On day five at some ungodly hour in the morning we made the rush hour taxi journey to the New Delhi station, with our taxi guy beeping with one hand and picking his nose with the other, in time to make the Bhopal Shatabdi Express train to Agra. Delhi Train Station and all the stations we've visited since have really been something else! Before you've even pulled up in the taxi, dozens of red shirted railway porters pounce on your taxi from nowhere. Upon paying the taxi driver you've then got to insist twelve times over that your OK with your huge 65 litre rucsac and daysac, before then struggling past the sea of red shirts to more chaos. People seemingly camp overnight waiting for the numerous early morning trains, so they're people littered everywhere. Add to this the tramps and beggars, unclean food stalls and dirty platforms...you can just imagine. A far cry to the stations I have grown used to in London. Finding which platform we needed on the dot matrix screen was surprisingly easy though. On the platform however, we quickly remembered that when we made this train booking with the travel agent in Delhi, because we had left it a bit late and wanted our first journey to be 1AC (First Class) only two of our three tickets were confirmed meaning the third ticket, which by chance happened to be Liz's ticket, was marked WL (on the waiting list).Despite looking at numerous printed sheets of passenger details stuck to the train doors and supplement lists on the platform, and asking numerous station supervisors, who said to just get on, we couldn't find Liz's name on any of the lists. Fortunately I found a empty seat which I wasn't asked to move from and Liz and Clare sat in our confirmed seats! Luckily all our seats since have been fully confirmed.

Hotel Sheela in Agra was to be our first night away from the stylish and clean modern flat of Iram's in Delhi. We choose Hotel Sheela as it was described as the best budget option in the Taj Ganj area of Agra (the bit by the Taj Mahal) in the Lonely Planet, but more importantly because Liz had stayed here on her trip here with Intrepid the last time she came to India, so recommended by a friend you could say! OK, so it has no views of the Taj Mahal but does have a nice little garden away from the hustle and bustle of the street. The concrete prison room we had, had no windows or hot running water but encouragingly smelt of disinfectant

when we checked in. All was well initially, but upon returning from sightseeing at the Red Fort in the evening the 'nice little green garden' had turned into a sewage quagmire and the stench was awful. Out came the Lonely Planet and Claire quickly fingered to the 'Top End' of the Sleeping section where we found, enquired and then immediately on ending the call rickshawed to Amar Villas. Here we enjoyed a mouth wateringly great meal and drinks worthy of many Michelin stars. The Amar Villas is world-class and no doubt where all the celebrities stay when they come to see this wonder of the modern world. The exterior fountain courtyard all lit up in the night almost brought Claire to tears she was so happy. However, the happiness was short lived, as unfortunately our travelling budgets couldn't afford the Amar Villa room rates so we slowly ambled back to the hovel of Hotel Sheela.

Taj Mahal at sunrise was the intention the next morning, though by the time we woke at 5:30 and pulled ourselves out of bed to stroll the few yards to the East Gate (Hotel Sheela's only plus point), surprisingly a long queue awaited us. I thought they would have let people in already by the time we arrived, as the sun had already risen and by my reckoning we we were late! We need not have rushed!

The Taj Mahal is India's most notable tourist attraction and to walk through the gateway from the forecourt and to be able to actually see this spectacular World Heritage white marble mausoleum and it'sornamental gardens was a strange feeling. For ages it didn't seem real, like a distant mirage in the early morning sunrise. Only as I stepped out of the gardens and onto the raised marble platform did I truly believe that I was there and really seeing it for real. Architecturally the Taj is an amazing sight, raising the Taj up onto the platform ensures the backdrop is that of only sky. The minarets (towers) on each corner are said to lean slightly outwards such that in the case of an earthquake or similar, they will fall away from the Taj! Genius! By the time we had finished viewing the Taj, the marble and stonework was already becoming too hot to walk on barefoot and it was only 8 o'clock!

For the remainder of our time in Agra we had a driver who took us to two of the other big sites near Agra: Fatephur Sikri and Sikandra. Fatephur was most interesting as we hired a guide, though I was most disappointed to read in the Lonely Planet on the way back to the train station in the car, that the purpose of many of the buildings is still very uncertain and much of what the guides say is apparently invented!

The train back to Delhi was 3AC which turned out to be a sleeper carriage with three beds bunked on top of one another. All three persons sit on the bottom bunk with the middle bunk folded away, until you all want to sleep. Our journey was only four hours long and early evening so didn't get to try them out.