Our night train from Varanasi to Agra was as eventful as most. Again it was delayed, but only by a few hours, but the main concern was the little rat that joined us in our carriage - zig-zagging it's way around our feet all night. We shared our section of the carriage with a family of six who were going on holiday to Jodhpur. The ten year old daughter chatted away with us until 11pm. Her English was amazing and she was practicing it with us. It passed the time well until we prepared the seats into beds and said goodnight. The carriage in our class (3AC) is divided into sections of six seats which can be turned into beds at night time with three tiers each side. There are also lines of two beds (upper and lower) along the other side of the gangway (where we were sat).

Bleary eyed we made our way through Agra Fort station at 7am the following day, hoping our pick up car was still there. As we checked our confirmation email though, we realised that we'd booked the wrong day - we should have arrived a day earlier! We played dumb when we called from a smelly pay phone at a nearby shop (more of a stand on the side of a road) and luckily they agreed to pick us up.

We'd booked a homestay - so we were to stay with a Muslim family in their house. It was in the nicer area of Agra and the house was lovely. After a quick nap we headed on a public bus to Fatehpur Sikri - an ancient city which was the capital of India during the Mughal empire. The site was incredible. With few English signs we decided to pay for a guide to show us around. It was a nightmare booking an official one though as everyone in India wants to be your guide… for a fee and not always the facts. Eventually we found a sign saying it was 250Rs (£3) and we got caught in a blazing row when one guide skipped the queue to show us around. We left them to fight it out amongst themselves while we started to explore. A few minutes later one of the guides appeared announcing that the problem was resolved. The guide was definitely worth it to get a better understanding about how the King lived there - with three wives from three different religions, and each with her own house. Until right at the end when he took us to the Muslim mosque he sat us down with a man who told us we should buy a rubbish bit of cotton to offer to the Gods for 2500Rs. At around £30 that's serious money in India so there was no way we giving it to him and he eventually agreed to give us a piece of string for free (as it should be) which is then taken in to the mosque and tied to the stone wall while you make a wish. The idea is that if your wish comes true, you're meant to go back and untie the string - If this experience is anything to go by we'll no doubt have to pay for that too…

The following day was another early morning rise as it was time for the reason we were in Agra - the Taj Mahal. We paid a tuk tuk driver 600Rs (£7) to drive us around all day and he picked us up in time for sunrise. We know everyone says it, but you really do have to see the Taj to appreciate it. The first sight blows you away and we were not disappointed in the slightest. It's hard to comprehend that it was all built by a man for his wife who'd died. Nat is now insisting Bret builds one for her, but he says he'll be using Lego instead of marble. (Oh well, better than ending up in the Ganges) We spent some time trying to figure out how to use our camera and roaming the gardens before entering. Like everything else in India, foreigners pay much higher entrance prices - 750Rs (£8.50) and Indian's pay 20Rs (23p). Usually this means it's not much for touts to enter and pester you inside, but this didn't seem to happen at the Taj. In fact it was far less crowded than we'd expected which was lovely. They've started issuing shoe covers for tourists so you don't have to leave your shoes outside to get nicked like in Slumdog Millionaire as well….

After that it was back to the homestay briefly for breakfast. We were also told that because we'd not booked that night in advance we'd need to move but they arranged for us to stay at a Hindu homestay around the corner. This place was amazing so it worked out for the best. The couple who lived there with their 16-year-old daughter and granny had only recently opened their home to guests and it was clear they were trying to make a good impression. They sat us down in the living room talking about the house and asking us about ourselves. They also told us they could cook for us that night if we wanted. The homestay we visited in Munnar on our last trip to India gave us the best food of the trip so we agreed to eat with them, before heading off for more sighseeing at Agra Fort.

The Fort (again Mughal) is built from red sandstone on the bank of the river Yamuna by Emporer Akbar. Some of the area is still used today by the military - and it basically forms a city within a city so there was lots to explore… this time without a guide! The bloke who built the Taj was also imprisoned here by his son (they locked him in a tower with a perfect view of the Taj Mahal where his wife is buried). It was boiling hot as we walked around so after a couple of hours we headed to our next stop - the baby Taj. It's another tomb and although smaller than the Taj, it was still a beautiful place to be and we sat in the grounds for an hour or so watching monkeys climbing around us.

Our tuk tuk took us to our final stop - to watch the sunset behind the Taj Mahal in a little garden directly opposite on the other side of the river. It was the best place to view the building as a whole - and as the whole building is symmetrical it was the same from the back as the front.

Back at the homestay we sat down for dinner with our hosts. We were each given two small bowls - one with Dhal (a lentil curry) and one with another curry we'd never tried but apparently it was a dish popular in Afghanistan - it seemed to be some sort of chickpea curry. It was served with rice, chapatti and mixed veg in some other sort of curry and a plate of raw salad which seemed decent, until the dad decided to cover the plate in masala powder!

The food really was delicious though - but they insisted on giving us more and more, We probably had about four portions in the end and it got hotter and hotter. By the end of it Bret's nose was running and we were both sniffling because of the spicy food… Eventually they decided we'd had enough when we were literally struggling to swallow anymore and served dessert. It was red carrots (slightly sweeter than orange ones), mashed in milk and dried fruit and nuts mixed through with a dash of curry. It sounds pretty bad but after the burning curry it cooled us down nicely.

We went to bed feeling very full but just five hours later we were up before dawn for a train and they insisted on giving us two green omelettes and four pieces of toast each before we left - so much for losing weight on this trip! Now we're on a train to Jaipur feeling very full and hoping we've still managed to swerve our first real Delhi Belly experience as the toilets on board are vile so now would not be the time….