agro in agra?

a relaxed arrival in a town renowned for hastle and dodgy food

after our best bus journey so far, im sure the other passengers would have thought that we were dead, as we slept for 3 hours of the 5 hr journey against each other.. hardly surprising as we travelled around 100km in less than 24hrs by train and bus.. (a good plan if we ever needed to escape somewhere very quickly!)

in agra, from the bus staton, the rickshaw driver gets fined for not having correct papers, gets fined the equiv. of one months salary (about 12 pounds). walk to taj mahal from our hotel, with rooftop view of taj. its really hard to believe that near one of the 7th wonders of the world.. nervous, anticipation, will it live up to the hype?

the most photographed filmed, drawn, and described
building in the world. it is one of those places that consistenly meets (or
exceeds) expectations.

you do not have to be romantic to fall in love with the taj, it moves even the hardened cynics.

meeting it is one of those few times in life when fantasy and reality perfectly collide.

in the evening, we find a hotel to have dinner on, another one boasting the "highest rooftop view", i order biryani and receive fried rice.. what a view after a hard day..

the rickshaw driver on return to the train station for delhi, gets fined again.. we think we must be bad luck! but then see later scams, me getting short changed for train tkts, army manon train getting baksheesh from a beggar, another man trying to fine us for sitting in the incorrect carriage (not knowing whether he was genuine or not), and

totally outnumbered by locals again which is good, good for their photos anyway to have some westerners in :)

the monkeyrats