India - Taj Mahal

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  Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

We were up at 5am today so we have been ready for bed since we got up but there was plenty to keep us awake!
We went to a place called Red Fort first which was a beautiful gigantic old building which had carvings and architecture inspired by all different religions.
Lunch was brilliant, I had a vegetarian Thali which has lots of different curries and Joe had a hot chicken masala. The food is quite similar in some ways to indian food at home but it tends to have less meat if any at all.
We made the mistak of having a rest at the hotel, as we were told to meet in the foyer at 3.30 and the alarm we had set for 3.15 didn't go off but i woke really suddenly at 3.29 thinking that we had missed the Taj Mahal trip which was a bit wierd but we ran downstairs  and made it just in time!

The Taj Mahal is quite possibly the most beautiful building we will ever see in out lives.. it really is breathtaking. It's like walking into a a painting and none of the pictures we took look real they look like postcards! We stayed in there for 2 and a half hours just sitting in the sun as the grounds are really peaceful even though there are so many people in there.

We came back out just before the sunset and bargained for some white clothes in a little shop ready for the holi festival tomorrow. We kept getting bugged by people wanting to offer us a ride home and eventually our group leader put us in a rickshaw. It was awful, obviously Joe is bigger than the average Joe and he couldn't cycle with us on the back he ended up pulling us up the hill and hinted that his tip should be large!We really wanted to get out and help him but he didn't complain he just kept pushing for around 15 minutes. We tipped him probably 4 times what the group leader had already paid him (still only bringing the pay to around 3 pounds and I don't think I know anyone who would do that much work for 20 pounds!) and decided that from then on we would either skip the rickshaws or go seperately!

There was a pizza hut next door to the hotel and we couldn't resist as we needed to buy something for breakfast tomorrow and everywhere else was closed so we got pizza and saved some for breakfast - sorry to disappoint you parents but in our defence we have had curry for breakfast lunch and dinner for nearly 3 days!

So another very early start tomorrow :s but it is Holi (a festival where they all get covered in paint!) so we're very excited! :D

Jaya

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