After realising that we had spent so much time in India and were in danger of having to miss out another country later on we decided to get our arses into gear and mission it accross the country. From Leh we flew from the highest airport in the world (3500m) to Delhi and straight on to Agra - home of the Taj Mahal. Getting back to the large manic cities was a bit of a shock especially through Delhi on the roads. My previous thought of how well the traffic moved in a well practiced disorderly yet syncoronised manner was shattered as our taxi went into the back of a van. It wasn't major however our taxi driver still lost a headlight.

Getting to the Taj Mahal was a bit less eventfull bar the typical rickshaw drivers trying out their various scams on us. Also feeling the money a little bit we had dropped down to the lowest class on the trains and so no air conditioning and the carriages more like rolling prison cells but also in my view much more fun.

Having got up early to see the sun rise at the Taj Mahal we were delighted to see the day was decidedly overcast and that that wasn't to be the case. However, it was worth getting up this early just to avoid the crowds and wander around in relative comfort and silence. You can't really say much more about it other than, so many people have tdescribed it and I get the impression the writer of our guide book is its number one fan. The rest of the day was spent taking in the other sights and monuments around Agra before ending up trying to watch the sunset from the opposite bank of the River Yamuna to the Taj Mahal.

Then to Varanasi by night train. A place on the Ganges regarded by Hindis as one of the most sacred places and so this is full of ghats (steps into the river) were people bath, cleanse themsleves and will also come to spend out their last few years before being cremated on one of the many open burning ghats. It was quite a surreal and humbling place and surprisingly relaxing around the maze of the trafic free old town though still let down by people constantly trying to run scams. I had managed to break my record on the cheapest bed for the night here - around 65 pence!! Breaking my previous record of 80p in Guatemala. A new precedent has been set - I hope Nepal will be even cheaper...