Flights to Agra & Jaipur, India, from Dublin, Cork & Shannon.

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AGRA and JAIPUR

In our INDIA page Lisa introduced us to her arrival in New Delhi. Now she details her journey   to Agra and the famed Taj Mahal.

           Lisa

   "We moved on to Agra by train (quite an experience even in first class) and had a tour of the sublime Taj Mahal and my favourite: the Red Fort. India has an ancient and violent history, which is belied by the graceful, gentle people that we met. Our tour guides were particularly knowledgeable and taught us so much about modern India as well as their ancient past. Our accommodation in Agra was a standard tourist hotel, the Trident Agra which was an anomaly on this tour of historic Indian abodes.

Our next hotel was one of my favourites. We spent two nights in The Samode Palace which is close to Jaipur. The hotel is on the outskirts of what they call a “tiny” village of only 15 thousand people! The hotel is the former home of the local ruling family and is made up a series of courtyards surrounded by tall walls to keep cool in the heat of the day. Our package here included dinner, massage and yoga. The service was incomparable and we were reluctant to leave the peace of this desert getaway. We took a tour into the desert to watch the spectacular sunset and were taken back to the hotel by camel.

We stayed in a sister hotel in the centre of Jaipur, the Samode Haveli for our last night in this area. An informative tour of the city and palace left us exhausted by the sheer number of people. There isn’t a patch of earth in the city that isn’t teeming with people. We were just in time to watch the opening of a temple, which was swamped with pilgrims eager to pray before they went to work. You could tell what god they prayed to by the different colour dots on their foreheads.

Our next stop after a few a hair-raising hours journey by car was in the Deogarh Mahal, a palace that is still occupied by the local Maharani and her children. Indeed we met her at dinner one night during our stay there when she came around to speak to her guests. We were at a wildlife paradise here where we saw owls and flamingos and came too close for comfort to a lively family of monkeys. We took a train trip on a local narrow gauge train where our elderly toothless guide called me memsahib for the duration and made me feel very austere. Until the monkey’s poured into the windowless, doorless carriage and started foraging for food at which stage I was hysterical and quivering! However I soon recovered and thoroughly enjoyed the stunning views from the train; that is after the monkeys left!

I must pause here to talk about food; the food in India is absolutely delicious! The curries can be made as hot or mild as you require but are always so rich and tasty! Add some garlic naan bread a couple of poppodoms and you will be in culinary heaven! The buffets we experienced in the Deogarh Palace we just delicious. There was a team of chefs on the roof terrace of one part of the palace preparing and cooking the food before our eyes and the only real danger was that you could eat far far too much.

We had a long scary drive from Deogarh to Udaipur next. This is the Indian city that was used in the filming of the James Bond film “Octopussy”. We stayed in the Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel which was chosen for us because it is directly of the lake in the middle of the city and has one of the best restaurants in town. Our room was beautiful with a window seat overlooking the lake and looking out onto the stunning Lake Palace Hotel. A word about prices here; our excellent tour guide told us that the restaurant in the Lake Palace Hotel was too expensive to be contemplated so we didn’t bother. We later learnt that all things are relative as the price was quite reasonable for a 5 star hotel when compared to any decent hotel in Ireland. It also would have included a boat ride in the hotels private launch out to the hotel, which is in the middle of the lake.

We were disappointed that we didn’t get to eat there but had a really wonderful meal in the dark on the roof of our own hotel, which is yet another highlight of our time in India.

We toured the palaces and the lovely botanical gardens in Udaipur and had a rare walk around the streets without a guide. We had a romantic cruise around the lake which finished with a lovely sunset over the mountains in the distance. Udaipur is one of the most tourist-orientated cities that we visited and didn’t feel as overwhelmingly populated as other places. We also visited a Hindu temple and learned a little about the many religions working and living harmoniously together".

If you are considering a journey to India, whether as a honeymoon destination or to visit somewhere "different" why not e-mail us with your requirements or call 065-9051046(Mon-Fri 10-5.30) for personal attention from our friendly staff.

SEE ALSO LISA'S ACCOUNT OF NEW DELHI.