Agra - City of Love!

So, After escaping Delhi, and spending 4.5 hours in our newly acquired taxi, we started to arrive into Agra. The first surprise was an additional passenger. This was our guide, who we had somehow agreed to (we hadn't) who would show us the sights starting with the Baby Taj before we went to our hotel (again, something we hadn't agreed). This was to be the first of many incidents where our driver would steer us towards something that hadn't been agreed, or towards his choice of venue rather than ours. We quickly learnt not to listen to his opinion of "very good restaurant" or "interesting night bazaar" as these were inevitably overpriced and just tourist rubbish that he would get a kickback on. (As a good example, the place we stopped at on the drive down charged twice as much for a coffee as our hotel had done; conveniently enough, he got a free coffee/meal by bringing us there ) As we were right outside, we agreed and our guide took us around the monument explaining what it was and how it related to the other monuments and history of Agra. Actually quite interesting and worth seeing. We then arranged formally that he could be our guide and asked how much. We were told "all free, all free....just tip at end if you are happy. " This is quite common and means nothing as you are definitely expected to pay. In the end we agreed a price of 500 rupees. (about 6 quid) which meant he showed us round everywhere, and was easily worth his money shooing aaway beggars/touts and clearing our space at the famous Taj Mahal bench.

Agra is not as bad as Delhi, but it has awful traffic and is just as poor in some areas. However, whether we had a bit more experience, or if its just not as bad, then we were a bit happier. It helped that the place we stayed was outside the town and was a B & B style place that was very quiet. There isnt an awful lot else to say about Agra, it is obvioulsy home to the Taj Mahal, which is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. There are also a few other monuments including Agra Fort and Akbars Tomb which replicate the architectural style of the time and are all interlinked in the time in history. The mughal period is quite interesting, but this isn't the place, so I will let you Wikipedia it.

Our next step is Darjeeling, high in the mountains and hopefully a restful place....it hasnt exactly turned out like that though.... ?