Day 2 - Agra

I am now in a very posh hotel in Agra called The Mughal. The whole place is lovely...and it smells wonderful. I think they do something like the big casinos in Las Vegas and perfume the air.

The day started early. We left Delhi at 8:00 and began a very long 4.5 hour drive to Agra. The traffic here is amazing. Not amazing in a good way. Well maybe it is a good way because I haven't seen an accident. That IS amazing. The other thing is that in both Agra and Delhi I saw traffic police. But they were just standing around and not doing anything to help.

Other than the nail-biting ride, not much exciting happened on the drive. I did see about 15 guys taking leaks beside the road, including one policeman.

So after the long drive we reached the hotel. I had a few minutes to tidy up and then met with Deepak, my guide. We started at the Taj Mahal. It really was one of the most beautiful structures I've ever seen. I can't even begin to describe it. Deepak loves to take pictures so he pretty much commandeered my camera. It was fine with me because he seems to know the best spots and angles for photo ops. We had really good weather and the sky was failry blue, so I think some of the pics will turn out nice. We luckily made it there just before the real crowd hit. When we went in the line only went around 2 sides of the building. By the time we came out the line almost circled the building. An average of 12,000 people visit it daily.

After the Taj Mahal we went to the Red Fort. Also an amazing place. By the end of the day I can say I'm pretty tired.

I'm off to dinner now.

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