The Taj City

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  Agra, India
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

30/1/06
After a rather long drive and at times hair raising drive, we made it to Agra, as for the drive, imagine driving to Port Pirie from Adelaide, picture the outskirts of Adelaide and that there becomes less and less the further you go - can you see it? Then imagine the outskirts almost like the centre of town, double the distance and you are starting to get some understanding of how far this place goes. Then think of Port Wakefield, imagine it on a Monday at the end of a long weekend, then put at least 20 Port Wakefield's into the journey, add a few more thousand people, bring all the petrol stations closer to the road, put market stalls on the side of road, add pedestrian crossing almost the whole way along - and you have the drive to Agra.

Our Hotel The Royal Residence is nice, although the promised views of the Taj seem to be missing!!

Yesterday was almost a day of rest after the drive, we ventured out to eat and to take in a little of the sights of Agra - perhaps what you would call the main drag, were we treated to animals of every description, including an Elephant. Agra is as crazy as the rest of India, the smog(haze) however is a whole lot worse. And the smell of smoke hangs constantly in the air.

31/1/06
Today - tourists. We saw the Taj Mahal - it is truely awesome and it still spins me out that we saw the Taj Mahal - YES we saw it. A picture will never do it justice. To stand at the top of the stairs and to see this giant testament to one man's wife (who died after having her 14th child) is truely inspiring. Went to Agra Fort, back in 1638 was were the ruler of the area lived, which measures 2.5km around and a Tomb - can't remember the name.

We have eaten a few meals from venders in the street and to date have suffered from no ill side effects - No Delhi Belly. Boris loves the noodles here - the hotter the better, as for me, a few mouthfulls is more than enough to set it alight for a good hour or so.

We head to Jaipur tomorrow for a night, more sightseeing and hopefully a chance to do some bargaining and get some mementos from India, aside from the tiolet paper.

No great disasters to report in this little update, but we'll keep you posted, still have to send the bags on a couple of flights!!!!

Have taken 100's of photos, which we upload once we get the UK. Am at present sitting in a cyber cafe which Boris tried to haggle the price down for, was not successful so we tried another place - muich cheaper and whole lot dodgier (on the street, keyboard in the lap, but his connection had dropped out, so we paid the original price - that's India for you.

Must go, times up. We'll keep you posted on the next instalment of Bollywood to Hollywood in the next few days. Love to all and hope Oz is all good.

Lots of Love, Hugs and Kisses

Love the B's

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