Agra

So we once again boarded the night train, this time headed to Agra and the legendary Taj Mahal. We arrived in the morning and decided to have a snooze and have a look about. We were planning on going to see the Taj early in the morning, rather than in the afternoon heat, when it it is very busy - following a few tips from Ronan and Fiona in Darjeeling.
So we had some food and then had a nap. We decided to stroll out to a market mentioned in our guide book, Shilpgram Market it was pretty empty of shops and stalls although there seemed to be lots of tour buses, camels, elephants and sellers about.

We feel as if we must have missed something but we are not sure what.
We then headed to the uber fancy Oberoi Amari Villa Hotel for a few drinks while looking over at the Taj Mahal. The hotel and the drinks were lovely and a nice break from the hustle, bustle and horn rule of daily Indian life.
But it must be noted that for such a plush hotel they didn’t offer wifi to people that were not guests although it was freely available everywhere else around Agra.
The next morning we were up at 5am! Will the early starts never end? We were first in the queue for the Taj and we basically legged it in when the gates opened at dawn which was about 6.20. A guy working there made us run along and took some of our photos and then demanded a tip mentioning figures in the hundreds for the excellent photos.

We then ran up to the crypt and after that we went at a more leisurely pace, wandering into the other buildings and watching the sun come up over the monument and the mist roll in.

(twenty mins after the place opened its mobbed)
When we went to breakfast we bumped into Paige and Trevor, a couple I had annoyed while drunk in Darjeeling (‘painting and drinking’ could replace the last bog post) we were happy to see them and spent a while chatting over breakfast and we arranged to meet for dinner that evening.
They told us about their time in Nepal and being charged a fake fee when they got on a bus again in India. They felt robbed by the scam but would have been kicked off the bus if they had not paid. That evening we went on a small trip to see the Taj Mahal from the back. It was quite lovely as it reflects in the river.
The next day we went shopping and I bought my first Sulwar suit and contemplated buying a sari but I would have had to be fitted for the blouse part and we did not have time as we were booked on a train to Udaipur. Terry bought a Taj Mahal t-shirt;)