Well well well guys and dolls......where do I start! So much has happened since we last logged on. I know we can't possibly keep you all up to date with a daily blog for 7 months, but I think we'll explain the last week....there's a lot but I'll try and keep it short.....bear with me.

So Mr Sharma turned up bright and early to pick us up from our hotel and we hit the road to Agra. With having so much time on the road I think I finally managed to figure out the 'system' - yes believe it or not I think there is a system to the driving here! Basically you just fill every and any gap you can - ignore any road markings. The horns aren't used to get people out of the way, they seem to beep when they are coming to warn others not to pull out infront of them. When coming to a round about you don't have to stop - you just go right ahead and expect those already on the round about to dodge you. People are so stubborn as well. At a junction 5 different directions of traffic all tried to get passed and across each other, and obviously came to a gridlock situation in the middle. It was always going to happen. But everyone sat in their car, van or tuk tuk with folded arms and was confident they weren't giong to be the one to move first - so we sat there for 10 minutes while all the other traffice carried on around us! Although there seems to be a system, and it seems to work, most of the time - it's just crazy and dangerous! Mr Sharma says you need 3 things to drive in India - a good horn, good break and good luck!

Anyway, on the way to Agra we stopped off at a few places, eg a shrine thing for Ghandi and mosques etc. To be honest I'll leave this info for Andi to fill in later if needed, cause if it was up to me, I'd just say we went to a load of buildings for dead folk - so not very informative, sorry! We had to stop at the side of a busy road while Sharma got tax to enter another state. There were loads of hawkers about and he said 'don't open the glass, it can be dangerous!' and then he left us. Ok!!! Next thing, people were up at the window begging and trying to sell stuff, and then a massive thud made us jump - we turned to see a monkey on the window trying to get in! It had a rope around it's neck and a boy attached to the other end, asking for money of course. I gave him some credit, at least he carried a monkey about with him, rather than just begging, but still I wasn't going to give him any pennies for his efforts. Although the most rediculous thing - apart from having to pay someone to go to the toilet - was a guy offering to clean our ears in Delhi! He showed us pictures of 'his clients' to try and persuade us! Like the toilet, I've managed for the last 28 years without having to pay someone, so I don't think I'm going to start now!

When we got closer to Agra we noticed how terribly dirty it was, really filthy. Loads of rubbish and open sewers....nice. So we asked Sharma to let us check in to our hotel first to check it's ok before getting too late. Couldn't have been disappointed if we tried. It was luxury! Nice big modern hotel, with good food and it was spotless. Happy days. So we dumped our stuff and headed for the Taj Mahal. We bought our tickets which is about 10 times more expensive for foreigners than Indians, at about 10 quid, but we didn't mind, until Sharma said it doesn't go into the maintenance, and usually ends up in a politicians back pocket! But we did manage to jump the long cues, which was good. The Taj itself is cool. Big with great views. It was very busy when we first got there but we waited to get inside, which was quite small actually. Nothing in there apart from two tombs. We got our photo taken on the 'Diana chair' and stayed around until after sunset, which was nice. The fountains etc only go on for special occasions and for VIPs - obviously they missed the memo that Andi and I were coming. We met an Irish lad (not hard to notice as he was one of only a couple of white people there - just no 'tourists' about!) who told us horror stories of rooms he'd stayed in - so we were really glad we'd paid the money to stay in a really good hotel. Just grabbed some food at the hotel and had an early night for another early start!