September 18 - Taj and a countdown

Hello again.

After a peaceful night's rest back in the guest house (yes, the little man is again living in my kitchen and this time I get to share a bathroom with him) I am recovered enough to write a bit about our trip to the Taj. Here are the stats:

- departure 2pm Friday

- 17 hour train ride in second class where everyone stared at us but we managed to sleep and the food wasnt bad

- 5 hour car ride from Delhi to Agra

Total Travel time = 24 hours

Total Time in Agra = 12 hours (this included visits to the Taj and the Red Fort (both amazing) and lunch and dinner out)

Journey home = 24 more hours this time with super snore man on the train so no sleep.

It was definitely an adventure. My camera is hooped so I have to nik some photos from the others but here's a photo to show you how beautiful the place is:

The king built it for his dying wife and it took 22 years and 20,000 workers to complete. Needless to say she died long before it was done. This king was later arrested by his son and put under house arrest in the Red Fort (just down the river from the Taj so he could see it) because he was spending all his time and money building ridiculous things (he planned to build a black Taj on the other side of the river). Very cool story.

Everything at the Taj is symmetrical but the two graves inside. There are actually four graves; two upstairs for show and the two real graves downstairs that you can't see. The place is truely breath-taking. Check out the Wiki link on the right for more details.

I'll try to get some actual pics of us at the Taj and on the train today and post them.

Four more sleeps until I am back in the UK!!!!