Taj Mahal is not just by the side of a road. It is inside a kind of  FORT with 4 gates, the North, South, East and West Gate. The gate shown below is another gate that is the entry into the Taj Mahal.

There are only 7 of us in our tour group. My wife is infront of me.

Harun is a lecturer and his wife is a teacher

Our journey began in Kuala Lumpur. We started 6 of us by Lankan Airline. The picture above shows my wife on the wheel chair, cikgu Harun and his wife Aida, Hajah Aishah and her grand daugher , Fatin who is in form 3. I did not ask them how and what made them choose the IBC Tour agency. I had a bitter eperience with the agency and promised myself not to choose his agency again. It changed the date of arrival, did not inform us what to bring on the first day and all other neccessary infos as ther agencies would do. Because of the change in the date of return we have to add money for te return ticket from uala Lumpur to Alor Setar.

The departure time from Kula Lumpur to Clombo was at 4.15 pm. I arrived Kuala Lumpur at 10 am. After arriving Colombo and cleared the immigration we were put in the Dlphin Hotel anout 1 hour away from the airport. The hotel is near the sea.

We were there for a night and the next day's trip would began at 7.15 pm. The hotel is considered good. Rooms are challet type. Even the hotel we stayed in during the return trip is challete.

The food in Dolphin is good. I would not complain anything abot the accomodations in Sri Langka.

Look at the houses and shops at the background. Sri Langka is not as developed as Malaysia. Most people I encountered with are soft spoken, nice, helpful and very friendly. Most are Buddhism. You can see churches here and there. People we met do not ask for money, not like India. Almost everyone I met were asking for money, even the officer who push my wife's wheel chair.

The flight from Colombo to Delhi was 3 1/2 hours. We arrived Delhi at 7 pm. My wife was fetched at the plane's door by the airport wheel chair. After clearing the immigration we went to pick up our luggage and our own wheel chair. The officer asked for 100 rupees. An airport official was asking for money. I did not have any rupees and borrowed from our tour leader who was waiting for us at the airport. He asked me to give only 50 rupees. This did not happen in Malaysia or Sri Langka. A van picked us up. On te way to our hotel named Raunak in Delhi we found that the city was very very dusty. We saw kids prepared to sleep by the road sides. We smell great poverty. The picture on the right was showing a lady in te house's compoud baking a bread. Her kids were inside the house. They slept outside the house within the compound. The picture on the left was a street beside our hotel. 

Raunak Hotel, picture left, is quite OK. The room is spacous. It has the flat screen TV on the wall with 100 channels.

Picture on the right is showing one of the locations in Delhi. Delhi and New Delhi are twin city. New Delhi is a new area built by the British. The city is  no dust. Wealthy people stay here.

Agra was the next city.  The tour leader said it would take us 3 1/2 hours from Delhi to Agra. But e took about 8 hours. We were suppose to visit Taj mahal on the same day but due to the time constraint the visit had to be made the next morning. We had to wake up early and go to Taj mahal at 6 am.

Outside the city of Delhi dust began to disappear. All along we saw a huge farm land. Plant with red flowers were planted all along the road. We stopped by for our lunch. Again we had had roti and dal curry.

Agra is still dusty. The picture on the right is one of the areas in Agra City.

The 7th. member in our group joined us in Delhi. We called her Takwa. I guess that is the name. In the left picture Takwa is wearing pink colored dress on the most right. 

Behind Taj Mahal is a river. Across the river is the foundation of the Black Taj Mahal which did not materialized.

The entry into Taj Mahal was supposed to be US22. Our tour leader, Abdul, asked his agent to purchase for the ticket. I don't know the price. We were asked to pay US22 to our tour guide. After completint the Taj trip, our Taj tour guide asked for payment. Nobody paid him. Then he took us to one store just outside the Taj Mahal.

The shop keeper did not allow us to leave. He closed the door tight. Somehow I managed to get out.

We have to walked about 500 meters to the gate of the Taj Mahal. Imagine along the way in and out peddlers were chasing us offering various items for sale. 10 T shirts cause US20. We were pressured to buy. I refused. I did not alow my wife to buy either. While climbing the van one T-Shirt guy offered me 10 T-Shirts for US10. After a brief computation I finally subdued.

Our group members asked the tour leader to take them to shopping. From handicraft shops we moved to textile. Prices of dresses were not expensive and the designs were beautiful. I did not buy any. Other group members did purchase several items of dresses and handicrafts.

Our next trip was Jaipur, the Pink City. Almost all buildings in Jaipur were pink in color. The trip to Jaipur took us another 6 hours or so. We arrived Jaipur at almost dark and visited several places before checked in the hotel. We went to dinner at 7 pm. There had an entertainment show, song, dance and puppet shows. We ordered mango juice not knowing we have to pay for it. Even the mineral water was not free. Only tea and cofee would be free but that will come only after we have finished our dinner.

We met another Malaysian at the dinner hall. She is from Kuala Nerang, Kedah. My wife had a long talk with her.

We didn't stay to see the puppet show. We knew then that they will be asking us for donations. The bill for mango juice and mineral water was more than 600 rupees.

Tommorrow we had to check out of the hotel early morning, and would go back to Delhi after the tour of Jaipur.

( to be cotinued )