Agra/ Delhi

Thursday, 20th November, 2008 (Al)
The Taj Mahal……wow. I didn’t expect much as God knows we’ve all seen the photos before, but it was pretty special to see it in person, particularly being one of the first group of people to enter the gates and capture the sunrise photos before the masses arrived. It has a very calming effect and its just nice to sit back around the gardens and take it all in. We took a million photos , and even though it was a hazy morning and the colours I was hoping for never arrived, it was still something we’ll remember for a long time. It has a definite aura about it.

We left the Taj around 9am and headed back to our accommodation for breakfast. After checking out we headed with Fabian and Fiona to the train station, bought a general ticket on the next available train to Delhi and then negotiated an upgrade with the ticket inspector before boarding. This time it was the bargain basement dodgy brothers deal of only 500 rupees per couple. He had originally wanted close to 1000 rupees each couple (to make up the dif between our general ticket and the upgraded beds) but when we thought he asked if we had a receipt and we replied ‘no‘, the amount changed to only 500 each couple. It seems he was asking us if we wanted a receipt. No receipt means the transaction didn‘t happen, the ticket inspector gets an extra 1000 rupees and we pay less than the tickets were worth - everyone is a winner. A few hours, our condensed life stories and some laughs later we arrived in New Delhi station and bid farewell to Fabian and Fiona.

Back in Delhi again we headed for a hotel called Vivek Hotel on the Main bazaar opposite New Delhi station. Only 500 rupees for a clean room with a TV. The reason we had returned to Delhi was because Wendy’s visa to stay in Australia had finally come through and since we weren’t returning to London, it had been forwarded to the Aust High Commission in London for us to pick up.