Off we went to the town of Agra, for the wondrous Taj Mahal.

Our journey from Jaipur was trouble free however we soon found out that our top choice of hotels in Agra were fully booked. Had we been naive to think that hotels surrounding one of the worlds most beautiful building would be available. Our persistence did pay off and we found a room which was ok by our standards and it was only 50-100 metres away from the Taj's eastern gate.

Right, the story behind the Taj is that Emperor Shah Jahan, built the Taj in memory of his third wife who died during childbirth to their 14th child. The Taj took 8 years to build and the story is that all the craftsmen involved in the construction had their hands cut off and eyes gouged out to prevent them from building something as beautiful ever again.

When the Taj was completed Shah was overthrown by his own son and imprisoned at Agra Fort where he had a tiny little window and he spent his days staring at his own creation, the Taj. Torture or what?

We quickly learnt that Agra is a town that is not proud of itself and totally relies on the Taj, for tourism as the rooms we viewed prior to choosing our hotel were all manky and dirty. The surrounding areas of theTaj gives off a pungent smell, it's clear that the drains have not been cleaned recently if ever. If there is a single destination in India that would win a competition for the most flies, Agra would win. It's ironic as the Indian government imposed a rule where only non polluting vehicles are only allowed within a couple of hundred metres of the Taj when they need to sort things closer to home out.

Our hotel had good rooftop views of the Taj and on our first evening we played cards while the sun set, unfortunately it's not as romantic as it sounds as the Taj and the sunset were on the opposite sides of town. Before going to bed we agreed on a early start to watch the Taj at sunrise.

Cue a 5.30am start, we were at the Taj's West Gate by 6am and the queues had already started. Sunrise is to be at 6.36am so we had approximately 35 minutes to buy our tickets and gain entry to the Taj. We were elated to get our tickets but the sky had already started to lighten.

Helen then started to get really hacked off, as they had separated the queues into Indian women, Indian men, western women and western men. The guards let all the Indians in immediately, then the western men THEN the western women. We westerners are forced to pay 750 rupees while Indians pay a measly 20 rupees and they still go in first. Whatever happened to democracy? Obviously this meant that we missed sunrise but there is some comfort in knowing that the sun did not rise behind the Taj.

750 rupees to see the Taj and they don't even have a merchandise shop. Or even contribute to cleaning the drains which would make Agra more attractive!

We wandered around taking in the surreal sight, the Taj doesn't look real and as if it's floating. It's difficult to put into words. You have to see it yourself to appreciate its beauty. It's also hard to believe the Taj was constructed out of love.

After wandering around for 1.5 hours, Nick then put his Morphsuit (for those who don't know, its an all in one suit with the Welsh flag on) on and we started taking photos as promised. [A certain Mr Cooke set a dare at our farewell party that Nick must wear it at famous landmarks.]

Before we knew it we had security guards/police running over to us and ushering us out, the lead guard even said that Nick would be arrested. So yes, we were thrown out of the Taj Mahal and wonder how many people can actually say that! Thanks Fergus(!) What makes it all the more amusing is that the guards themselves were laughing and trying to suppress their own laughter.

We got a noon bus to Delhi, and both of us are nervous about visiting Delhi. Thankfully we have booked a hotel after intensively checking reviews online so that we do not get lost in Delhi or end up in a dump. On the way, in our coach about to leave the roadside cafe we stopped at, we managed to see a monkey lunge and attack it's handler viciously.

Thankfully we were already back in the comforts of our coach rabies free!