Agra

On Saturday 2nd January, our driver, Mr Anish Ji (hark at us) collected us from our homestay just after 9am for the long (5 hour) drive to Agra. It took us over an hour to get out of Delhi and we were pretty much in the south of the city anyway, but that's very typical for the traffic conditions. We stopped just outside Agra to visit Akbar's Tomb. Beautiful place.

Then onto Agra. We managed to fit in a trip to the Red Fort and then to our hotel. Our driver couldn't deposit us all the way there, as lots of the roads near to the Taj Mahal have roadblocks and our place was literally down the road from the monument, so it was back on with the backpacks and trying to fend off helpful auto rickshaw drivers who clearly think we're mad to walk when we could ride. The room reminded Elaine of a Soviet hotel (not that she's ever been in one) - no windows, tiled walls, pretty basic but clean. And all for £11 a night. All pretty tired so had a drink at the restaurant and to bed. Had to be up early the next morning to collect our tickets for the Taj Mahal. It was extremely foggy and quite cold but the Taj is incredible.