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A 5am wake up to straighten the hair, put on the make up and select the wardrobe for the Taj photoshoot. Finally, I was ready. We walked down to the Main Street to meet our driver who too us the short distance to the Taj Mahal. We gave him a note from us both, and a toothbrush and shaving kit from the hotel. I'm not sure he understood why we gave them to him but we quite liked him! He waited for us in the car park while we got a rickshaw down and explored for the morning. We had a bit of hassling from local guides but eventually made it through security and inside. The initial glimpse of the Taj was incredible. We were through the gates at 6am opening so it was reasonable quiet. We got some snaps before the crowds gathered and had some more hassling from photographers to take our picture. Finally we gave in and allowed a guy to do a shoot - this was mainly made up of some horrifically magazine-like cheesy poses. After viewing the pictures on his camera at the end, we discovered that our eyes were closed in most of them. Despite telling him we didn't want any photos he told us he would meet us back at the East Gate at the end. We wondered around the Taj, taking in the incredible sight. We stopped for loads of photos with locals and some of each of us. Helen has an amazing team photo with around 20-30 old men and women. We sat on Diana's bench, had a quick wardrobe change in the bushes, a few selfies then it was time to get out the heat and away from the crowds. Sure enough, our photographer was there at the East Gate with the photos we didn't want! We headed back and found our 64 year old driver and headed back for breakfast and a sleep. In the afternoon we decided to go on the hunt for street food. We went down to the Main Street and spoke to a few tuktuk drivers. We told them we wanted a walk and some food so they told us to walk around the hotel as it was too dangerous outside for us. Eventually our wee driver turned up and Helen managed to score us a free ride on the premise that we would go round a few shops on the way back (50 rupee a shop for him). We had a couple more curries and naan bread before realising that we had not enough money to pay. We had a tour around for an ATM that worked, paid our man before the shopping spree began. We went to a jewellery, marble, saree and souvenir shop. We had some good chats about cricket, gemstones and how to make marble tables. We upset most shopkeepers by not buying anything although we did make an excellent purchase of a marble elephant in the final shop. We did some serous negotiations and although we upset the lady with the final price, we left happy! We went back to the hotel for an hour, grabbed our bags before setting off for Tundla for the 8:40 train to Mughal Sarai. The journey to Tundla was around 1 hour and was mainly in the dark. We travelled through some very poor and dirty looking villages before arriving at the station. We sat around getting stared at for a while and had a 20 rupee curry from the platform before getting on the sleeper train. We were in a section with a very friendly family from Bangladesh. After watching them demolish a series of curries, it was bed time. We were in 3AC which means 6 beds to an area. We had an average sleep then woke at 4:30 to get off he train.
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