Fatehpur Sikri

The day dawns, and Peter has spent a sleepless night discovering that Delhi Belly is nothing compared with the Agra variety. He is now on a diet of rice and bananas. Not a happy bunny. (See picture.) 

Félix: Comment as-tu survécu en ne mangeant que des bananes et du riz nature? Dur-dur.

With great trepidation we hit the road to Fatehpur Sikri. It is a walled city about 50 Km from Agra built by Akhbar the Great as his capital. It was occupied for only 14 years and was then completely abandoned. It is now little more than a ghost town.One small part of the town has been reconstructed with the red sandstone of the original to convey something of the former splendour. 

The only building surviving from that period is the open-air mosque containing the shrine of the saint Salim Chishti who predicted the birth of Akhbar’s son. To this day families who only have girls make a pilgrimage to this shrine to rectify this appalling state of affairs. Goodness knows what would have happened if we had come here 33 years ago.

It was from here that Akhbar made his famous speech encouraging religious freedom and tolerance. Is there anything we should be learning from this man?

It was then a five-hour hectic dash to Jaipur. A new hazard on the road in Rajastan are camels who don’t know their left from their right. Our driver is now known as “Our Son”. (Picture to follow.) Be careful, girls you now have a competitor for the inheritance.