A 5am start to catch a train from Delhi I Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, which I'm hoping will be a highlight of the trip. Delhi train station was a bit shoddy, the entrance was lines with beggars sleeping under sheets. The platform had a strong smell of piss and as the train pulled in the aerosols created only made it worse. The train was luckily odour free although it followed in the same decor as Delhi train station. The journey was quite quick, the trains are a lot faster than in Vietnam or Thailand. We past through countryside and slums of India. There were lots of people squatting by the side of the track, at first glimpse it looked like they were just chilling, watching the world go by, but when the train slowed I got a closer look and saw a turd hanging inbetween the legs which showed otherwise. I was having my breakfast at the time so it wasn't great time.

We arrived in Agra around 8am and as we couldn't get into our rooms we visited Agra fort. I thought the red thought was quite cool, although I was asked by a lot of locals to be in their picture. I'm not sure if it's the height or being a westerner or both, but they seem to be a bit obsessed in asking me to get in the picture.

In the afternoon we visited the Taj Mahal for sunset. I was quite impressed with the taj even if it was a little busy. It took 22 years to build and 20000 workers to complete the marble building. You could walk around the complex as long as you had shoe covers on, which was to protect the marble. I had the usual of Indian family's wanting me to get in pictures with them, I'm surprised as I'd have thought that they would be used to westerners visiting their country.

I'm starting to get used to the traffic in India which includes cows and horses and stray dogs, I've not seen any elephants yet but I'm wondering how long that will take. I'm also trying to work out the big divide between the poor and rich. I was told before I came here that the divide between the rich and poor is massive, so far I think they have only shown us poor areas, as I've not seen this divide.

The hotel in Agra isnt bad, it's 3 stars so not too bad, although the room does have a double bed with 2 single mattress so it'll be a cosier than expected sleep with my room mate.

One of the members from the group doesn't like spice so I think she is going to struggle a little in India, I'm not sure why you would come here if you didn't like spicy food. Even the peppery poppadoms are too much for her.

I woke up on Wednesday morning with a dicky stomach, but I didn't feel ill so not entirely sure if it was the change in diet or the heat. I took some Imodium as I knew I had another train journey to orccha, our next stop. The train journey was good, I slept through most of it though.At first I was sat next to this Indian guy that wouldn't stop staring at me, there was no discretion behind it whatsoever, so I decided to stare back and it seemed to work. Then I moved to another seat and slept through the journey, luckily I didn't get the window seat this time, especially after the last journey.