Inside Fatehpur Sikri’s mosque lies the stunning white marble tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti. Akbar, the infamous Moghul responsible for the construction of Fatehpur Sikri, consulted this saint four centuries ago hoping for a son. Shaikh prophesied the birth of a son, which came true with the birth of his heir (who imprisoned him in [...]
Beautiful setting, check. Sincere, happy smiles, check. Forgetting to take off your embarrassing hat for the photo, check. Oh Martin. I love you, but that hat’s gotta go. What do you all think? Are you with me on this?
Once upon a time, there was an Emperor called Akbar. He went to see a Sufi saint called Shaikh Salim Chisti, who foretold that Akbar would have a male child. When this came true, Akbar was so impressed that he decided to move his capital to the Saint’s obscure hometown – Fatehpur Sikri. Note that [...]
Back in the day, the Mughal Emperor wanted an exclusive way of commuting between his new capital and Agra. He thought it would be handy to be able to show up in either place without having to travel there with his whole entourage. His solution was to have a secret forty kilometer long tunnel built [...]
If you’re the Mughal Emperor and you’ve got a Taj Mahal standing around on your property, you probably want to have a strong fort next to it to scare away your rivals. That is my (completely untrue) theory behind the existence of the Agra Fort. Yesterday, we did a hurried tour through the fort – [...]
Even if you want to be a super independent traveler, boldly going places where no one else dares (or cares) to go, I say it is still wise to mix in a few super high profile tourist things into your daily sightseeing. Today the turn came to Taj Mahal, a place I first heard about [...]
I’ve been making fun of myself on this site a lot lately, so I figure it’s only fair to point the finger at my favorite travel buddy, my hussie. Not only does he now have a huge Mexican-style mustache, for reasons he hasn’t been able to explain to me, he’s also started dressing like [...]
So, our original plan was to stay here in Risikesh for a week at least. Jaime wanted to do some yoga, and I was interested in the trekking scene. So far so good, but once we got here we both realized that we don’t really fancy the place much. It’s dirty and gritty, full of [...]
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
