The jewel in the crown....pity we had to stay in a pit to see it! You could get so much at Shanti Lodge: sewage smells, ants, mice, fleas...the only thing not available was water. But the hotel did have a great view...we stayed one night in the "pit" and asked for a jostick because the smell was so bad. They gave us a packet, obviously realizing we were in the uninhabitable room and probably surprised we were staying at all! We changed rooms the next day, although the mice also moved...

Well, as you can see we got a great view of the Taj Mahal at dawn. We got up at 5am and waited eagerly for the magical sunrise - in the end it was a bit of a mad rush because of security checks and people elbowing you out the way to get the perfect picture: but it was worth it. We even saw some bloke with a Saints shirt on who came from Rownhams! Small world. The fort was pretty red and fort like just the same as all the others but Agra was surprisingly 'green' compared to the rest of the cities we'd been to. We walked the Taj nature walk, where saw some impressively big wild deer. We also went round the back of the Taj Mahal for the replicated view of the front but instead with the Yamuna river gracing the view.

Our time here was (after escaping the pit) very pleasant: we whiled away many hours chatting to an Australian couple (Ken and Desley - see photos) we met on the bus to Agra and who ended up in the same hotel (they also followed us to Delhi where we again ended up in the same hotel. It was good to compare notes on funny spellings, how much people had tried to rip us off and sights we had seen.

All in all the Taj Mahal did not disappoint: this was the first of my "landmark" sights. Next stop: Delhi.