Today, after a single night in Delhi, recovering after the flight, we started our trip properly and headed off to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal.

Agra is often regarded as a place you visit only to see the Taj Mahal and get the hell out. But it's steeped in history (and dirt) and played a major part in the Mughal empire. There's wonderful moments to see here; The Agra Fort; Itmad-Ud-Daulah (affectionately known as the Baby Taj); Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra and more more.

We're travelling in a Tata Sumo, a seven seater 4x4, provided by Namaste India Tours who are also sorting out the hotels for tonight and the next 8 saving us the hassle of having to find one when arriving in unfamiliar surroundings.

After four hours in our car dodging autorickshaws, very large trucks, camels and cows we arrived at our hotel (for the next 18 hours). Then straight out to visit the Agra Fort - which for me is possibly the best fort I've ever visited: if the fort wasn't good enough the view down the river Yamuna of the Taj Mahal is simply stunning.

Tomorrow will be an early start so we can catch the Taj Mahal during sunrise which is 06:11am (eek!) so I guess we'll need to get up at 5am to get there, get tickets and get through security in time to watch the world's most beautiful monument bask in the early rays of sunshine.

I'm really excited. Tomorrow Daddy will pick me and Emilia up early from school so we can get ready to go to the airport. I've only been on a plane once before but I was only two years old so I can't remember what it is like. So this is kind of my first flight.

I'm curious about how hot it will be, how big tigers are, how spicy the food is and how much water I'll need to get through a meal without screaming "arrrgghh my tongue is burning".

I'm worried about how busy it will be in case I got lost so I plan to stick close to Mummy or Daddy. Daddy said it was really busy when he went there before.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing all the forts and special places and I'm hoping that I will be able to ride on an Elephant's back up to the Amber Fort in Jaipur.

One night we won't have a hotel as we'll be sleeping on a train. It was my idea to go on an overnight train so I asked Daddy if we could. I'm really looking forward to it.

by Amy

In twenty-seven hours I'll be getting on plane, fastening my seatbelt and hopefully sleeping for 8.5 hours. When I wake up my school will be 4000 miles behind me, woohoo! (Only joking Mr Stredwick.)

Hopefully, our driver will be waiting patiently for us at Delhi airport. He will be our driver for the next 10 days until we reach Udaipur. After Udaipur we will be travelling by train, which is a little worrying at the moment, but I'm sure it will be fine.

The main things I'm looking forward to is riding on an Elephant's back and hopefully seeing some Tigers and taking some photos of them.

Mummy tells me that she loved having banana pancakes for breakfast when she went there last and this sounds great to me. I plan to have a different curry every day but I hope they're not too hot! I can get through a Madras curry okay but I've never had a hotter curry like Vindaloo.

Emilia

xx

With less than a week to go things are getting pretty exciting in this house - as if they weren't already: the planning for this trip has been going on for ages.

I've just finished the Where In The World page on the blog with options to view a static or animated version of the route and also(by default) you can see where we are. Each city/place we're stopping at has a map marker which you can click on get more information including links to Wikipedia, Flickr, the weather and (if I ever get to upload any pictures) my gallery.

Today is the only day available for getting things together and loosely packing up the suitcases/rucsacks. The obvious plan was to travel light but things like this never seem to happen and it's mainly my fault; what with the two cameras, three lenses, monopod, camcorder, chargers, DSs, flash readers. The medical kit also outweighs both kids by 2 to 1. Luckily though our concern about the kids getting ill has meant that Dioralyte and Imodium WILL survive the credit crunch.

Tonight, without phoning a friend or asking the audience I'll be watching Slumdog Millionaire for the third time. Oh no, of course, I can't do that, it's not out on DVD yet.

Searching for information about Ranthambhore can prove a little tricky. To start with you've got to know how to spell it and it's open to debate. But the winner it seems is 'Ranthambhore'.

Firstly, let me recommend a lovely photo book, Tiger Forest: A Visual Study of Ranthambhore National Park. I got my copy for about £15, brand new from Amazon. Full of gorgeous pictures it really whets the appetite for a trip to the tiger reserve.

Next, let me recommend the best set of photos I've seen around. Taken by a man name Aditya Singh who runs the Ranthambhore Bagh hotel, which unfortunately is over my budget range. How I would have loved to talk about wildlife and photography with Aditya but never mind, I'll just have to bore the kids. Aditya's images can be found in many places: his blog; his web site; but above all else, his photos on Flickr.

I love this shot of a tiger almost as much as this shot of a leopard.

If I manage to take one shot half as good as some ofthese I'll be a happy man.

Going on holiday is an excuse to buy that much need gadget. Invariably this 'good idea' turns out to the equivalent of hiding under a table and covering yourself in Bacofoil during a nuclear attack - as seen in the Young Ones episode "Bomb".

Not this time though: I've got the best gadget in the world!!

A Powertraveller Powermonkey eXplorer. Cost £35, new-ish on eBay.

It's a LiIon battery that you can charge from the mains, usb or the solar panel. Add a car cigarette lighter with USB output and you can charge it in your car too. There a few mains charging options which allow you to charge the battery in 150 countries, but not, of course, India. Doh! (One does fit shaver sockets though and I think/hope/guess they're universal the world over.)

Various power tips (actually called Monkey Nuts) mean that you can charge up a whole collection of devices from the lithium battery. The monkey nuts also fit direct onto the leads from the charging plugs (mains/USB/solar) so you can charge a few things at the same time; one from the mains; one from the battery; one from the solar panel. For the main charging there are a few different connectors, so you can charge the device from the main in 150 countries...but not, of course, India. Doh! One of the charging plugs will fit shaver sockets which are universal the world over.

Just think, the next time you're nipping out for the day, you pick up your keys and your phone...damn, it's nearly out of charge. Who cares, pick up your powermonkey battery and the appropriate tip, plug the together et voila. Hold on a minute. You did charge that powermonkey didn't you? Another scenario, you're going out for the day, taking your kid's DS Lite, which of course is fully charged, they watch a film on it, it's dead: Charge it up from the powermonkey and you're the best Dad in the world. "No Dad you're not a real geek, that Powermonkey really is good!".

But the best bit isn't the use of this whilst travelling, it's the use of it at home. We used to have five different charging leads in our kitchen (nokia, sony and HTC mobiles, DS Lite, iPod). Now we've got only one lead and selection of monkey nuts. Pop on the required tip and you're ready to charge your device and suddenly you're the best Husband in the world. "Yes, Kev that Powermonkey really was worth the money, look only one wire".

When we changed one of the phones the other day, we just bought a new monkey nut, cost £2.50 including postage.

It's been an odd couple of weeks.

The flights are booked; car and driver is booked; trains are all booked; India related books have all been purchased - mostly from Amazon, some were only £0.01 plus £2.50 postage...bargain!; we've watched all the India related films we've got, or borrowed ()

So the only thing left to do is get stuff ready.

Always in the market for something useful, different and cheap I decided that we needed to sort the water carrying out. Amy is very forgetful at drinking water and in temperatures around the 40°C mark, we needed to make sure water was always nearby. A solution was needed, preferably a geeky one, but failing that, something that works. There's loads of devices out there from carabiner clips through to Camelbaks and beyond. But I'm me and I wanted CHEAP.

I decided that we were not going to take water bottles (like our bike ones) with us but we would just buy (plastic) bottled water and carry that around. Half a nanosecond of thought later and I decided that we needed to buy a device to carry the water bottle in. Before you say it, yes I've seen Slumdog Millionnaire, I'll watch out for a glued bottle cap.

Thanks to the wonderful world of eBay, I'll soon be the proud owner of two of these from Malaysia; total cost: £6.11.

This is all about money, what to take and specifically Visa debit cards.

When I last went to India, shortly after Dinosaurs became extinct, I took lots of Traveller's Cheques, but these days there's no real need to take loads, just take some backup.

Everyone on IndiaMike seems to take their ATM card and use that, but some complain of high charges from their own bank when doing this. They draw out enough money for the next couple of days just like at home.

But what about the hefty bank charges? I checked my providers, Nationwide, and they state that there will be no charge for withdrawals in India, or anywhere else for that matter. Great. The card is a Visa debit card so it will be accepted anywhere.

But what if the machine swallows the card? I guess I'll take a backup card and some Traveller's Cheques. I could always get cash out on my credit card if I was really stuck.

But how many ATMs are there in India? The answer is loads but of course, there's an article on IndiaMike about the location of ATM's in India.

In the fury of planning your holiday some people forget almost the single most important thing: a visa to get into the country. If you don't have it, "you ain't coming in, not tonight son, your name's not down". (Sorry, slipped into remembering my abortive attempts at getting into nightclubs when too young, claiming I was on the guess list.)

Before you start wondering about getting a visa, you have got a passport, haven't you? Also this article only deals with my experience of a UK national getting a tourist visa for India.

Few IndiaMikers can forget the legend of Boston Harry and the Expired Passport, but it just goes to prove that you can get caught up in lesser important stuff like "how many ATMs are there", "how should I carry my money around" etc.

For me the visa situation was plain and simple but it was the one thing that gained a huge sigh of relief when it was completed. You just don't know what reasons may be taken into account and what information do they have? Do they dislike members of Amnesty International or Greenpeace? Will they know that I downloaded a copy of Slumdog Millionaire? Of course, I didn't actually do this, that's illegal isn't it?, but I do belong to both Amnesty and Greenpeace, but I've got my visa so who cares?

Applying Online

A first glance at the form on the VFS Global India Visa web site, leads to confusion with questions like "I don't have the names for any referees in India". But applying couldn't be simpler. The form has many pages but each one has a help page which is well worth reading first. Hey, even I read it and I'm a bloke and an geeky IT person to boot. Of course, if you run into confusion/trouble there's a visa section on IndiaMike all about it with a particularly good Q&A article for people in the UK applying for a visa.

When To Apply

I would have happily applied as soon as I booked my flights but I couldn't apply that early. I only wanted a six month single-entry tourist visa but the visa starts from the time they put it in your passport. Really you need to apply within six months of the date you'll arrive back in your home country, otherwise it will run out before you return. The turnaround time for me was 8 days, including posting both ways, and that's for four passports/visas.