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Hannah and Liv's Travel Update
Woke up at 5.30am this morning and left early to visit the most exciting sight so far, the Taj Mahal! We had to walk through some gardens before we reached the mausoleum, where we were teased by catching our first glimpses through the blue morning mist and trees. It was an incredible complex, beautiful architecture before we even got to the Taj, and then it was an incredible sight seeing it appear so ghostly before the sun rose. We spent a long time wandering around the building and through the immaculate gardens. From a distance the grandure of the building is overwhelming, but up close the intricate detail of the carving all over the building is unbelievable. All the marble inlay work inside the actual building is absolutely incredible, so delicate and intricate, and beautiful colours. It is not just the building, but the grounds that make it magical, and the lake behind looks out over the foundations of the planned Black Taj Mahal meant for Shah Jahan himself which was never built. We sat for a while on Diana's bench where we took many photographs. We absolutely loved it and had such a brilliant morning. Back at the hotel the 4 star breakfast was another buffet with traditional cooked breakfast!! We then had a free afternoon before our sleeper train journey to Varanasi in the evening, so we took a rickshaw to a local shopping centre where we shopped for Indian pop music and drank coffee while writing our taj mahal postcards. We had a quick meal at Pizza Hut (oops!), then made a hilarious trip into the train station where we had to dodge the traffic outside losing half our group and a motorbike backed into Liv! We eventually went through the parcel entrance where we all nearly got knocked over by enormous piles of parcels and crates of chicks (?!), then Liv spent the whole time at the station being sick in the lovely toilets- not a nice journey! As the train was just passing through it was a nightmare getting on the packed train, but we finally settled into our booths, and spent a rickety night as we journeyed down the country to our final destination!
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