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Claire & Dave's Big Adventure
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Location Date Europe 1430866800 North America 1429484400 South America 1429311600 Asia 
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Wow! Really - Wow!
We never expected anything to live up to its own hype as much as this.
The Taj Mahal is breathtaking.
After Varanasi we, especially David, were feeling a bit disheartened with India. We needed to find something special to make up for it. We honestly didn't think that that something would be a 400 year old building, no matter how famous it was. It was also Claire's birthday in Agra so whilst she didn't get any cards or presents she did get up and close to one of the worlds most iconic buildings ever. Happy Birthday!
It was a bit of a ropey start in Agra as our tuk tuk driver felt obliged to literally sneak behind us into all the hotels as we asked for prices. This meant that all the prices quoted were about 50% higher to pay the drivers commission! He was politely and quickly told to get lost.
Following this, we found a lovely hotel with great views from the roof top of the amazing Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal was built in 1631 by what sounds like a lovely bloke called Shah Jahan. He built it as a tribute to his wife who died when she gave birth to their 14th child! Perhaps they had a similar benefits system to modern day Britain? So, because he was obviously upset he decided to build this fantastic mausoleum in her honour. It took him and over 20,000 builders 22 years to finish his grand design. He brought in architects and designers from all around the world. Rumour has it that once they'd finished it he gouged out their eyes and chopped off their hands so they could never build anything as beautiful again. And so, after it was finished was he able to sit back and look at his masterpiece? Nope, his son (they don't know which one) overthrew him and imprisoned poor Shah Jahan in Agra Fort. Where, for the rest of his days, all he could do was gaze from afar at his magnificent creation through a small cell window.
The building is so famous and iconic that's its difficult to describe other than saying that photos don't do it justice. It really is that impressive to see up close - especially at the time of day that we decided to visit - 6am/sunrise. The gardens at the front, the view from a distance, the view up close, the reflection in the water, the symmetry, the changing colour of the marble - it's outstanding.
It didnt take us long to see the Taj, especially with us beating the midday crowds and by 8am we were back in the town tucking into breakfast!
Agra and Agra Fort
Following our look around the Taj, we went to visit Agra Fort. This is a collection of old palaces and religious buildings protected by a wall and a moat that we are told used to contain crocodiles. It wasn't too impressive to be honest especially having just seen the Taj. The most entertaining thing was wandering round and getting pulled to one side for photos with Indian Tourists.
Agra itself is nothing to write home about. The area we stopped in had some nice views of the the Taj Mahal but other than that it was the usual traffic congested, filthy, noisy city area that we are now getting used to.
It should also be pointed out that David has had a very severe episode of man flu over the last few days. You will be pleased to know that like the brave man he is, he still managed to get up early for the Taj Mahal and limited his complaints of ill health to only once every 15 minutes. With Claire using her most professional nursing skills to help him "man up" he safely recovered, but for a short while it was touch and go.
The Mugging.
Unfortunately in other news, as we were leaving Agra we were robbed. Mugged actually. We've always been so careful on our travels and have been lucky to have never fallen victim to any crimes but there's always a first. Hopefully it's a last too, as the ordeal was quite upsetting.
It was Claire that was mugged, at the train station on the day we left. The good news is that we didn't lose any money. Just bananas. That's because Claire was mugged by a gang of evil monkeys...
Claire was merrily carrying her carrier bag of bananas and apples up the station ramp. She had been craving fruit all morning and now that she had found some she was excited to be taking them on board the train for a small mid journey snack. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the rats were playing on the train tracks and Claire had her bananas - yes it felt like it would be a very good day indeed. And then it all went wrong.
A large viscious monkey jumped down in front of Claire. This was no cute little jungle monkey this guy was huge. He had cold dead eyes and stared menacingly at Claire with a sick sadistic grin that seemed to suggest this wasnt his first banana robbery. Claire immediately turned to run but behind her more monkeys had appeared, there must have been 20 in total. Some even carried weapons. Whilst she stood there panicking and trying to comprehend the obvious danger she was in, the large monkey roared and sprinted forward reaching for the bananas. Claire's screams were drowned out by the howling and whooping of the other monkeys. The bananas fell and spread on the floor and the savage beasts went wild as they quickly gathered what they could. Claire thought that would be it. That they would take their bananas and be gone, but the monkeys had other ideas. Once they had eaten their bananas they turned and stared at Claire who was now holding just 2 leftover apples. It was obvious what they were thinking. They were planning on kidnapping her and taking her back to their secret monkey lair. They would turn her into one of their human slave, making her clean up banana skins and forcing her to perform wild wacky monkey dances for their sick deprived entertainment. Thats what they always do. Those *******s.
Luckily a local man wandered past at this point and threw one of Claires apples at the monkeys. This scared them away.
So thats what happened, we now know monkeys are frightened of apples.
The worst part of this story is that we've checked the insurance policy and it doesn't cover bananas but we are thinking of apeeling!
What we have learned
1 We can be 'wowed' by architecture
2 Despite David's arguments, monkeys can not be trusted
3 Having more children doesn't necessarily mean you will be looked after in later years.
Things Claire has said
Is Japan a city?
Planes used - 3
Buses used - 18
Trains used - 14 (+1)
Metros/subways used - 27
Cars used - 5
Minivans - 8
Russian Campervans used -1
Horses used - 1
Camels used - 1
Taxis used - 7
Cable cars used - 1
Bicycles used- 1
Tuk tuks/autorickshaw used - 12 (+4)
Scooters used - 3
Elephants used - 0
Ferrys used - 2
We never expected anything to live up to its own hype as much as this.
The Taj Mahal is breathtaking.
After Varanasi we, especially David, were feeling a bit disheartened with India. We needed to find something special to make up for it. We honestly didn't think that that something would be a 400 year old building, no matter how famous it was. It was also Claire's birthday in Agra so whilst she didn't get any cards or presents she did get up and close to one of the worlds most iconic buildings ever. Happy Birthday!
It was a bit of a ropey start in Agra as our tuk tuk driver felt obliged to literally sneak behind us into all the hotels as we asked for prices. This meant that all the prices quoted were about 50% higher to pay the drivers commission! He was politely and quickly told to get lost.
Following this, we found a lovely hotel with great views from the roof top of the amazing Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal was built in 1631 by what sounds like a lovely bloke called Shah Jahan. He built it as a tribute to his wife who died when she gave birth to their 14th child! Perhaps they had a similar benefits system to modern day Britain? So, because he was obviously upset he decided to build this fantastic mausoleum in her honour. It took him and over 20,000 builders 22 years to finish his grand design. He brought in architects and designers from all around the world. Rumour has it that once they'd finished it he gouged out their eyes and chopped off their hands so they could never build anything as beautiful again. And so, after it was finished was he able to sit back and look at his masterpiece? Nope, his son (they don't know which one) overthrew him and imprisoned poor Shah Jahan in Agra Fort. Where, for the rest of his days, all he could do was gaze from afar at his magnificent creation through a small cell window.
The building is so famous and iconic that's its difficult to describe other than saying that photos don't do it justice. It really is that impressive to see up close - especially at the time of day that we decided to visit - 6am/sunrise. The gardens at the front, the view from a distance, the view up close, the reflection in the water, the symmetry, the changing colour of the marble - it's outstanding.
It didnt take us long to see the Taj, especially with us beating the midday crowds and by 8am we were back in the town tucking into breakfast!
Agra and Agra Fort
Following our look around the Taj, we went to visit Agra Fort. This is a collection of old palaces and religious buildings protected by a wall and a moat that we are told used to contain crocodiles. It wasn't too impressive to be honest especially having just seen the Taj. The most entertaining thing was wandering round and getting pulled to one side for photos with Indian Tourists.
Agra itself is nothing to write home about. The area we stopped in had some nice views of the the Taj Mahal but other than that it was the usual traffic congested, filthy, noisy city area that we are now getting used to.
It should also be pointed out that David has had a very severe episode of man flu over the last few days. You will be pleased to know that like the brave man he is, he still managed to get up early for the Taj Mahal and limited his complaints of ill health to only once every 15 minutes. With Claire using her most professional nursing skills to help him "man up" he safely recovered, but for a short while it was touch and go.
The Mugging.
Unfortunately in other news, as we were leaving Agra we were robbed. Mugged actually. We've always been so careful on our travels and have been lucky to have never fallen victim to any crimes but there's always a first. Hopefully it's a last too, as the ordeal was quite upsetting.
It was Claire that was mugged, at the train station on the day we left. The good news is that we didn't lose any money. Just bananas. That's because Claire was mugged by a gang of evil monkeys...
Claire was merrily carrying her carrier bag of bananas and apples up the station ramp. She had been craving fruit all morning and now that she had found some she was excited to be taking them on board the train for a small mid journey snack. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the rats were playing on the train tracks and Claire had her bananas - yes it felt like it would be a very good day indeed. And then it all went wrong.
A large viscious monkey jumped down in front of Claire. This was no cute little jungle monkey this guy was huge. He had cold dead eyes and stared menacingly at Claire with a sick sadistic grin that seemed to suggest this wasnt his first banana robbery. Claire immediately turned to run but behind her more monkeys had appeared, there must have been 20 in total. Some even carried weapons. Whilst she stood there panicking and trying to comprehend the obvious danger she was in, the large monkey roared and sprinted forward reaching for the bananas. Claire's screams were drowned out by the howling and whooping of the other monkeys. The bananas fell and spread on the floor and the savage beasts went wild as they quickly gathered what they could. Claire thought that would be it. That they would take their bananas and be gone, but the monkeys had other ideas. Once they had eaten their bananas they turned and stared at Claire who was now holding just 2 leftover apples. It was obvious what they were thinking. They were planning on kidnapping her and taking her back to their secret monkey lair. They would turn her into one of their human slave, making her clean up banana skins and forcing her to perform wild wacky monkey dances for their sick deprived entertainment. Thats what they always do. Those *******s.
Luckily a local man wandered past at this point and threw one of Claires apples at the monkeys. This scared them away.
So thats what happened, we now know monkeys are frightened of apples.
The worst part of this story is that we've checked the insurance policy and it doesn't cover bananas but we are thinking of apeeling!
What we have learned
1 We can be 'wowed' by architecture
2 Despite David's arguments, monkeys can not be trusted
3 Having more children doesn't necessarily mean you will be looked after in later years.
Things Claire has said
Is Japan a city?
Planes used - 3
Buses used - 18
Trains used - 14 (+1)
Metros/subways used - 27
Cars used - 5
Minivans - 8
Russian Campervans used -1
Horses used - 1
Camels used - 1
Taxis used - 7
Cable cars used - 1
Bicycles used- 1
Tuk tuks/autorickshaw used - 12 (+4)
Scooters used - 3
Elephants used - 0
Ferrys used - 2
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