Agra

We woke up at 530 today after about 5 hours of sleep for our second safari, we had to go to the booking office to get our jeep number and let the driver know where to pick us up. It was an absolutely freezing morning and we were well prepared for our jeep ride with beanies, jumpers and scarves - yet we were still cold! We had better chances of seeing a tiger in the morning so we were excited, our hopes were raised when not long into our ride the guide spotted tiger footprints in the dirt, then shortly after a deer started giving warning calls to the other deer which meant a tiger was nearby, we could see the deer on the mountain side all looking in the same direction so the lucky deer got to see the tiger but we didn’t! We saw some really lovely scenery again though, in the morning mist with the sunlight filtering through the trees it was really magical. We had an avid bird watcher from Greenland and his family with us this time around, Bec and I were both amused at how excited he got when he spotted the birds and how much he knew about them! Im fairly sure had we seen a tiger he would have still been more interested in looking at birds instead. After our safari we had a big breakfast as we were starving and then left for Agra. A long 6 hour car ride later we stopped at Fatipur Sikri, which is a small palace just outside of Agra, the palace belonged to Akbar who united all religions under his rule - which is shown in the architecture with all the major religions being represented by their symbols. After wandering through the palace we went to a giant mosque right next to the palace, there was a festival/celebration of some kind and many people lined the steps outside beating drums which then echoed in the domes of the gates making it sound much louder. We made an offering to the temple inside (which is given to charity) the offering consists of a piece of cloth, rose petals and 3 cotton strings - you buy these from a stall out the front and then place them on the tomb inside, next you tie your 3 strings onto the carved windows inside the temple whilst making a wish for each string. Next we got a rickshaw back to Sud’s car and then headed into Agra which again was a slightly hair raising car ride flying down a 2 way road in the dark (no street lights) with people overtaking and oncoming traffic! We are used to it in the day time now but not in the dark! Anyway we made it safely to our hotel and had dinner with 2 other couples - a Canadian couple and another pair of Australians from Sydney. Tomorrow we plan to see Agra Fort and the Taj.