On the bus ride to Fatehpur Sikri, we saw a camel caravan with about 20 camels along side of the 2 lane highway! Fatehpur Sikri was built by Moghul Emperor Akbar in 1585. Akbar was the man! He is on my Top 5 list of dead people I'd like to meet. The palace complex he had built and only lived in for 13 years before moving the capital to the Punjab. Till then, dirty, stinky, polluted Agra had been the capital. He built a grand city based on a caravan camp layout. He had a harem with over 300 wives and a 1000 women in all guarded by eunichs. The court historian said Akbar had more problems with the Harem than he did running the whole moghul empire. Anyway, he had an outdoor game board where slaves were used as pieces in a game lasting up to 3 months! He had a love for wine, women and opium and pissed off the stuffy muslim clerics who chastised him for taking more than 4 wives. They staged an uprising so he killed them all.
Pictured below, the red string is tied to the carved marble stone in the mosque by women who wish to get pregnant. The mosque is pictured below too!
We heard something spalsh and remembered seeing a murky, green pool of contaminated water at the palace. Running over there, we saw a couple boys jumping in! Paul paid them 25 cents each to dive in again for a photo, look at the dark brown spot in the middle of the photo...
Everyday in India, our jaws drop wide open. On the bus ride home, here are modes of transport you would never see on a major freeway in southern california...
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