Dear Sir/ Madam, I am writing to tell you about my recent four week trip to India which was on the 5th of January 2010. I flew with India air from Heathrow to Sri Lanka and then on to Delhi, the flight took around 10 hours. The meals on the aeroplane were very enjoyable; breakfast consisted of pancakes with golden syrup, Lunch was vegetable masala and for dinner a buffet containing a variety of Indian foods. Accompanying me on this wonderful experience were my Mother, Father, Sister and Grandma.

Whilst in India, we also met up with our close family friends who live in England but originally come from India. They showed us around their country and gave us a tour of around the ‘golden triangle’ of India. Some of the most memorable places we visited whilst we were there were Kerala, Delhi, Aqra and Jaipur. We spent the first three days of our holiday in Kerala where we stayed at the ‘Tall trees hotel’ in the heart of the rainforest. It was on my second day in India that we first saw an elephant; he was causing quite a traffic jam in the busy streets as his owner seemed to have little control.

We were all amazed at how big elephants really were and that all the native people were unfazed by the giant animal being so close. We got to ride on one of these magnificent creatures later on in our stay. We had to climb up a ladder on the second floor of a building to get onto the elephants back. We sat on a red and black woollen blanket strapped on by ropes. On the second week, we took a rice boat down to Agra and we stayed at the ‘Oberoi’ hotel which was just out of the city.

The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Muhal, its striking craftmanship and captivating location are a magnificent sight. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. According to the people of Agra, the Taj Mahal tells the story of a passionate love that knew no limits. After the craftsmen had finished the building, the emperor cut off their right hands so that no one could create a monument as beautiful as this again. The emperor built himself the same tomb facing his wife and their bodies are still meant to be there today.

After our second week spent in Agra, we traveled by train, boat and plane to reach the ancient city of Jaipur. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, it is part of the ‘pink city. ’ Jaipur and the places around it are called the ‘pink city’ because of the special type of pink coloured rock that is found commonly there. This rock was used to make all of the buildings back in ancient times and still today, the city is full of amazing buildings. On our third day in Jaipur, we travelled 10 miles out of the city to Galta, an 18th century sacred site.

We were given a tour all around this incredible site and at sunset we were taken to the ‘monkey temple’. The sacred pools inside the temple were full of monkeys, these monkeys have been visiting the pools since the temple was first built and generations later, the same family of monkeys visit the temple every day at sunset. Whilst in Agra, we visited an elephant orphanage which was an hours drive away from the city. The elephant orphanage is a charity and all the workers are volunteers, they give up their time to try and help to save this amazing species.

The elephant orphanage has a patrol team, that looks for poachers who illegally hunt elephants for there skin and tucks. The poachers will kill at least 50 adult elephants each year. When they kill elephants who are with their offspring, the baby who is no use to the poachers would just be left to die, as it has no way of surviving in the wild without its parents protection. The elephant orphanage aims at rescuing these baby elephants and raises them until they are ready to return to the wild, they are also involved in a government scheme to try and stop the poaching of this endangered species.

After our amazing experience in Jaipur, we traveled to Delhi for our final week in India. Delhi is the biggest city in India and its population is around 16 million. It is known for the contrast between the ancient and historical north side of the city and its busy modern south side. This city really has the best of everything, there are many Indian shopping centres and theme parks to enjoy but also a chance to visit some of the oldest and most popular buildings in india.

The streets are narrow and bursting with life, drivers horns beep throughout the day. The most alarming thing we found about Delhi is its form of transport, tuc-tucs are the taxis of Delhi and because there in no specific side of the road to drive of the traffic is chaotic compared to the streets of England. I throughly enjoyed my visit to india as it is very culturally different to England. My favorite part of my trip to India was visiting the elephant orphanage. The volunteers give up their time to help these creatures and this is an inspiration to me.

I plan to visit India agin when i am 17 for one month and go on a volunteer programme the orphanage offers to students over the age of 17 as i think it would be a life changing experience. I think that I should win the holiday because I love to visit new places, make new friends and try new things. I will give everything a go and it would be an amazing opportunity. I hope you have enjoyed reading all about my time in India, and i would certainly recommend it to anyone who has not yet visited this beautiful and culturally diverse country.