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Monday 16 October
Another early start - got up at 5am for a bus ride to Fatehpur Sikri. This is a fortified ghost city which we didn't think was particularly amazing but we were tired and it was flippin' hot and we had to walk up a big hill to it! We had a guided tour around the city and the mosque. We then got another local bus for an hour for the final leg of the journey to Agra. We got electric cars from the bus station to Hotel Sheela as there is supposedly a ban on traffic within a certain radius of the Taj Mahal because Agra is so heavily polluted which is causing the Taj Mahal marble to turn yellow.
Tuesday 17 October
Another 5am start (and we thought this was a holiday!) to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal. Luckily it was only a five minute walk from the hotel but it took Ed about an hour to get through the security gate (not because he is dodgy but there were separate queues for men and women, and all the men had to have their handbags checked!).
The Taj Mahal was as fantastic as expected - it almost looked unreal walking up to it, as though it was a painted scene. Ed had his photo taken on the 'Diana bench'. We walked around separately most of the time, and met back at the hotel for breakfast. We spent three hours or so there and could have spent longer (well, Lisa could!).
At 10am we got cycle rickshaws to Agra Fort (Red Fort). Although we have been to zillions of forts this was one of the more interesting ones. After lunch we went to the Itimad-ud-Daulah, also known as the Baby Taj. This is another marble tomb and is older than the Taj Mahal. It has very intricate coloured marble decoration.
We headed to the train station for the overnight train to Varanasi. It was delayed and we finally left at about 11pm after a couple of hours in the rat infested train station.
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