Delhi - Agra trip Part I

I had mentioned few posts back about trip to Agra and had just put two pictures of the trip. This post (Part I) is about the details of the trip (Delhi - Agra - Delhi). This post also has select pictures (keep your mouse over the pictures for description) of the first half of the trip.

Number of People : 7 Adults & 3 children
Mode of transport : By Road (in Tavera)
Time started : 8:30 am
Distance (approx.) : 190 kms (Delhi - Agra); 37 Kms (Agra to Fatehpur Sikri)

Its always better to start as early as possible in the morning to avoid office hour rush and that can really help to reduce travelling time especially when going to Agra because its quite a task to cover first 30 kms. As there were 3 kids with us, we intentionally decided not to start early. We left at around 8: 30 am from my place (Kamla Nagar, north part of Delhi), we picked my cousin & family from his place at around 9.

We were motoring on Mathura Road highway and it was quite heavy rush all around as it was a working day. We stopped at some Akash Resort to have some breakfast, though there was no one in the restaurant and I had apprehensions while stopping whether or not food will be good. But once the stuff arrived and we took our first bites, the food quality was excellent and fresh. Paneer pokaras were the best out of the lot.

We moved from Akash Resort at around quarter past eleven, though the highway was quite neat and clean , there were occasional hiccups of instant breaking because of people / cattle coming out of small villages. We continuously drove till Fatehpur Sikri then and reached around 1:45 p.m. We took a by-pass road which helped us avoid Agra while going but I must tell you that drive on the village roads was quite a bumpy one. We had to travel around 20-25 kms but that seemed a lot to me as I was sitting on rear seat.

The sun was shining bright at Fatehpur Sikri, we took tickets to get into palace complex which required us to take tickets - Rs. 20 for each adult, entry for children was free. We walked all over watching Jodha Bai’s palace , Diwan-i-Am, Diwan-i-Khas, Birbal’s house: the house of Akbar’s favourite minister, place where Tansen used to practice/play music, Panch Mahal - the tallest of the buildings of the complex, the pool where Salim used to take bath. It was quite hot inside but there was such a cool fresh air while inside any of these buildings, they were made in such a way that it did not require any kind of cooling system, it was naturally air-conditioned.

After we finished seeing the complex we went towards Buland Darwaza. We were approached by all kinds of vendor to buy different stuff from them. There was one small guy who wanted us to listen to his shayari and give him a kind of prize money if impressed by his shayari. He was good for his age and said shayari in a such a fashion which was interactive in a way that he included each one of us in his sher’s. Everybody was pretty impressed by his style and well formed & meaningful shayari.

As we moved towards, Buland Darwaza and sun was still hot, I just happened to inquire about whether we need to take our shoes once we get there and were told that we have to take shoes at the door there and walk along bare footed there. It was already 3 :30 pm and each one of us was little hungry and nobody wanted to walk bare-footed. So we had a good look at Buland Darwaza from the footsteps itself.

Part II - Coming Soon !!