Namaste!

So it's only day four of our trip, but it feels like we've been here a lot longer. I've alrrady recovered from the worst shock and starting to enjoy India. I have to admit, that arriving to Delhi was a real culture shock, even for an expericenced traveller like me. They say Bangok is hectic, but compared to Delhi, it makes it seem like an oasis of tranqulity. But now we're heading to the smaller towns and I'm sure I'll enjoy them more.

So once we arrived to Delhi, we were picked up from the airport, which was very handy (I highly recommend to book your first night in a hotel that has an airport pick-up service!). Once setteled, we decided to go and explore the city and try to find a recommended restaurant. Easier said than done.. The first challenge was to cross over a big road in front of our hotel, and with autorickshaws, bikes, cars, buses, motorbikes, dogs, cows -you name it, running in all possible directions it wasn't that simple. Managed the first crossing, but had to continue the walk with constant fear of getting hit by a car. By trying to avoid the busy roads, we took a little detour and got lost. On our way we saw a monkey and at first thought, aww - what a cute little monkey, but then as we were suddenly surronded by 20 monkeys, it got a little intimidating. Ok, so survived the monkeys and the traffic and made it to the restaurant. We felt like we had really achieved something - we managed to find a nice restaurant, and even it took over an hour to reach (they said a 10 minute walk at the hotel) we were well pleased with ourselves.

All summer we've been making fun of how Liina will cope in India, but I'm happy (and surprised) to tell you, that she's coped superbly, she's been happy as a clam whereas I've been getting tired of all the scamming and harrasing and staring. It really gets to me, that every single persons seems to try and con you somehow and the really public staring is a bit disturbing. So yes, sitting at a train platform in crazy Delhi, I had a moment of desperation, but as soon as we arrived to Agra and met this nice Salmon dude, things started to look up.

Salomon was a great guide for us yesterday (Saara&Ville, I must give you his number), driving us round the sights and helping us with the bus tickets and so on. Yesterday we were going around sights in Agra and visited Baby Taj, Mehtab Pagh park and Fatephur Sikri, an impressive ghost city, the capital of Mughal empire, during the reign of Emperor Akbar. (Akbar is the same guy who had Taj Mahal built and who had the hands of the builders cut off, so they could never build anything as beautiful.) Today we got up before sunrise and headed to Taj Mahal. We've been staying in a guesthouse, by Taj Mahal and room is supposed to have a Taj view, but since it's so foggy (from the pollution?) and they dont't light it up at night we haven't really seen it that well. So it was great tosee it from close up and I think it was awsome. Did all the necessary touristy photos sessions and just sat there admiring it.

That's all folks for now, have to go and pack, so we'll make our bus. Next stop is Jaipur and from there on we're going to Pushkar. I'm really looking forward to that. Pushkar is a holy city for Hindus, with only 14 000 habitans. It's supposed to be a very relaxing place by a lake and our plan is to get some ayurvedic massages and chill.