AGRA

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We left Varanasi and arrived at the train station ready to board our overnight train to Agra. We were so excited especially me (Steph) I was beside myself as this was the one I had been waiting for to see the "Taj Mahal."

My Grandad was in the Army and posted in India for many years. He always said he wanted to take my Nan and all his children back to India and show them the Taj. Unfortunately this was a dream he was unable to fulfill so I have come to do it for them all.

We had booked onto 2AC sleeper, which is the posh carriage with air-con (not needed on this occasion) permanently closed and sealed windows and less chance of rats and other creepy crawlies. We found the tourist ticket office at the station after stepping over numerous homeless, people on reservation lists and travelers who had arrived early with a picnic and their whole family waiting to see them off all of which had set up camp in the foyer.

The tickets were checked and we were told there had been a mistake, the seats were sleeper but in general class not 2AC. We took this in our stride, general class was also great we had experienced this in the seating carriage before it just had shutters on the windows that let in draft and a bit more chance of wildlife but nothing we couldn't handle.

We waited for the train to arrive, found our carriage and checked the list that is taped to the side of the train for our names. We found them eventually but both names were against one seat number. This couldn't be right ... we got our bags on and Rod went to find out what had happened while I sat inwardly panicking that he wouldn't get back on the train in time. There were lots of other travelers in the carriage and they had been grouped together at the opposite end to us.

Rod eventually came back with the explaination ... We had been done!!! The trains are laid out into sections with 6 bunks one side and two bunks the other. The bottom bunk of the two is separated into seats and a lever is pulled to combine the two seats to create a bunk. So instead of us being sold the top and bottom bunks we had been sold two seats and told we had bunks. Bobbing Rastards!!!

We made the best of a bad situation after some head shaking and disbelief and settled down with a cup of Masala Chai which makes everything seem better to construct a plan of what to do next. After several failed attempts to sleep in shifts while eyeing up other vacant seats (that were soon filled) we dropped the bunk and put two fingers up to public displays of affection and spooned!! You can't keep a good team down!!!

The carriage was a hive of activity all night with people coming and going, the conductor checking tickets realising most of the people hadn't got one and swopping and changing at every station along the way with the people who could pay him a backhander, the railway police patrolling the aisle with sub machine guns (which was comforting and unnerving at the same time) and the sounds of wallah's passing through the carriages shouting "Chai, Chai" and selling other beverages, newspapers and general paraphernalia that you really would have no use for on a train especially at 2 in the morning. This seemed to happen just as you had managed to drift off so as you can imagine we had a couple of hours broken sleep each until 5am when the whole train seems to wake and pray.

All this was forgotten as we crossed a rickety bridge over the Yamuna river on the approach to Agra station and we had our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal silhouetted perfectly on the horizon in the early morning mist.