The next day, we hit the road on yet another super-comfortable bus to reach Agra on a private guided tour as it makes the most sense to travel with experts.

Before we left, we had breakfast in the hotel’s buffet breakfast section. All of us had a light breakfast since we had to cover a distance of more than 300 km to reach Agra. On our way, we visited Sikandra,  the mausoleum of Akbar, a great Mughal ruler. 

After we checked into our hotel, we took a rest for a while because, in the evening, we were to visit the Taj Mahal. One of my uncles had said at a family dinner a few years back that he always wanted to propose to his wife in front of the Taj Mahal and we kids came up with the perfect plan for him. On the night of the full moon night, the marvellous marble monument looked magical. The ‘aww’ moment for us was when uncle Fred went down on his knees and proposed to Aunt Jimmy to be by his side forever. It was such a dear diary moment for all of us! After the Taj Mahal, we also visited the Agra Fort.

After breakfast, we visited the Red Fort which was very similar to the Agra Fort that we had visited last night. Then we left for Jaipur and on the way stopped for a Fatehpur Sikri tour. After discovering the remains of Fatehpur Sikri, we stopped at Jaipur.

At Jaipur, our hotel, the Rambagh Palace, was formerly a residence of the ruler of Jaipur. Every nook and corner of the hotel was oozing with a royal feeling. For dinner, we headed out to a restaurant that served authentic Rajasthani cuisine. It was a 40-minute drive from our hotel to Chokhi Dhani, an ethnic village resort serving fresh food. If you have low spice tolerance just like most of us in the group, make a special request to make the food non-spicy.

Our day started with a visit to one of the many forts in Jaipur called the Amber Fort. As it was on top of elevated land, you could either walk up to the entrance or ride an elephant. Since I am against all forms of animal cruelty, I looked up a third option which was to ride a jeep. We took 3 jeeps and reached the top. The view from the top was amazing! There were several areas with extensive forts. We visited the Shila Devi temple, Sheesh Mahal, Ganesh Pol and Diwan-e-Khas. After lunch, we visited another amazing tourist place called City Palace. 

In the evening, we went on a Jaipur Street Food Tour. We ate from the street vendors like locals but made it a point not to consume anything that had water or ice in it. Most of the time water gets your stomach upset, not the food. Also another word of caution, politely tell people who are selling the food not to touch your ones. Since Jaipur gets a lot of tourists, most people understand basic English so communication should not be a problem.

After 4 days of calorie-loaded meals, it was time to burn off with the Jaipur Morning Bicycle Tour. Not all of us could go on this and preferred to stay in the hotel and rest as we also had to take a flight from Jaipur to Kolkata that very evening.

Our guide for this tour, Raju, was a man who walked his talk. He showed us the real colours of Jaipur as we rode past several streets and even bazaars! Our first stop was Tal Katora before we headed towards the age-old flower and vegetable markets. Next was the Govind Dev Temple. It was an amazing experience for a spiritual person like me. At a 90-year-old sweet shop, we saw how a famous sweet dish called Rabri is made with the age-old tradition. We had local breakfast and came back with a heart full of memories! 

Before we headed to the airport, we headed towards the Chandpole Bazaar from where our morning bicycle tour had started. At this bazaar, we shopped for some souvenirs for our friends and got ourselves bright Bandhani clothes. I got a couple of puppets for my mother who teaches kids. I plan to somehow pack it in her trolley so that when she is back from the tour and unpacks she is reminded at once about the colours of these bazaars.