The winter fog had descended on Delhi (it’s not cold in winter, but can be very foggy), and as we pulled out of the station through the grey mist, it felt as if we were on a real adventure. When we arrived at Agra in the afternoon, we went straight to the Taj Mahal. Seeing it in the winter afternoon sun was simply unforgettable. The building is a wonder of the world which defies guide books and cliché, and it turned out not to be one of those places which prompts children to start whining “When are we going to go home?” after five minutes. I think it is simply the power of the architecture. Our children were stunned and excited by its symmetry, its calm beauty and its perfect position. Everyone else wanted to sit on “that” bench and do the Princess Diana pose. After looking at the Taj in reverence for a while however, it was time to jump and run around the enormous enclosure of the Agra Fort next door.

“Street food! Can we have street food for lunch!” became the family clarion call

“Street food! Can we have street food for lunch!” became the clarion call from (most of) the family as the tour took us off the beaten track and through the small villages of the desert state of Rajasthan, which covers part of the Golden Triangle. The children absolutely loved drinking sweet chai and eating the piping hot samosas and other treats they saw cooked before their eyes on the roadside. I have been to India twice with my young family and nobody has fallen prey to a bug or picked up the infamous Delhi Belly. The key is to give everyone their own little bottle of water-free hand sanitiser before leaving home. I insisted we all used a good squirt before and after every meal or visit to the bathroom, and a bit more besides. Sensible provisions like brushing your teeth with bottled water and always insisting on very hot food also helped.

Colour and vibrancy are the beating heart of Rajasthan, as evinced by the vivid saris of the local women, the wonderfully painted lorries packed with improbable loads of animals, furniture or computer equipment, or indeed the actual cities themselves. Jaipur is known as “the Pink City”, because most of its buildings are painted a wonderful rose colour. This was on the orders of the Maharaja of Jaipur who, in 1876, insisted all the buildings were painted pink, the colour of hospitality, before a visit from Queen Victoria. The city has carried on this tradition ever since, and at dawn and dusk in particular it seems as if the whole vast city is bathed in magenta. A huge treat for us all was visiting The Amber Fort and the City Palace with its teetering galleries of windows. Just as beautiful were the teeming street markets with their heaps of flowers, pyramids of spices, snake charmers, animals and food, all presented for your pleasure. The children came home laden with jewellery, shirts, hats, wooden stringed instruments, elephant key-rings – and of course a couple of brand new cricket bats.