Agra was quite a step up from Delhi. I stayed at a place called The Tourist Rest House. The room was in good condition and it had a garden restaurant. I wasn't in town more than an hour before I ran into Ian, a well-traveled guy from Oxford. His room was across the way from mine, so we spent two days touring around together. He gave me lots of great advice as it's his fifth trip to India.
I rented a car for the day with a driver for 500Rs. He picked Ian and I up at 6:45am ... first stop, Taj Mahal. I'm not sure I can pick one word to describe it. It took my breath away. It was massive in size and so powerful. Truly a sight to see! I've been trying to upload some photos but it's terribly slow!
After the Taj, I went to see Agra Fort which was another favorite. The driver took us to a few more places and we ended up across the river to watch the sun go down with a view of the Taj.
Day two, Ian and I hopped on a public bus for the hour journey to Fatehpur Sikri for 22Rs. I thought it was going to be a small place with some ruins and not a lot of people. It was quite the opposite. There was a fair sized bazaar and the number of flies may have equaled the number of people. The fort and the temple were massive structures.
We spent the afternoon wandering around and caught a 5:00 bus back to Agra. I was scheduled to leave on an early morning bus heading to Jaipur which is where I am now. I'm actually leaving in a few hours, heading for Pushkar.
It's been hard to keep up on my blog here. I've not been spending too much time in front of a computer. I'm about a week and a half in and it's been a great experience so far. Some days I come home feeling amazed by the day's offerings and on others I feel drained of all my energy.
India has been an eye opener and I'm sure there's much more to come ...
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