So we made it to Agra on the train after a very cold, early start in Delhi. Had some trouble finding our seats on the train as someone had failed to turn the lights on in the carriages. Thank goodness for the flashlight app on our phones! So our hotel in Agra was nice, actually called a guest house as it was family run and had a roof terrace for food and hanging out. The staff were helpful (a bit overly/annoyingly so in some instances) but gave us advice on Agra and particularly the Taj Mahal. 

 
So the following day we got up at 6am to go off and see the Taj Mahal at sunrise - supposedly the best time to see it. Now as luck would have it, it was also valentines day - totally planned that! Annoyingly though we got to the ticket office at 6.45, which is when we'd been told it opened, only to find a big queue had already formed! In actual fact; there was 1 big queue (for us foreigners) and 1 small queue for locals. These 2 queues were actually being served by the same person and as Hannah pointed out in the last blog entry, Indian people have an entirely different way of queuing to us (push and shout until you get served) so we were kind of at a disadvantage here. I certainly let my feelings known with a good firm “tut”. Once we'd eventually got our tickets and dashed to the entry gate as fast as we could – annoyingly missed the free transport in all the queuing and tutting. Only to find another 30 minute queue to get in, sigh! All the queuing and frustration immediately melted away as soon as you turned the corner and caught a glimpse of the Taj through the archway. Speechless is an understatement. I mean it was awe inspiringly beautiful. In the hazy morning light it took on a surreal appearance where you almost didn't believe it was there. Magnificent and one of the most amazing sights of my life. I will be back to see it again! The rest of the day was spent at Agra Fort which was much like any other Fort. I did take Hannah on a very romantic walk around it (on a main road) for an hour as I may have got slightly confused as to where the entrance was, i.e. I should have gone left for 5 minutes instead of right for 60 - obviously I could have asked for directions but that's what a woman would've done, Pretty sure she didn't notice. Whoops.

 
The rest of our time in Agra wasn't particularly special; we tried to watch the sunset over the Taj (across the river from it) but it was cloudy, we spent another day refusing to leave the hotel as it was pouring with rain all day and on the last day we went to a world heritage site called Fatehpur Sikri which wasn't very inspiring - full of tourists and a lot of con artists. Next stop The Pink City of Jaipur.


 Lots of love Tom and Hannah xxxx