Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Train to Varanasi

We spent Thursday (April 17th, 2009) afternoon at the Taj Mahal. The whole complex is actually huge - with surrounding walls, domes and so on of red sandstone. The Taj Mahal itself is of course white marble. The intricate stonework is incredible, and just the sheer amount of it...!

Our hotel was onlt a ten minute walk from the Taj, so we ambled down past all the cycle rickshaw guys trying to get us to go with them, past all the kids selling tacky mini Taj Mahals in perspex.. ugh. Getting in to see the Taj was incredibly expensive, for India - Rs. 750 each! A week's wage for a labourer. It's a much smaller entry fee for Indians, though.

I'm not sure what else to say about the Taj - very impressive, as a human monument, in terms of scale amazing. But it didn't really move me. The gardens were nice...!
The following day, we walked to Agra Fort. Another impressive structure, from which you can see the Taj Mahal (it's only a couple of km away), and full of all sorts of different things. It is partially occupied by the Indian army, partially occupied by monkeys; it has a number of small mosques inside, and all sorts of places were closed off - it has been rebuilt once, and altered quite a bit by successive Emperors.

We were asked to have our photos taken with Indians maybe ten times - I wasn't sure if they had come to see the Fort, or us! A couple of walking monuments... very strange. On the way back we were trailed for maybe a kilometer by a 7-8 year old boy, begging for "lunch" and "money" - he was trying to cry, I'm sure of it, but not quite able to. He seemed perfectly healthy, and even showed us his stomach.. looked fine to me! Dave at Evergreen suggested we give beggars food rather than money, but in this case we had none with us, and nobody was about to sell us any.

Anyway, we then walked back to find some dinner. We chose the wrong restaurant. It smelled a bit funny, but it had A/C and we'd been out in the sun a lot, so... but something we ate made us both very very sick.

So out of the restaurant, in to a marble shop - selling beautiful tables, coasters, plates and so on, mainly of white marble with stones set into them. Really beautiful. Back out and.. ah, my stomach. Let's go and find a toilet...
We went back to our hotel, got our bags, killed some time, went to the station and waited for the train. Eventually, after some confusion over whether this was the right train, boarded and spent a very uncomfortable night and morning on the train. All part of the experience!

Then out into the bright heat of bustling Varanasi! Wow, the station was busier than any yet, with crowds of people trying to shepherd us to the right auto stand, good grief just give me some space!!

And into an almost brand new tuk-tuk, vroom off we go.. except he can't take us right to the hotel because it's on one of the Ghats, so he has to drop us and we walk the last half kilometer (or more, I suspect), guided by a very helpful Indian. "Very easy" it wasn't, though no doubt we'd have found it eventually!
Check in, drink some blessed cold Sprite, and into (or, onto - no sheets!) bed, and let the illness get defeated by my wonderful body.

Now I'm lying on the same bed, almost a day later. Just about ready to be a human being again.. just about.