We leave Agra this morning. Barbara and I are completely fine with this fact. We have agreed that Agra is the X'ian of India. Both cities are dirtier than the other cities in their respective countries. The only reason anyone would go there (in our opinion) are the historical sites that are there (Terracotta warriors, Taj Mahal, Red Fort, etc). If not for these drawing factors, these cities would not be tourist destinations.
We stop off at Fatepur Sikri, the lost city. Not sure why they call it that. It's obviously not lost. It never was lost. Its location has always been known. The city was built over an 11 year time span and the capitol was moved here from Agra. It remained the capitol for 12 years. Talk about bad return on investment. There seem to be conflicting reports as to why they left. Everything I have read about it states that the King left due to a water shortage. Shankar says that his research says it was due to some political problems in the North of India. In the end, I figured it really didn't matter much to me why the King left. He did and left a ghost town behind. A huge, sprawling ghost town.
There were some pretty impressive things about this place, to me. The King realised that if the place was overrun, he would need to depart quickly. A King could still be a King as long as he had money to hire troops to take his capitol back. If he had no money, he would cease to remain a monarch. So, with that in mind, he had many dozens of entrances and exits to the treasury. It is said the entire thing could be emptied of it's contents in under fifteen minutes. Seeing the structure, I could believe that.
A large courtyard held a pedestal where the King would sit to play his favorite game; hop scotch. We were described that the King would have several sets of young girls in specific colored dresses as the pieces. At that point, I was confused. One of the others on the tour said that it was a chess board that we would see when we got there. That made more sense. But, Shankar said that it was definitely not chess. Back to confusion. When Barbara and I finally got there, the confusion solidified. It was neither hop-scotch nor chess. Susan, one of the other tourists in our group, walked up to us and told us that it was Parcheesi. The clouds parted and the holy light of knowledge shown down upon us. Yes, that makes sense. The board fit correctly. The King and Queen could sit in the center of the board and make their moves with the various colored human pieces. Neat!
Throughout the visit to the lost city, I became to feel less and less...uh...well. I was drained. Had no energy. A couple pieces of candy brought me back for a bit. But, as soon as that wore off, I felt worse. I figured it must have been the small amount I ate for breakfast.
After an unremarkable lunch stop (good food from the little I could bring myself to eat, but, nothing else to report) we travelled onto Jaipur. I slept most of the way. Babara began getting worried at the fever that I had picked up somewhere. I told her that I would be fine. A little rest and I'll be good as new.
From what I can recall about the trip into Jaipur, I was pleasantly surprised. There were mountains in this region. On many of the mountain tops were smaller forts and, I hesitate to call them castles, other strongholds in various states of disrepair. Shankar told us that the country is working little by little to restore as many of them as they can. However, there is only so much money for this kind of work per year. So, some languish in hard to reach places in favor of those that can be more easily visited. One, in particular that I remember, stood at the very pinnacle of a steep mountain top. From the distance I saw it at, there was no easy approach to it. If your job was to invade that thing, you would probably go AWOL instead. It looked like a nightmare to take, and a dream to defend. It also must have had some great views of the surrounding countryside.
Shankar tells us that we have the Amber Fort tomorrow and there is a possibility of elephant rides from the parking up to the actual entrance. Barbara made giddy schoolgirl sounds. I think Shankar realised what that meant as he then immediately said that we would be getting to the fort early to make sure to get the best possible chance to ride the elephants. I grinned inwardly at the influence my wife has already established.
We arrived in Jaipur and got checked into our hotel. We were back to being in a nice establishment. It was no Sangria La in Delhi, but, it was exponentially better than the Clarks Shriaz in Agra. I've had cheap motel rooms in Vegas that were nicer than the one we had in Agra.
As soon as I got into the room I quickly stripped down and climbed under the covers of the bed shivering. My fever was in full effect. Barbara ordered room service and forced me to eat some food. I had to take my anti-malarial pills with food. She told me she was worried again. There's nothing to really worry, I told her. My immune system is the strongest muscle in my body. It's already kicked the snot out of every domestic bug it's encountered. Now, I have to go find foreign invaders for it to test its mettle against. It will come out victorious...I just need to rest and let it do its thing.
Tomorrow...elephant rides to the Amber Fort.
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