This is the Panjim Inn in the Old Latin District of Panaji (the State Capital of Goa) where we stayed. A place for travellers rather than a modern hotel holiday complex which could have been anywhere in the world!! This place had friendly staff and such character. A good choice of hotel, the details of which we found in the Lonely Planet for India Book. A series of books no traveller or adventurer should leave home without, wherever they are planning to go.

And then we went to Goa for the second part of our trip.

Our driver, Pappu, introduced us to a number of Indian fruits which we had not tried before. Some we liked and some we did not!! But we tried! On the way back to Delhi we met his son (on the left) and his nephew, on a holiday from school. I have to say that it was the care, thoughtfulness and knowledge of Pappu that was a huge part of our enjoying this trip and getting the most out of this part of our trip.

The red sandstone fort in Agra is another magnificent place to visit. The construction of the fort was started in 1565 and buildings were later added to make it more like a palace by the founders grandson, Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal. It later became Shah Jahan's prison when he was overthrown by his own son. History during this period seems to have been just as complicated in India as it ever was in Europe or elsewhere in the world!!

By the way, the view from the fort to the Taj Mahal was another fabulous site. Our eyes and minds were almost working on overdrive by this time!!

The next outing was to watch these brilliant craftsmen inlaying semi precious stone into marble to make small tables, trays, plates and even great big dining tables. They use mother of pearl, lapis lazuli and cornelian, as well as other colours whose names I cannot remember! Such pains taking work, such tiny pieces and such amazing results. These products are mostly made to order and despatched all over the world. And now two green side tables with a design as shown in the pictures in mother of pearl and cornelian are here in our apartment and will be on their way in due course to a new home in France!!

A small private sitar concert which we were part of in Agra at a place where they were making sitars. Did you know that the bowl of the instrucment is made from dried pumpkin gourds!! Nor did we . . .

This is the mosque to the side of the Taj Mahal.

And THEN we went to the Taj Mahal.

A World Heritage Site.

No doubt, one of the most beautiful man made places in the world.

And once inside the gates an almost completely 'tout' free zone.

According to Rudyard Kipling 'the embodiement of all things pure'.

According to one Indian poet 'a teardrop on the face of eternity'.

Built by the Emperor Shah Jahan as a mauseleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth with her fourteenth child in 1631.

In total, twenty thousand people from India, Central Asia and Europe worked on the building.

These pictures show a little bit of the beautiful palace of Fatehpur Sikri.

Fatehpur Sikri was built on the top of quite a steep hill/mountain in 1571, but was only occupied for about twenty years as not enough thought was given to the supply of water and it all ran out!!

Because this part of it is a mosque it is required that everyoone take off their shoes. The stones were absolutely burning hot and we had to keep trying to explore the place around the shady bits!!

Most of the time guides and people trying to sell things at these sorts of places take 'no, thank you' for an answer (certainly after a ouple of times!) and leave you alone to visit and enjoy, but the entrance to this mosque was teaming with potential guides, and touts of all sorts of food, refreshments and souvenirs. It was impossible to move and at times quite scary as we tried to struggle our way through and, to be perfectly honest it did rather spoil the visit to this special place.

But the Palace next door was a different cup of tea altogether. The mobs of people were outside but not allowed through the entrance gate. So this was a haven of serenity and beauty and we were able to enjoy it.

The people of India are trying hard to encourage tourism and they have so much to offer, but scaring people off by pushing, pushing themselves at you to accept their services is not the way to go about it. Hoever, it is necessary to remember that this could possibly be the only way that some of these people can earn a living.

These are a couple of views of the hotel where we stayed in Jaipur. At one time it was the town house of a minor Maharaja and is still run by the same family.

A lovely evening having dinner under the stars and watching the colourful costumes whirling about in the local dancing traditions of Rajistan.

The Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is a huge observatory built in 1728. The instruments are on a huge scale with sundials, constructions for timetable exclipses and the annual cycle of the entire zodiac. It was the hottest place we had visited so far and we watched (from a shady place!) all the tourists trying to find a sapot out of the heat of the day for even a short reprieve.

These are just two of the new friends we made along the way!!!

And, can you imagine, the whole of this ceiling, the far wall and the wall on the left of the picture are solid silver!!!

The whole place was quite beautiful and five hundred years old. There is a huge amount of reconstruction and renovation work going on for this original capital of Jaipur. Including the re-working of the formal gardens. It ws all so worth the long and hot climb to the top of the steep walkway.

Our first big stop was at Ajmer to see the Amber Palace. What a stunning place. You can see how high up it is compared to the surrounding area - what a climb!! It used to be possible to do this journey by elephant, but they have all been retired now and the only way is to walk!!!

From Delhi we had a great driver who also acted as our guide for the six days we travelled through the 'Golden Triangle'. He always managed to find us good places to stop for comfort breaks and lunch! Always particularly important for Gavin!