AfricaIndia
Thursday 22 October I left work a little before 4pm for an evening flight from Heathrow. I must remember to leave work at 3:30 in future to beat the traffic!
Friday 23 We landed in New Delhi the following morning and took a taxi to the Double Tree Hilton in Agra. Even though it was a 4 hour drive each way, and I had opted to arrange the taxi through the Hilton rather than directly with a driver, it only cost £80!
That afternoon we had a guided tour of Agra Fort.
Saturday 24 Oct An early start for sunrise at the Taj Mahal. We queued up in the ticket office well before sunrise but had to wait about 30 minutes before the office would even start issuing tickets. Even then, the separate female, foreign male, domestic male were farcical - Cathy found that the person supposed to be serving women was issuing tickets to the domestic males who were reaching across the counter. After finally getting our tickets we made our way to the Taj Mahal entrance on a rickshaw - Me, Cathy and our guide were a little more than the rickshaw guy could manage! We queued up outside the Taj Mahal for another 30 minutes or so before being let in so the sun was already climbing in the sky.
After our tour of the Taj Mahal we made our way back to the hotel for breakfast. That afternoon we visited the Baby Taj. We then took a 1 hour car ride to Fatehpur Sikri, a UNESCO World Heritage site along with Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal.
That evening we visited Mehtabh Bagh - the gardens on the opposite side of the river to the Taj Mahal for sunset views.
Sunday 25 Oct We took a taxi back to New Delhi for our flight to Pune.
Sunday 25 Oct to Saturday 7 Nov We stayed at the Le Meridien Pune. On Saturday 31 Oct the hotel service manager gave us a morning tour of Pune, visiting the Agakhan Palace and the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum. On Sunday 1 Nov, we took a car to the Phoenix Mall. Much as I had expected, everything costed more than back in the UK.
Saturday 7 Nov We took a taxi from Pune to Mumbai. As usual we had to leave early in case of bad traffic but ended up making good time. I was very happy to find that our check-in experience was just as good as 2014.