It's been a long day!

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Greetings readers I hope you are well and all is good in your world.



It's been a ling day today, we left Tordi gar at half seven after our breakfast - today I had porridge! Again it's the little Pleasures in life that you miss lol.

So it was a long journey to Agra and tomorrow we get to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal how very exciting!

During our epic journey we mad a couple of stops along the way. The first was to a very old temple which is dedicated to the monkey god and where over 1000 monkeys live. Most of them were in the hills but we saw a lot in the tree outside the compound and then some further on in the compound. There were also,the obligatory bulls / cows wandering around. as previously mentioned they are considered a holy animal in the Hindu faith along with monkeys and peacocks. Our driver has peacock feathers in the mini bus to keep away evil spirits. So I have decided I'm happy to come back as a monkey, peacock or holy cow in my next life. I've Ben told by Dushaynt our tour guide, that of over 1000 different types of cow around the world only the one with the hump on their necks is considered holy.



The temple is very old and children still attend some religious education there to,learn about the hindu religion. We were blessed as we entered by the lady on the gate and received the red dot on our foreheads which apparently is a sign of good luck. So we wandered around the complex and then walked to the area where we could see the monkeys playing ad also swimming and feed them. Well as previously advised I'm not a fan of monkeys as i think they are ugly and look pretty evil personally and certainly don't like them near me, so I was on my guard to say the least. Dush did offer to give me some monkey food and some could feed them but I declined.



After watching the kids playing and swimming etc we wandered further into the complex and climbed some stairs to a pool where people were swimming and kids playing. The water comes out of the hillside and is considered sacred/holy as the area is one of the driest in India and the water never runs out - hence it being holy. So we continued up the hill to see more monkeys and where I was finally persuaded to feed the furry creatures. I have a couple of photos of me in action, one with a real yuk grimace on my face and one of me smiling (fake smile I have to say lol).



After all the excitement we wandered back and visited the temple. We were blessed by a holy priest and given a string to tie round the arm or trunk of the elephant god who the Hindus always invite to weddings, new house, or even when they buy a new car for good luck. We then went to a different part of the temple and saw a lamp in a shrine which has been burning for over 400 years. Again ewe were blessed by another priest and had a string tied around our wrists. Left for unmarked ladies and right for men and married ladies. Apparently in the Hindu religion the left side of the body represents females and the right males. So today we have been very blessed.

From there we had some lunch at a roadside restaurant. Let's just say the warier wouldn't win any awards for his warm fluffy table side manner! The food wasn't that great either! Latoya thought she found a grub or worm in one of her dishes but he insisted it was rice. However he took the dish away and changed it for a fresh one.



Later in the afternoon we visited Chand Baori Abaneri which is one of the oldest step wells in Rajistan. It's a square pool 19.5m deep and is surrounded on each side by steps which create a great effect in the sunshine and shade. I will to upload photos once I suss out how to do it.

So after around 11 hours on the road and with stop offs on the way we finally made it to Agra.

It's 10.20pm so,it's off to bed for me as I have an early start. Night all x

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