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Our journey from Jaipur to Agra was a little less luxurious! We'd decided we didn't need the first class train seat when we could get second class for about 1 pound each! Unfortunately that meant being sworn at trying to get to our reserved seats (apparently reservation doesnt mean so much here) then when finally seated coping with the staring for more than 5 hours. With no aircon it got pretty hot too, and I wasn't feeling too great either so all in all an incomfortable journey!
Agra is just as hectic as everywhere else! The touts are pretty relentless but we are learning not to get too annoyed as they follow us down the road talking at our backs! We managed to get a rickshaw to take us to our hotel of choice straight away and it seemed nice there - 100m from the Taj Mahal entrance with a view pretty much out the door of our room on the rooftop! That afternoon we went to book train tickets, only to find out theyd sold out for weeks. After A LOT of miscommincation, we got on a train a day later than hoped, over to the border of Nepal. I'm pretty sure its the lowest class of sleeper train, and as we're in the 'reserved 10% quote' it cost a lot more, so the 16 hour journey may not be too comfortable. We then found a nice little cafe where we got super cheap Thali (the common indian sort of set-meal, with 2 different dishes and some flat breads and unlimited top-ups). I was pretty zonked with a cold and a bad tummy that day and ended up in bed by 5pm. Poor Ollie had to entertain himself and eat alone that evening, but I had my turn the next day! To top it off our bed had bugs in it and we ended up moving a single mattress to the floor, covering it in DEET and sleeping there!
Having to stay a day extra than we wanted in Agra we decided to do the two main monuments slowly, one on each day. We swiftly moved hotel to avoid the bed-bugs and ate some breakfast, sticking to hopefully safe toast! Ollie also had a cold by this point (more like flu in his eyes, men!) so, dosed on vitamin pills, we headed to Agra Fort, in the hope we'd both feel a little better the next day for the Taj Mahal! The red fort was, as expected, another big building - impressive from the outside, and great views of the Taj from inside, but a little plain. We didn't last too long - it was a really humid day with rain coming later, so we headed to an air-con cafe for an expensive, but we hoped safe, drink! Ollie was really feeling bad, so we were back in the room even earlier!
Today we finally visited the Taj Mahal! A long nights sleep has left us feeling a little more healthy so it was worth the wait! We headed there early to avoid the bus loads of tourists, and it really is as impressive as the photos! Our train leaves for Gorakhpur, near the Nepal border, at 10pm tonight so we have a long wait ahead of us still. We gave in and paid for another night in the room so we have a base at least, but don't plan to see anymore monuments - a day for reading and relaxing before the long journey I think!
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