One of the main reasons I had wanted a private guide was so that I could make a side trip out of Agra to the deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri, 36km away but it was here that I also started to regret that decision. There was some confusion about the cost of the trip (I was sure the price I'd previously agreed to, through my friend and agent in Delhi, included the excursion but the Agra representative was adamant it was an extra 500rps), the traffic was terrible, the weather awful and I was tired and rapidly becoming increasingly grumpy.
Fatehpur Sikri, thankfully, was worth the trip. Now a ghost city, it used to be the capital of the Mughal Empire between 1571 and 1585 at which point it was abandoned due to insufficient water supplies. It remains an example of a perfectly preserved Mughal city from the height of the empire's splendour, full of exquisite red sandstone castles and lovely gardens. It was almost devoid of tourists and the city had an openness and emptiness that I had before come across and added splendidly to the feeling of being in a ghost town.
Part of the reason I so enjoyed my time in Agra and, on this point even more so in Fatehpur Sikri, is that the buildings were unlike anything I had ever seen before. I'm relatively well travelled and have lost count of the number of castles and stately homes I've visited in England and on the Continent and nothing I've seen there, of course, looked remotely like anything I was seeing here. It was a feast for the eyes.
Once again, Jya finished the tour much earlier than I would have wished and after a mere 40 minutes wanted to head back to Agra. I could easily have spent at least another hour wondering around the site but she was adamant we were running out of time. I didn't understand this because it was still 4 hours until my train but I had requested to go round to see the Taj Mahal from the back, across the river, to watch the sun set over it and see it illuminated by moonlight, so I obliged, once again reluctantly, to leave.
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