fatephur Sikri behind for the trip to Jaipur, pink city and third stop on our Golden Triangle Tour. The road into Jaipur was as chaotic and fascinating as the road into Agra. Mile after mile of shanty town, young boys playing cricket on waste ground, men lying on their backs sleeping, men sitting around in groups talking, very few men who looked like they were working, women of all ages in brightly coloured saris carrying bundles of crops on their heads, everyone smiling and seemingly happy to be photographed.
We entered the Jai Mahal Palace by turning off one of these roads and were immediately transported into a world of pampered luxury where nothing was too much trouble and even bottled water was presented as if it were a bottle of fine wine. This left me just enough time for a quick duathlon (5 lengths of their pool and 20 minutes on a cross trainer) and us both to enjoy a Rajasthani dancing display before dinner al fresco at Giardinos, the Palace's award winning Italian restaurant.
Friday 19th February
Jaipur is the dream of a visionary Indian Raja Jai Singh II who was given the hereditary title of Sawai, meaning one and a quarter more in worth than the others, by Aurangzeb the Mughal emperor. He founded the city in 1727 and using a geometric design created tree lined avenues with straight and intersecting roads, all surrounded by a crenellated wall in which there were 7 gates. People living inside the walled city had to colour their houses pink, hence Jaipur the Pink City. One would have to say that 21st century Jaipur isn't quite as romantic looking as it sounds in the brochure though there was certainly lots to see.
First stop was the Amber Fort. We chose not to enter the Fort by elephant though that was the preferred mode of transport for most tourists. To call this fort spectacular would be an understatement. Grand courtyards, ceremonial gateways, beautifully carved doors, rows of marble and sandstone pillars, floral motifs everywhere, glass mosaics, lattice stoned galleries, wondrous gardens and perhaps most spectacular of all the Sheesh Mahal, a dining room embedded with mirrors that supposedly twinkle like a starlit sky when a candle flame is lit inside its closed doors. The view from the top of the fort down to the lake, the ornamental gardens and the procession of elephants in their Rajasthani colours was quite outstanding.
We returned to the walled city by the extraordinary Jal Mahal, a palace that appears to float on the Man Sagar lake and which is where the maharajahs went when they wanted to listen to music. Next stop was a carpet and textile factory/showroom where we swore we weren't going to buy anything before watching someone making a rug and ending up buying two lovely camel hair ones for the bedroom. Push then took us to the giant open air observatory built by Sawai Jai Singh II, founder of Jaipur, who was also a man passionate about astronomy and astrology. Not only does the Observatory boast the world's largest sundial but also a series of mini sundials, one for each sign of the zodiac, arranged to reflect the compatibility of the different star signs. Push shook his head sadly when he discovered that our star signs, Leo and Gemini, were at opposite ends of the park!
During the course of the morning we learned that Push could tell exactly where a person came from and their caste by their surname. So Sachi Banerjee, a colleague from work, came from Calcutta (correct) and Thalakunte Muniraju, another colleague, from southern India (correct). Also that Indians had invented just about everything from pyjamas to billiards and much else in between. However by now even I was beginning to flag from Indian cultural overload! Forts and palaces were beginning to blur into one another so I am not sure just how much of the Jaipur City Palace I actually took in. There were some magnificent marble elephants, two massive silver urns each weighing more than 2000 kilos that one of the maharajahs filled with holy Ganges water then took with him when he visited Britain in 1900, a museum of exquisite costumes worn by the maharajahs and a courtyard with 4 beautifully decorated gates depicting the seasons with peacock motifs.
For dinner was Thali, best described as a tasting plate. There were 5 small bowls containing Laal Mas (lamb), home style chicken curry, black lentils in a cinnamon sauce, wild berries and Boondi Kadi (curd dumplings in yoghurt). This came with steamed rice, corn bread, whole wheat bread and butter naan, a bowl of yoghurt to cool our mouths down and finally a bowl of Rasmalai (cheese dumpling). This was beautifully presented and utterly delicious.
Saturday 20th February
Ramathra Fort was the inspiration of Sunita, our Wild Frontiers Tour Consultant, who wanted us to have a couple of days chilling before returning to the UK. None of the hotel staff in any of our hotels had heard of Ramathra and there were no signposts at all on the B roads and dirt tracks that led to it (the dirt tracks were so potholed that I clocked up 10,000 steps on my Fitbit activity tracker just by going over the bumps!).
The road to Ramathra took us deep into the Indian countryside, past the most remote of towns and villages where homesteads often seemed to consist of nothing more than a hut made of clay and straw surrounded by a dusty garden of sorts in which there might be a few dogs, goats or pigs and either a buffalo or cow chained to a post.
Ramathra Fort was a timeless getaway, an oasis of calm and the perfect antidote to all that sightseeing! Our suite at the top of the fort had a gorgeous bedroom with 4 poster bed, bathroom and sitting room plus a verandah with beautiful views over tree lined fields towards the setting sun. Idyllic would be an understatement.
Sunday 21st February
We awoke to find bright sun and a cloudless sky which was just perfect for our last full day of holiday before returning to Delhi to fly home. Our itinerary today consisted of village walk, lunch, sunbathe, sunset boat ride on the lake, dinner. We made it back to our verandah just in time to see a blood red sun dip down below the horizon. Perfect end to a lovely holiday. What a great job Sunita did organising this trip for us.
