As the picture shows, we did see the Taj Mahal. Our next train was leaving at 23.20 so we had to make sure that our sightseeing would keep us occupied for as long as possible. That's why we didn't start until 12 o'clock noon, at the time of check out from our hotel. We had stayed the night in Idea Inn, a comfortable and clean hotel picked by the travel agency. The bed was the best on our trip so far. After checking out we left our backpacks at the hotel and let our driver take us to the entrance of Taj Mahal. It was only about 1,5 kilometers away though, at least that was how far he could take us. Apparently you can't drive any polluting vehicles within 2 kilometers of the monument. Needless to say, there were dozens of different rides to take from there on, most battery powered, some camel powered. We decided to walk, as we always do. It was only about 500 meters or so to the actual gate.

The entrance ticket to the Taj Mahal costs only 250 rupees per person. Sadly, there's a 200% tax so the end amount is 750 rupees. This is no joke, it's written on the wall there. As you buy the ticket you also get free entrance to the Red Fort and other places on the same day. But only the entrance ticket, you still need to pay the tax so the ticket to Red Fort cheapened from 300 rupees only to 250. These are the prices for foreigners, Indians pay a total of 20 rupees for the Taj. Quite a big difference I would say…

Anyway, we got in even though Sini had to run off to put our gorillapod and selfie-stick to a 20 INR safety deposit box. Our Footprint travel guide had specified that you CAN bring a tripod for a camera. No you can't. After that was sorted we got to the actual site. The Taj is cleverly and carefully hidden behind high walls so you can't see anything other than the tip of the roof from outside of the compound. As you enter through the gate, the glory of the structure is revealed in an instant and you get a perfect view of the place. This is the point where everyone gets their cameras out and starts taking selfies, we did too, with miserable results. There's a platform much closer to the Taj where we got some better shots with the help of another tourist. The white marble of the tomb is just as bright as they say and the sun was coming straight at it. Our expensive tickets got us on the fast lane to the building. The grand structure is surprisingly simple from the inside, carved white marble with only few details that we could make out. We didn't have a guide, we hardly ever do.

All in all, the mighty tomb wasn't quite so mighty after all. It was big, but I had thought it would be bigger. The white marble shone brightly and everything was very orderly and symmetric, but for some reason it still didn't seem like something I'd put on my bucket list. Then again, we didn't see it in the glorious sunrise/sunset light as they did in the Bucket List. There was more people too, we didn't have the place all to ourselves like Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Or for Barack Obama for that matter, he apparently visited about a week and a half before us.

After the Taj Mahal we went back to our driver to let him go. There wasn't really any point having him around anymore, not after he got us to Agra. The hotel was close to the Taj, which is close to the Red Fort. We decided to walk from there on. We had wondered for some time how much to tip him for his services. According to a web page we found, 150-300 rupees per day should be sufficient. We had him for about four days, so 600 would be minimum. That seemed a little low. Maybe a thousand? Then again, we did lose at least 300 rupees when he took us to eat at places that were way too expensive. As we were bye-byeing he tried to push us into another one just like that… We gave him 700 and wished him a safe journey back to Delhi.

We saw the Red Fort (Agra Fort) after that. It was red. We walked around for quite a while to pass the time but there wasn't that much to see. In the end we walked very slowly back to our hotel and got there at about 18.30. We took out our laptop and our ebook reader and sat in the lobby until eight o'clock, when we went out for dinner to GMB Sweets next door. We were there the night before also, it's a very nice place, affordable and good. After dinner we sat some more in the lobby until it was time to go to the train station. We haggled a tuk tuk ride from 150 to 80 rupees for Cantonment Station, where we sat some more waiting for the train from Delhi. After its arrival to the station we found our beds easily enough and found out that our destination, Khajuraho, would be the last stop. Made it so much easier to get out at the right station. We had our large backpacks as pillows once more and managed to get some sleep on the way. It was surprisingly peaceful in the night train.

We got to our destination at about ten past seven in the morning. We had emailed a hotel recommended by Footprint the day before, and they offered a pickup for 100 rupees. Thus we got a large tuk tuk/rickshaw without any hassle, don't know if the price was right or not. The new station is 7 kilometers away from the town, so we had to have transportation. We got to the hotel nicely and even though it was very early, we got a room straight away. For 300 rupees, comfy enough, hot water in the shared bathroom but not in our own. Better yet, we noticed that they have free yoga classes every morning at 9 o'clock. So, instead of breakfast, we got to the rooftop and did some yoga! After that we were hungry though, so we had to go get something to eat. We'd only seen the sleepy town shortly before we got to the hotel and it turned out to be quite different from what we expected. There were salesmen and touts everywhere! We thought we had found another Rishikesh, instead it was just another tourist trap. Oh well. We ate at our hotel.

Then it was time for the sights. Khajuraho is known for only one thing, the sandstone Hindu temples covered with massive amounts of sculptures, some of which are erotic. We paid the entrance fee of 250 rupees per person to get to the western group of temples. Almost immediately we stumbled upon some explicit sculptures of orgies and even a man doing the nasty with a horse. They had sculpted a woman covering her face in that one… There were other interesting scenes as well, but those were the most interesting ones. There's a number of temples in the fenced area surrounding the western group, all of which are great in size and the number of sculptures. It took us about two hours to see them all.

After that we headed for the eastern group, supposedly 30 minutes away by walking. It didn't take us that long, but maybe it was just because we tried to lose a kid who started to follow us. It was the same thing as in Pokhara, the kid followed us and a man followed him, most likely to demand payment for his "guiding". I wouldn't have it so after a while I stopped, turned, got down to eye level with the kid and told him (sternly and a bit angrily…) that he wouldn't be getting anything from us. That was the end of that.

The eastern group was similar temples, but fewer of them and not quite so big. There's no fee for seeing them though. However, if you don't feel like walking that long, you won't miss a whole lot if you've already seen the western group. This was true for all the rest of the temples also. We were glad to see them too, though. It's just pretty exhausting to walk around here, because where ever you go, there will be people trying to sell you something, or to ask you for something. It's no use saying no, or anything at all for that matter. We just try to walk past everyone who calls for us, without making any contact to them at all. It makes us feel pretty lousy about ourselves at times, not even saying hello to someone saying it to you. But honestly, nothing good ever comes from that. EVER! They are persistent little b*****s here, you're best off ignoring everyone completely. It's exhausting and feels counterproductive if the purpose of your trip is to meet people and to get new experiences. We've decided to save that stuff for later, they're seriously all out to get us here.

We'll leave tomorrow for Varanasi, in another night train. Don't know yet what we'll do here for another day. We'll try to keep the room for the evening also this time, so we won't have to hang around at the reception for the entire day. I'll try to get the best out of our morning yoga class. Maybe I'll just meditate after that. It would keep me from scaring little children…