Taj by sunrise

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Howdy all!!

Ok so I have seen the Taj by sunrise - absolutely awesome. i have seen the Taj many times in my life but I am still amazed by the pure beauty and romance of the place!

After visiting Jaipur, we made our way to Agra, stopping at Fatehpur Sikri which I a ghost town, 40km west of Agra. This is a well preserves palace building and they still have a mosque here that is used today. it was free to entire but the amopunt of beggars and people asking to be your guide was surprising ( since I'm still the naive traveller!)

We were back on the road with our driver to Agra and found a very cheap hotel - Hotel Saphire at 500 rupees per room ( between 2 of us)! Bargain. The hotel has aloverly roof terrace where we saw the sun set and also saw the Taj in the distance.

In the evening we thought we would brave the streets of Taj Ganj, apparantly the main backpacker area - didnt see a backpacker in sight and felt very initimidarte walking through the street.- we pronmptly called our driver to pick us up and take us to the nearest cheap restaruant. We ended up at Mayas restaurant and by far the best food I have eaten here and at a very low price! Highly recommended!

24/01/08 - today we got up at 5am to see the Taj mahal at sunrise and it was amazing - very cold at that time of the morning but still worth it. Not much else to say on the Taj - truly amazing words cannot describe! We now have the full day at our disposale as our train to Varanasi isnt''t until 11.30pm tonight.

I'm a bit nervous about the train journey - no idea what to expect but at least our driver will be dropping us off at the station and I am so not gonna let him leave us uintil we are safely on the train!

Note about driver - he is awesom! Practices a lot of my hindi on him and he is really taking care of us. Not taken to any emporiums where most drivers take u to try and make commission on anything that you buy.

Right I'm offski now , until the next time we meet!!

Bye!

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