Agra

So the train from Delhi to Agra (a very very good train, according to the man at the station) left at an eye-wateringly early 06:15 am, so we were out with our packs on for the 1/2 mile walk to New Delhi station at 05:30. Fortunately it doesn't get scorching until about 8am, so the walk wasn't particularly unpleasant.

New Delhi rail station was already a mass of bodies when we arrived - people are sprawled out everywhere you can see, sleeping, napping, lying on massive piles of goods and fabric... you name it, its got a person on top of it. The station was remarkably well set out, and to be honest it put London Bridge to shame in terms of getting us to the right train on the right platform.

On the train, there seems to be a system in place whereby a segment of seats in the 3rd class (thats top class here, I think 1st class is cows and chickens..) are held for tourists wandering in and paying top dollar for fancy air con seats. So we were sat with 6 or so other tourists and it was a remarkably straight forwards journey. Oh and when I say top dollar it was still only about 8 quid for both of us to do a 2 hour journey in massive comfy seats, with air con, and breakfast... bargain.

We were pretty knackered at this point and worried we'd fall asleep - the train was going all the way back to Mumbai - so we had to try and stay awake so we didn't miss the stop. It was pretty easy going, although the view out of the window was pretty hard going as we passed through some of the slums that spilled out onto the railway land.

So we arrived in Agra and were pitched headlong into a swarm of animated rickshaw touts and taxi drivers. Not what you need in a new place and after only a few hours sleep. We managed to fight them off as far as the official government prepaid rickshaw shack (basically set up so the touts and hawkers cant rip you off straight from the train...) We'd already booked our hotel here so we all we had to worry about was not being taken for a ride in the wrong direction. We needn't have worried as we were picked up by a charming chap who insisted on showing us his little customer comment book - he'd asked the tourists he'd driven for in the past to write something about him in the book; despite claiming that he couldn't read or write english - brave chap. It looked like he wanted us to hire him to take us around the sites but we were too dazed and hot to take him up on his offer, so we just checked into the hotel and went straight for second sleeps.

As we arrived on the Friday, we couldnt jump straight into the Taj Mahal - it turns out its closed all day. So that afternoon's fun was Agra Fort, not too dissimilar from the Red Fort in Delhi. (Same old story, rubbish locked down iway internet cafe again, no photos to show you yet!) This was really amazing for two reasons - a) you get an amazing view of the Taj Mahal across the river and b) they have wild monkeys roaming free in the grounds.

It turns out this isn't particularly rare, but as tourists relatively fresh off the boat this was quite amazing - until Alex got a little bit too close to one of the babies, and then for a second it was a bit scary =)

We had dinner at a restaurant recommended in the guide, and had a really delicious chicken dish, cooked in a cream curried sauce and topped with omlettey style egg. It was definitely the nicest curry I've ever had, but unfortunately that high point quickly deteriorated into a huge pit of despair in the evening. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the fault of the restraunt, as I was feeling a bit dodgy before we ate, but anyway we had to call the night off early and before too long it was obvious that I'd succumed to Delhi belly as well. India 2, Bentley/Shaw 0 on that front.

To make matters worse that night there was the usual powercut, which knocks out the fan and the air con. Usually the hotels have a backup generator which brings the fans back up, but you have to wait for the main power to come back to get air con again. But after one and a half hours the air con still wasn't working and I couldn't sleep a wink... talk about all the bad things happening at once! Alex has an uncanny ability to sleep no matter now hot it was, but eventually she had to wake up to see why it was so warm - and to witness me going a little bit mental because of the illness and heat combination. In the end it was so bad I left the room to try and see if someone could fix it - but there was no one around in the hotel. In a final fit of despair managed to find the circuit breaker box, and through sheer fluke alone managed to get the A/C back up and running. Despite feeling monumentally tired (this is still the day of the 5am start from Delhi...) and sick, that moment when the air con unit chugged back into life was one of the happiest moments of the trip so far ha! =)

Ok so I'm clearly basking in my own pity there a bit, and Alex is sure to not let me get away with it for too much longer. The following day was a write off for me, but Alex was able to get a bit of shopping in whilst taking care of sick old me. Fast forward 24 (gloriously air conditioned I might add) hours...

So everyone says "see the Taj Mahal at dawn"... so there we were again up at 5:30 raring to go... I'd just about got my world back together and we set out down the 100m walk from our hotel to the west gate entrance. They've got a really good thing going here in Agra - they charge locals about 15 rupees to see the Taj, but charge the tourists 750 - most of which goes to the local council. Its pretty obvious that not a penny of this actually gets spent on making things better for the locals, the roads are awful and the open sewers are everywhere. So its a little bit gauling, but it has to be done.

Moaning aside, the Taj was probably the most amazing thing either of us have seen.



The sheer scale of the place is breathtaking, and as you get closer the transition from the scale to the tiny attention to detail sets you back again. We spent an hour walking around and taking hundreds of photos - and then we came across more monkeys and took yet more photos of the creatures. Fortunately Alex stayed well clear this time so no run ins with angry mother monkeys.

This is our last day in Agra, and with the missed day yesterday we thought we'd try and cram some more stuff in - we hired an autorickshaw and headed off 10km outside Agra to Sikandra, a moment to one of the shahs that had something to do with Agra (ok, our grasp of the local history is a little tenous...). We never made it in the end as the dual-carriage way we were on backed up with traffic, and the rickshaw driver told us the road was closed ahead. You can imagine our panic when instead of waiting in traffic or turning off and heading for another road, our driver pulled a u-ey and started driving back down the highway the wrong way!!! Just when we thought we were safe, at the first junction he came to he pulled another u-ey and started full pelt up the wrong side of the road, straight into the oncoming cars. At this point its fair to say we were bricking it (a fairly uncomfortable situation for me, considering the previous 24 hours...) but there were some other cars doing it to, so it didn't seem too much like certain death.



That side of the road quickly became block too, and after 30 minutes of furtively trying every side road and dirt track in sight our intrepid driver called it quits. He swore blind we were only 500m away from the place, and that we could walk it, but we thought best not and decided to head back to Agra. Instead we visited a couple of other sites, including something the locals call the Baby Taj. If it wasn't for the real thing, this momument would be the top attraction around here, with the same amazing marble filligree and inlays, but sadly it doesn't really get a look in and was a bit run down.

Thats about it for now, our tickets for the Taj are good all day so we are going to go see it again as the sun sets. Tomorrow its another crack of dawn train to Jaipur... home of the pink city and - according to the rough guide - the best shopping in Asia. Some may say this is a convienent coincidence considering its Alex's birthday on the 24th...

Edit - here is a pic from sunset, there were hundreds more people there in the evening and we were pretty much constantly accosted by people taking photos of us (ok, mainly Alex) and wanting to practice their english...



(ps sorry for typos, we didnt have time to proof read this one!)