Day 70 (Fri 15 Sep) - Agra

Had another restless nights sleep. The power failed for a good two hours so we just lay awake sweating buckets - not a pretty sight.

We popped up to the roof top restaurant for breakfast. We are getting used to having our meals with the Taj Mahal in the background; we will miss it when we leave.

Before we got down to the serious business of sight seeing we decided to sort out our travel arrangements for the next few days. First we went to the train station and arranged our first sleeper from Jaipur to Mumbai. It is the first time that either of us have been at a counter reserved not only for Foreign tourists but Freedom Fighters as well. Then to the private coach station to risk another deluxe coach to take us to Jaipur the next morning. The rickshaw driver who had driven us around so far seemed keen to spend the day with us so we asked him to take us to Agra Fort.

Agra Fort is a massive red sandstone fort and palace. Strangely only a small port of this Fort is open to the public, our driver says only 20%, the remainder is used as an active base by the Indian Army. As we entered we had to dodge the usual tour touts but Sarb came up with an imaginative reply. He told them that Jo was an expert in Indian history and probably knew more about the fort than they did. They were quite shocked by this response and it shut them up long enough for us to escape into the fort.

The fort is on the bank of the Yamuna river and as we walked round we could see the Taj Mahal in the distance. Jo was hassled again to have her photos taken with Indian tourists but she was getting tired of the attention so said no.

We spent some time wandering around the buildings in the fort, admiring the archways, small courtyards and fountains. ( [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] )

We left the fort to find our rickshaw driver was still waiting for us. Asked him to take us somewhere for lunch. We stuffed ourselves on a delicious Thali and then headed across the river to the Himad-ud-daulah which is affectionately nicknamed the 'Baby Taj'. ( [1], [2], [3] )

It was a small, slightly less impressive, version of the Taj. Whilst we were sitting in the gardens appreciating the view a motley crew descended upon us. Again Jo was asked to have her photo with a strange looking fellow. She refused but in the commotion we didn't notice that one of the group had swiped Sarb's binoculars which he had put down on the ground next to him. Sarb told some officials what had happened but they did not seem overly bothered.

We left the baby Taj and went to the river where we took photos of the back of the Taj Mahal before going back to our hotel. ( [1], [2], [3], [4])

We raced up to the roof top garden to see our last glimpse of the Taj Mahal before the sun set.

Later we packed up our gear whilst trying to dodge the mouse running around our room.