Our first train in India, what fun! We had booked ourselves a seat in the AC Chair Class carriage, we thought we'd break ourselves in gently. It was nice and even borderline cold in the AC! With the ticket came breakfast, which was nothing to really write home about, but it was food, so we can't complain. We even got to do the British thing and drink our chai in our metal mugs! Luckily the train announced the stations as we were arriving, so we didn't need to worry about looking out for our stop, and Delhi being the start meant that we were relatively on time, we would soon learn that this is not the norm!

Anyway, after a couple of hours, we arrived in Agra, ready for our adventure to the Taj Mahal. Luckily, our tuk tuk driver, knew our hostel, another Zostel` (part of a chain if you hadn't guessed) and on the way chatted to us about where we were from etc. We then were shown the typical tourist comment book! He was offering a good deal though - basically at our disposal for the equivalent of £7.50 for the whole day! So we agreed to use his services and went to check in and chill for an hour (and get our next chai fix!). We managed to get out and on our way to the Taj Mahal just before 10, so before the sun got really strong. Our tuk tuk man was really lovely and gave us careful instructions not to buy anything from anyone, to watch all of our stuff etc! The road leading up to the South gate was crazy, but we managed to work our way through and get our ticket. There wasn't much of a queue at that time so we virtually walked straight through. It was James's first visit to the Taj Mahal and I think he was suitably impressed…even for me on my second visit, it was still as magical and beautiful as I remember the first time. The building that is….it didn't take long before we started getting the familiar requests of pictures - funny for the first few but that didn't last long. I don't think we minded so much the younger kids, but the older ones/or just older men was a bit weird. Still, this is India. After working through the typical photo shots, we headed for the queue to go inside, not really paying much attention to the 'special ticket holder' signs, thinking that this obviously didn't apply to us…so we started to queue the loooong queue with the locals. In the midday sun. Phew…where we glad when a helpful young chap came over and told us that as we were 'special ticket holders' (i.e. we'd paid around 36 times the price of the local ticket) we were entitled to skip the queue entirely and just go straight in the front entrance to the mausoleum. We still felt cheeky doing it, but it got us out of the midday sun. The inside of the taj mahal, although still beautiful, doesn't really fill you with the same awe that you are struck with when you look at the outside and I was really disappointed with how noisy the guards were in there - blowing whistles to keep everyone in line (it's a big dome made with marble, please don't blow a whistle in there - it hurts ones' ears!). There were big signs before you go in asking people to remember to be respectful etc, but I'm not sure this is a consideration given by anyone, so much pushing to get in and chatting loudly, taking pictures (apparently prohibited) and then with the guards, it was all really stressful and we got out quickly and wandered down through the gardens in the shade.

After the Taj, we headed off to the Red (Agra) Fort. We were determined to get the most out of our ticket (the ticket for the Taj Mahal gets you into the Fort and a few other 'attractions' on the same day - very difficult to do all of them in one day unless you have good transport and you start early, and also, it doesn't mean you get in free to all of these places! The Fort cost us another couple of hundred rupees each). Being so hot and feeling a bit worn out after the early start and stress of the Taj, we wandered around the fort for a while, and it was really hard not to feel a bit under whelmed - especially as we'd just come from one of the 7 wonders of the world!!

After about an hour, we decided to head back and stop for a bite of lunch and release our tuk tuk driver early for the day (still giving him full fare of course!). First though, we needed to get some money out, this proved quite tricky as none of the ATMs seemed to be working! In the end, we had to get money out from a money exchange place and pay a ridiculous % on top. So we ate a cheap lunch of samosas and headed back for a rest. We were pooooped! When we gave our tuk tuk driver the fare (plus tip), he didn't even bother to count it! Just put it straight in his top pocket and let us take his picture. We'd asked if he could pick us up and take us back to the station the next morning (another early start) and he said yes…although, if he wasn't there, to just pick up another one.. very non-committal!

After a full on day, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Our hostel was great, a proper little oasis away from the madness! Nice little patch of grass and even a couple of cute little puppies running around! Such a different feel to the Zostel in Delhi - our first experience of a super chilled hostel! We ate in the little restaurant they had and caught up on blog and football (Palace beat West Brom)…another early start tomorrow and onto Jaipur.