Holiday Inn Agra

... we would all have to be up by 5:30 the next morning for the day trip to Agra, she suggested I crash there as well. It was a really good call; aside from averting the likely prospect of my oversleeping, I got to meet the family, as well as her parent's friends Ali and Millie, a Kenyan couple who also lived in Oman and would be joining Tripta, Jen and me on the trip. A few rounds of scotch and several tubs of butter chicken didn't hurt either.<br><br ...

... guy to take us through the crazy traffic to the Itimad-Ud-Dalah, otherwise known as the Baby Taj and then on to Mehtab Bagh park where we got a good view of the back of the Taj from across the Yamuna River, it looked alot like the front. We also ended up in some other random locations because we couldn't communicate with the driver, one of these was some bizarre Durga and Hanuman shrines with some friendly guardians who grew cabbages in the field next to it and had built a cement ...

... in and Cory went to sleep while I watched some of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I fell asleep sometime during the 3rd period which was after 8:00 in the morning here. <br><br>At some point the AC went out, but we kept sleeping until like 1 or 2. We then asked the guy about the AC and it apparently trips the breaker fairly often, but he fixed it. The rest of the day we just hung out in the room and then went for a walk around the area, which ...

If you come to India you must go to Agra is what every guide book, tourist, traveler and Indian will tell you, the home of the Taj Mahal, is an unmissable wonder of the world. Everybody knows Agra itself, is busy and ugly and it is best to arrive, visit the Taj and leave, that was our plan too. But after arriving late on Thursday afternoon we decided to stay the night and ...

... riding in these things in India I cheekily asked if I could drive his rickshaw. He said yes, but only if he sat next to me while I did it, not in the back as I'd planned. His lack of trust in me at the controls of an automobile was spooky. He just knew it was a bad idea. And he was quite right to do so. I am a shocking driver but on this occasion I managed to keep the thing on the road and after a couple of minutes handed the controls back to a ...

... first show you all sorts of gems (under a spotlight to make them sparkle more) before explaining how much profit he makes by exporting them (because Indian labour is cheap and the profit margin on selling them abroad is high). He will then explain that an export limit is set on his business and the only way they can get round it ('legally') is to use foreigners' 'gem export allowance'. Thus he will ask you to pay up to two thousand dollars for some gems which you export to your ...