Getting up in the cold for another early start (5.30) was a bit challenging. I don’t want to complain too much however, as Josh did a 4.30am trek to the reception lobby to use the wifi to enrol in the other half of his uni courses. It took about fifteen minutes to get to the train station. There were a surprising number of people up and about their daily tasks in the dim light, masked by smoke from the little brazier fires. The station was very similar to ours at home, although the platform was at least 200m long. The porters were all dressed in red and one of ours carried our suitcase on his head. The train was clean and comfortable, but very old. The chai wallah walked up and down the train, selling chai from an aluminium canister yelling “chaaa-yee”, other attendants sold snacks and something wrapped in foil that looked interesting. We would have loved to try some but are staying completely conservative food wise.
We were met at the station by an escort who reunited us with our drivers. It was nice to see two friendly faces and be back in our little bus. They took us to see Fatehpur Sikri, a palace built in the 16th century and then abandoned 14 years later. Our new guide had some interesting stories, and it was good to walk about and stretch our legs after the train ride. I have included a photo of Team Starrett standing in the chief accountant’s “office”. There was a wild pig with two very cute baby pigs that prompted an interesting commentary from our guide about Muslim / Hindu relationships. He’s quite political with strong opinions about religion and although the boys tune out to these discussions, I’m fascinated (edit: Flynn has contested this and said they don’t tune out but at the time of this particular conversation, they were distracted by a very small puppy). After a brief lunch stop, where Josh was reunited with his beloved chicken fingers and chips, we headed on to Agra. I’ve included a photo of an interesting ‘vehicle’ that we keep seeing here - I THINK it is some kind of mobile disco but we don’t know and there are dozens of them.
Our hotel here is luxurious, but is part of a chain, and is lacking some of the charm of our other stays to date. Our original plan was to have some down time and take advantage of the hotel entertainment options, but everything costs extra - the wifi, the pool table and most of the recreation offerings. My frugal boys completely objected to paying for the recreational options and Flynn even tried to talk me out of paying for wifi (“It’s only one night”). We found that table tennis was free so played an energetic game of that, the boys had a race to find the centre of a littlemaze, and we watched a very playful baby monkey roll about on the lawn. We were at a bit of a loss to fill the time before dinner so I overruled their expenditure decision and paid for a round for each of them on the all terrain vehicle track. They were a bit shocked that I was allowed to sign the disclaimer before I read the safety rules (the boys of course all read them) and that Flynn and Campbell were allowed to use the big bike although they were not 16. Does anyone want to chime in on whether rule following is genetic or whether I’ve influenced my three?
This was our least favourite day so far, but it was still filled with some great conversations, cheerful attitudes and a lot of laughter.
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