Hotel Sidhartha Agra

... point he "found" a rupee on a concrete bench. He asked us if we believed in God and was quite shocked when we said no. He said he believed that we had been sent to him by God and that this rupee was a sign that he is truly lucky. He gave the rupee to Kerry. Of course it was a set up to get a bigger tip, but we didn't care. That's just how things are in India.

We spent a couple of hours ...

... just something you have to see to really understand its beauty. The building is perfectly symmetrical from every angle. This guy must have seriously loved his wife to build such an beautiful tomb for her. What was more entertaining, however, was watching the hords of Indian tourists come with their family to take photos. They all lined up and on at a time would pose together to take a nice photo to put on their mantels (for those who have ...

... carefully cut to hold them. When all the design stones are in place, the piece is ground down until the object is smooth. Members of our group succumbed to the lure and purchased a total of one coffee table and two end tables.

We then visited the Red Fort built by Akhbar (which means great in Arabic) and is a huge complex of rooms, walls, and ornamentation. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India punctiliouspaul

Having heard that Agra isnt one of the nicest places to stay, we decided to make it a quick day trip before heading to Varanasi. On arrival, it seemed to be a lot more aggressive with regards to people trying to make money out of us, with rickshaw drivers wanting to take us on detours to shops for their commission, but seeing as were hot and tired, it really tested our patience and they soon took us to where we wanted to go when they saw our tempers flaring!!
After a ...

... thing which soured the taste of our visit was the price we had to pay to get in. At 750 rupees (£9.36) the rate is not too high. However, Indian tourists need only pay 20 rupees (0.24p)- why the mark up?!! Everywhere I looked, I couldn't help but think that this experience was costing me 3750% more than the others. Bloody cheek. 500% is my limit.

Anyway, after the rain settled we ate at a lovely restaurant for next to nothing before ...

... br>


People
seem suprised to see us and apart from the main tourist sites there are
not a lot of English people, and people are staring at us, well mainly
Caroline and her chest!!, as there seems a lot more men than women out
and about. Alo a few people want to take photos of us with them. Also
it seems that if anyone gets caught short for a number one hten the
blokes use the side of the road and some places absolutely wreak. I may
try ...

... about it afterwards and I think the whole combination of the lousy guide with an ‘I’ll flatter you so you tip me’ attitude and a long and hot day made me more emotional than usual.

Back at the hotel I met and had supper with a woman from Norway who was traveling with an American she had met in the New Delhi airport. After supper we went up to the rooftop terrace to have drinks.

The Taj... one more thing I can cross of my list. :)

Built by some Shah in the 17th century to house the body of his dead wife (died giving birth to his 14th child!), it is a very impressive building. It looks as if it hovers over the land and all the pictures show it in isolation as if it's miles from anywhere but it's actually surrounded by the (not-so-beautiful-and-polluted) town of Agra and from our guest house it was only a few minutes walk to the entrance gate. In fact, we had a beautiful view ...

... After accepting an invitation to drink my coffee in a neighbouring shop a guy runs up to me waving my keycard I've idiotically just left in the ATM.   I make a brief  re-entry into the Taj but after posing both with and without prior knowledge and consent in a host of Indian families photos I head back to the hotel for a nap. 2 hours of sleep later I wake up to half my face extremely swollen and tender. Definitely have the mumps.