Amar Agra

... the other place, we had a sitting area and courtyard each! The next morning we had a guided tour around the palaces which had such amazing detail! One of them took over 20 years to build and the king gifted it to his friend who only used it for 1 year, such a waste. After this we had a free afternoon where I had a much needed massage (was amazing), a yum lunch at a local place then we went to the Ram Rava temple for the prayer ...

... that bright and far to early Wed morning, a hired car was ferrying Komy, Jen, Tripta, Millie, Ali and I were back on the empty roads (definitely Delhi driving at its best) to Connaught Place where we joined by Komy's friends from Cass Business School Thomas (who I had met before) and Antonios (who I very well might have met before but couldn't remember), and Sidd's friend Vivian from Notre Dame business school (power couple much?).<br><br>Plopped onto ...

... veered off the track quite sharply and stretched its trunk out to a large vine that climbed thirty feet up a tree. after a few sharp tugs, it had dislodged the vine and was ready to move on. i'm still not totally sure why t did that, but it might have stopped in the middle of what it wanted to do, because the man at the front was hitting it rather ******* the head with an iron bar, and shouting at it, presumably telling it to stop.<br>a little further on, we saw another rhino ...

... with no railing that was freestanding and lead up to the sky from where you could take photos of the Taj above the trees. A true stairway to heaven perhaps. They gave us a Krishna tikka dot and were well happy we had visited them. Before we had left the driver / rider had said we were going on a 'sun safari tour in his Indian plane, no gasoline, just exercise' . We prefer to take the cycle instead of the auto rickshaw because these guys badly need work, the rigs are better for the ...

... it is better than Delhi, is still full of people using the bathroom where they please and free roaming cattle. We did have a decent little lunch at a rooftop restaurant that overlooked the Taj Mahal, so that was nice.<br><br>That evening we splurged and ordered Pizza Hut, which was my first taste of "home" food in a while, though I did have a burger in Dubai. It was Cory's second time with Pizza Hut in the last few days. It was pretty decent though. We ...

... the Taj the next day. Unfortunately that night, Both Mela and I were hit by the dreaded Delhi belly, travelers diarrhea, what ever you want to call it and were stuck to a radius of 5 meters to the nearest toilet for three nights and three days. For those who know us know we are not big to start with but we have never been on such a good diet in our lives. When we ...

... Salim. The next morning at 6.30 I walked into the Taj Mahal. It really is as beautiful as you would expect. Part of me, the English part most probably, almost wanted it to not live up to all the hype, but it really does. You sort of fall in love with the place - which is the sort of pansy talking I would never normally allow and certainly not about a building - but this place is different. You've really got to come and see it. The rest of Agra isn't ...

... country where you will supposedly be met by his 'agents' who will give you three thousand dollars (for example) for the gems. He will even show photocopied passports of his previous satisfied 'customers' along with dubious letters of recommendation. Unbelievably, many people fall for this.<br><br>- Poisoning scam. Some restaurants and guesthouse in Tajganj slip a bit of poison into your food. The result - you spend two weeks being ill in their guesthouse (i.e. guaranteed room ...