The most famous building in India is
the Taj Mahal. 
As
I had a couple of days spare in my schedule (one to recover!) I decided
I'd go and have a look. It was an absolute nightmare! The Taj
Mahal itself is very impressive. It shines like a great jewel set in
its impressive gardens, built by the Moghuls (previous Islamic rulers of
India before the British came) it has marble cladding inside and
out. The marble work has some of the best examples of its kind
and to make sure of this, some of the workers had their fingers 
removed
to stop them from working on anything else! You can see the
style from the picture on the left, taken inside the building. I
couldn't get that close but the inlaid gemstones in the marble are
beautifully done making very lifelike 
and
realistic looking flowers. I got a
better close up shot in the red fort in Delhi (see right) where you can
see the effect much better. I thought
the Taj had the more impressive work however.
I had about half an hour to see the
Taj itself, I left at 6:30AM and arrived in Agra at 1:30PM. An
Indian got on the bus and told me that because the bus journey was running
late they had made special 
provisions
for Westerners so that they could get the train back and arrive early as
many had missed their planes in the past. Stupidly I believed him
and I was given my own auto-rickshaw driver who took me to the
sites. I knew it was dodgy, but I let him drive me around.
Eventually we ended up in a jewelry shop with the owner trying every trick
to find out how many Visa cards I had in my wallet. Luckily I had a
cash withdrawal only card on me as my strategy was to claim I had little
money. He put a ring in front of me and claimed it was worth One
Thousand Five Hundred Pounds and then said he would give it to me for
free. I found it so offensive that he should think I was so stupid I
would believe him that it was my perfect opportunity to walk out. I
got the train back on my own. There are too many stories of
unsuspecting tourists (and stupid ones) who have been conned by people
like this, if you ever go make sure it doesn't happen to you - do not get
involved in any deals unless you are an expert!
The Red Fort in Delhi
Lahore gate of the Red Fort in Delhi
There are red forts in both Agra and
Delhi, they were
built by the Moghul emperors as homes. I
visited the red fort in Delhi where you can see some of the Moghul marble
clad architecture. In the picture on the right you can see three
buildings. From left to right you can see the private audience
chamber, the emperor's lodgings and the emperor's first wife's
lodgings. 
The
emperor's lodgings are smaller than his wife's were, though I
never found out why. The Red Fort in Agra is much the same from the
outside as you can see in the picture on the left. I didn't have
time to see the inside.
The Delhi skyline
Rishikesh is famous for two things,
firstly it is the world capital of Yoga. 
Secondly
it is where the Beatles met their Yogi which changed the band for
ever. The schools
of Yoga are called Ashrams and the Ashram at which the Beatles stayed can
be seen on the right. You can see the many little surreal homes in
which people stayed. Almost like a fairyland. The Ashram
has now fallen into disrepair, the owner happy to just leave it as it was.