Daily Photos & Frugal Travel Tips

Because it was low season, our tour organizer was able to book us into some top hotels, the best of which was the ITC Mughal Hotel in Agra. It was being renovated when we visited (the lobby has been completely redone since we visited).

The low occupancy turned out to not be a good thing. The hubby has eaten street food the world over, including in India (I do not recommend this, but the hubby can’t resist), yet the only food venue that has ever made him sick was the breakfast buffet at the ITC Mughal Hotel. I ate cautiously because I thought the sausages looked a little off color, and that made me distrust the rest of the barely warm food (one of our street food rules is that the food has to be piping hot). The hubby ate heartily. He lasted through the morning visit to the Taj Mahal okay (thank goodness) but was violently ill on the bus ride back. The only food he had eaten that day was the breakfast buffet at the hotel so it had to be the cause. He claims the food was too good for his stomach. (grinning)

There IS security at the Taj Mahal, though they try to be as unobtrusive as possible (as not to destroy the serenity of the site).

I really enjoyed my time at Harrison’s Cave and could have easily spent the entire day there. The only thing that drove me absolutely nuts was that the site had speakers placed everywhere and piped in really loud recordings of birds chirping. This made it much more difficult to spot the real birds, and took away from the nature. It was completely unnecessary.