Gwalior

So for a place that we picked to visit because I was flipping through the guidebook and came to a cool photo, Gwalior was pretty awesome. We almost didn't go - first Kalpana told us it was too far from Agra, then the driver said no one ever goes there, and then the guidebook said very few tourists ever make it to Gwalior... but fortanetly we decided to do it anyway, and it was a very worthwhile trip.

Gwalior is about 119 km south of Agra - about a 3 hour car trip because the road is pretty bad in parts, so we had to go slowly so as to not damage the car on the bumps, and as you pass from state to state you have to stop and pay tolls which slows down the process as well - no toll booths here, just trash cans and guys with guns standing in the street flagging you down to the side of the road where you can hop out of your car and go over to a window on the side of the road to pay.

Some things you will commonly see on an Indian Highway, for future reference:

• Cars - only tata brand
• Motorbikes/scooters - our record at the moment is 5 people on a motorbike - four adults and one child. We did see four people and a suitcase which was equally impressive, but now we are on the lookout for 6 people on one motorbike before we leave India.
• Trucks - overloaded, tilted to one side, with BLOW HORN written on the back indicating you should honk at them when you pull up behind them to get them to move over.Tuk Tuks or auto rickshaws - usually wildly overloaded with people
• Bicycles - also carrying several people, most often going against the flow of traffic on the wrong side of the road
• Cows. Wild cows wandering free, cows that are owned by people being herded, or pulling wagons, sometimes wearing jewelry, with their horns painted. Sometimes wild cows taking a nap in the middle of the road.
• Dogs - all wild, all dashing in front of your car.
• Tractors - seem to be an appropriate substitute for vehicles, can be a transport for many people, or pull a load behind you
• Buses - usually with windshields decorated with tinsel and several people sitting on the roof of the bus and/or hanging off the back.
• Trees - literally growing in the center of the road
• Small children - usually bundled to the nines in ski jackets from the waist up (they take their "winter" very seriously here even tho it hasn't dropped below 55 degrees and today was closer to 80) but as a rule, naked from the waist down. Mostly under 3 or 4 years.
• Pigs
• Monkeys
• Camels - usually pulling something.
• Vegetable cart guys - these are men pulling huge wooden carts of vegetables behind them and walking down the center of the road.

Any and all of these can be spotted in your lane, coming directly at you, which isn't so unnerving when its a dog or a child, but when its a bus or a truck, can be a little intimidating.

Anyway, when we got to Gwalior we drove around asking for directions to the Fort for a while until we were finally able to find it... apparently people in India don't give very good directions, and often after we stopped and our Driver Mannu asked for directions he would get back in the car after a long animated conversations with someone and lots of directional hand pointing, roll his eyes, and find someone else to ask.

The fort was on the top of a cliff and pretty impressive - it will come across better in the photos than I can describe it. After walking through the restored part we wandered to the other side which had unmaintained ruins of old buildings and amazing views out over the city and surrounding countryside.

We ran around trying to find the stairs up to different little crumbling pavillions and Matt explained how he could easily kill me and mom and pass it off as an accident and then take all our money (how this last part would happen was a little unclear - also, what money?!?).

On the way back down the hill from the fort we stopped to see some Jain statues carved into the side of the cliff. They were pretty impressive but mostly headless as the Moghuls has defaced them - literally (that made matt giggle) when they took over.

After the Fort we stopped for lunch at the Indian Coffee House, and then headed to see the Jai Vilas, a palace built for the Maharaja. Mom was drawn to it by the guidebooks description of the crystal chandaliers and glass staircase but in fact it was the Maharajas collection of erotic art that will stay will us as a lasting memory. That and the family photographs lining every wall - the Maharaja and his family playing tennis, swimming in the pool, etc...

After the palace we headed back to Agra for dinner, and then back to the hotel - tomorrow morning we leave for Fatehpur Sikra, an old capitol of a moghul empire, and then on to Jaipur.