We took a break from travelling during summer and monsoon 2012. So this trip happened about a gap of 8 months. The trip had more driving than previous trips. The group was the same as the last trip - Pranav, Manoj, Aparna and Manoj's mum.
We took the Duronto (non-stop) train from Pune to New Delhi. The train left Pune at 11:00 am (on schedule). We had taken Pranav's food with us. The train caters for the passengers. The train food wasn't very good. We all felt a bit queasy after eating it. We didn't want to take a chance with Pranav and gave him half an avomine. Pranav got bored by the evening and it was a challenge to occupy him. We travelled by first class that meant we got a cabin all to ourselves.
Train reached a little behind schedule. We took a taxi immediately to Alwar. That turned out to be a 3.5 hr drive. Pranav was quite good on the journey. But we had heart in our mouth for the entire trip. It was probably the avomine of previous night; Pranav never felt queasy for the entire trip. After lunch at our hotel, we took an auto to check out the sights. They were all monuments where Pranav likes to run around. He was quite happy today. We retired early to recover from the long journey.
We took a taxi to Deeg after breakfast. The roads turned out to be miserable. It took us 3 hrs to cover 70 kms. Pranav did get queasy at the end of it. He tried to throw up, but didn't succeed. We gave him half an avomine and he recovered within a few minutes and was running all over the palace grounds. The journey to Mathura was uneventful. After lunch, we headed to museum. Pranav started to get very irritated by the end of the museum trip and threw a bit of a tantrum. We marched on and took a boat ride down the Yamuna. His tantrum peaked on the boat. But he soon settled down and we had a reasonable pleasent boat ride. Pranav had missed all the afternoon nap so far; that and the long car journey is probably why he was cranky today.
We took an early morning auto-ride to check out the temples. Pranav was quite happy on the trip. After a long lunch break, we took a short taxi ride to Agra. After a hour break, we took an auto to Mehtab Bagh where Pranav could run around and we could enjoy the view of Taj.
Manoj and Aparna went to see the Taj at sunrise while Manoj's mum baby sat Pranav. After breakfast we went to see Agra Fort. Pranav is starting to show dislike to museums now. The fort resembled museum lot more than a monument. Once Pranav realised he cannot run around freely, he started throwing a bit of a tantrum. After lunch, we visited Itimad-ud-Daula and Chini-ka-Rauza - both desolated monuments that Pranav likes.
We went to Sikandara to check out Akbar's Mausoleum and took the afternoon off. Very easy day.
It was an hour and a half taxi ride to Fatehpur Sikri today. Unlike yesterday, we did not feed Pranav before our sight seeing and we paid for our mistake. Pranav threw a tantrum and it took us a while to feed him a couple of bananas and calm him down. The trip to Bharatpur was uneventful. Pranav slept in the afternoon while Manoj and Aparna went on the bird safari.
Manoj and his mum took the morning safari and all of us went back to Agra to catch the train. We did not carry enough food for Pranav for the night and rest of the train journey. It was a challenge to improvise on the fly.
This was a day long train ride. Pranav did throw up in the morning and we gave him half an avomine. Rest of day passed uneventfully.
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