Following in Chuck Cecil’s Footsteps

The next morning we checked out of our Agra lodging.  We had stayed overnight with a very nice family at Aman Homestay. It was fun to stay with this fun family of mother, daughter and son.  (Jim and the son talked for an hour about his coming to St. John's for a computer science degree.)  But, after breakfast we had to take our leave. 

From Agra we were driving “the golden triangle” – a journey that extends from Delhi to Agra to Jaipur and back to Delhi.  We pretty much were following the route that cousin Chuck Cecil used several years before.  After Agra, we were going to stop where he stopped, stay where he stayed.  

As Chuck did, we broke up the drive between Agra and Jaipur by stopping for the night in Bharatpur, India.  That allowed us to spend half a day en route visiting the wonderful city of Fatehpur Sikri.  

There is a tunnel system that runs
from Fatehpur Sikri to Agra to Delhi..
Amazing!

Fatehpur Sikri

As folk lore has it, this city was built by Akbar the Great – after he visited a ‘holy man’ who lived near here and was granted a wish.  Akbar visited this man because he and his three wives were childless after many years of marriage.  After visiting here one wife became pregnant.  The city today is abandoned, but many people still come.  They tie a thread onto the screen of the mosque here – and make their wish for a child or their own (or another personal wish).  

Can you see the threads that have been tied here?

The city was built in the late 1500s, and is very well preserved to this day.  By this time, the architectural styles were all starting to all blend together for me.  And now, as I write this several months later, it is hard to distinguish one picture from another.  I do remember there were angles & corners that I loved - and beautiful inlaid colored stones.  

Another thing I remember vividly from here were the hawkers.  As soon as they spotted us as Americans, they all said, “I like America ... Obama, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson.”  It might have been the only English they knew, but they knew those three names.  I smiled to think that the three Americans known in remote Fatehpur Sikri, India were all Black Americans. 

After leaving Fatehpur Sikri, we went to Bharatpur.  We were staying that night in a 17th century castle!  A real splurge in our travel budget, but it was cool.  Beth stayed at the castle and drank tea (of course!), while Jim, Leon and I went out again for the nearby bird sanctuary inside Keoladeo National Park.  Our guide there was amazing.  His name was D.D. Mittal - and could spot and name birds near and far.  We were there for only an hour right before twilight, but we saw over 40 different birds, including a black necked stork (quite a rare sighting), a purple moorhen, Brahman ducks, pied kingfishers, hawks, shovel billed ducks, pied myna, a magpie robin, etc. etc.  As we left the park, the peacocks were flying high into trees to roost for the night (something that I didn't know they did).

Pied kingfisher

Ruddy duck

Purple moorhen

We also headed home to our castle to "roost" for the night.  I didn't feel quite like a princess, but pretty near!