We arrived early when it was cool and quiet. We had a guide who took us around and told us all about it. I saw some of the same themes and functions of individual building that I had seen at the Red Fort at Agra. The some early Mughal Maharajas were Muslim but ecumenical and had wives of all religions and the religious imagery of the architecture represented all the main faiths - Lotus for Buddhist, geometric for Islam, swastika for Hindu, Gothic arch for Christian etc. 
This photo is a panel in the Red Fort in Agra This is from Fatepur Sikri. The animal imagery was later defaced by a more fundementalist ruler.
I was really interested by this in the light of today's religious conflict in some parts of the world. The palace was red sandstone construction on the outer side but the inner palaces facing to the sandstone with intricate carving and inlay of precious stones. They also had fantastic systems for water harvesting, air conditioning, winter heating and creating what must have been fabulous, perfumed water features. 
This is the Maharaja's bed.
And this is me on the board set out in stone for the women of the court to play a game to entertain the Maharaja. I felt I was letting down the sisterhood a bit here, but hey, ho!I had chosen Intrepid because they offered a trip with a bit of adventure and today I got it. Off we went in our bus to try and get to our heritage stay. First the driver tried the main road, a dual carriageway but we soon encountered a road block. There were lots of trucks backed up in front of us so we all started to do the same thing, we turned around and went back the way we came. We found a low point in the central reservation crossed over and started to drive up the other side of the highway which had now become a single lane each way. In this video you can see us going up the wrong side of the road while the lorries stuck in the jam attempt to turn and copy us.This seemed successful for a while but then we met another block which outwitted us by closing both sides of the road. We had to go right back where we had come from and set off on the back roads. This was really hard work for the bus and the driver as the roads were very uneven and disappeared in places.
I had noticed piles of bricks at the road side. They seemed to be from old boundary walls or buildings which had fallen into disuse. I realised that these were being crushed and used to repair/widen the road. But it was not very effective as it was not compacted and so had become very rutted. Progress was made more slow by the fact that all the other heavy traffic in particular loads of lorries were travelling up and down the same road. I reckon this these one track roads would normally have been used by local tractors and trailers at the most. We zig-zagged across this part of Rajistan between Agra and Jaipur for 10 hours. There were two toilets stops. The first was amongst some corn stooks and the second an area of semi-desert bushes. We all learned to go to the loo al fresco. Most of us managed OK but it was tough for three of our group who had developed stomach upsets.
I was really pleased that I had some back up food, such as cereal bars, fruit and water. I coped with this long journey well as I enjoyed looking at the farming activities and the road side traders. Life is very much lived on the road side by many Indians, so was fascinating to me. In the period of a minute I saw, a camel cart, women in red saris walking through a field of yellow flowering mustard carrying bundles of wood on their heads, children playing cricket, 3 women walking some goats, a man sweeping a garage forecourt, a man crushing bricks with a hammer, a tractor with sugar cane crusher on the back, a tractor with trailer carrying a group of women, a cow pat factory, orange clothes drying on a fence, an apiary with a man tending it sitting outside his tent, a tyre workshop, a brick factory, a concrete pipe works, a chai stall, and finally some monkeys. Some of these sights were regularly repeated but I never lost interest.
We arrived at our destination after dark and in a thunder storm. The bus passed along the concrete road of the village without a problem but then that ran out and we were on a dirt track which wound up a very steep hill. We eventually got stuck and so got out and walked. The bus then got up without our weight and we had arrived. What a welcome! Men in red turbans and local costume awaited us. 'Namaste' all around - red marks on our foreheads and then in to the main hall of the old Fort Madhogarh which was also our hotel. Most of us had Kingfishers and then we were shown to our rooms. Mine was amazing - a huge room with a massive double bed and carved wood bedhead. We then went down stairs for accordion and tabla music and dancing. More Kingfishers and a delicious buffet supper. When I went to bed the thunder storm was playing games with the electricity. There had been a power cut once in Delhi and I developed the habit of carrying my small torch hanging from my jeans waist band. This was also useful in dark stairways and corridors in the forts. I had a good night's sleep although two massive thunder claps awoke me at one point.
