Agra

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Our train to Agra was a bit delayed and some men started asking us about what we do in England etc. They were friendly and quite hard to understand. I think one of them was asking my advice on applying for a degree or job in England and asked for my email almost before he asked me my name. We were travelling sleeper class (basically the lowest class you can get). Getting on was mayhem, we waited for the aisle to clear so we could get to our seats which didn't really happen. After stepping over people and pots of food in between carriages, one of our friends from the station helped us push through and find our seats. We seemed to be in the wrong places quite squashed up but we were sitting down so didn't care. We later had to make way from for a nice old man we met at the station, who wished us long prosperous lives, as he wanted to fold his bed down to sleep. We found that our actual seats were top bunks so we spent the remaining two hours hunched up playing cards. We luckily got off at the right station as the train seemed to make up the hour it was late. We relied on a bloke sitting near the door as there's no indication where you are, at least not without a window. We got to the hotel and had a late dinner. The next day we were told that our room was actually deluxe but we'd booked standard so we moved. Standard meant you lost a sofa but seemed to gain hot water, a working tv, towels, soap and toilet roll so we didn't complain. We had breakfast overlooking the taj on the hotel roof before heading off to get a closer look complete with an old fella acting as our guide. It is very impressive as everyone knows. Mainly because of all the effort and expense that went into it. He probably couldve made something similar looking a lot easier and cheaper but all the decorations are jewels cut to the right shape and pushed into the marble. Probably why it's lasted so long. The guide whizzed through, getting us all the stereotypical photos. For some reason I thought there'd be more inside but it's basically the king and his wifes coffin and a couple of empty rooms. The guide let us take some pictures inside after bribing the guy in charge with about 3p. Afterwards we were inevitably ushered into shops but after a while they got the message that when they say 'no buy, only look', we were taking them literally. I was told I look like Ricky ponting in an Internet cafe, probably because i was wearing a cap and white. After lunch we went to Agra fort which was also impressive, before the rickshaw driver persuaded us to go to the otherwise of the river to see the sunset. It wasn't that great to be honest as was a bit cloudy and the taj didn't change colour like we'd been told. On the way back the driver took us to some shops to get commission, which he was pretty open about. We grumbled but went with it before he took us back to the hotel. We ate dinner at the hotel. I asked for a beer and the guy said they had no license and so I couldn't have one in the restaurant before whispering that they would bring some to the room, which they did making it seem like the dodgiest thing ever.

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