We were up at 4.30am, very tired having not slept well, and were out of the hotel by 5.15am. There were the usual calls from touts asking us where we were going, if we wanted to take a tuk-tuk, etc etc. We ignored them all, and pressed on to the train station. It wasn't far and we were glad to arrive unscathed.

On arrival at the train station, our bags were scanned and we waited at the platform for the train to arrive . Which it promptly did. We climbed on board the Shatabdi train, settled in, and waited for the train to start moving. It was 25 minutes delayed in getting going. We don't know why. Soon, the city fell to countryside and we whipped along the kilometres to Agra. The ticket man came around with a paper manifest for checking against people's tickets. The most exciting/ memorable part of the journey was discovering the train door was open, when going to the loo. There was definite risk involved when passing someone in the small train vestibule corridor! Unfortunately, we also saw a man openly defecating on the train tracks. We were treated well on board, with water, tea and breakfast included. Breakfast was not great, but it was food.

On arriving at Agra, we were greeted by about 200 touts, all shouting for attention. This was utterly overwhelming so we kept walking to get to the outside of the station, and choose a reliable looking tuk-tuk driver to get to our home stay, about 6km away . We had the usual heckling of "just keep walking then!"... okay, and other such ridiculousness. We got a reasonably priced tuk-tuk and it transpired he didn't know the way to the home stay. We had the benefit of GPS, and were glad to see that, whenever he pulled over and asked people, they were indeed pointing him in the right direction. Phew. No scams on that ride. The streets of Agra we'd seen were wide and not immediately full of pollution. So far, Agra was winning.

On arriving at the home stay, the owner welcomed us and gave us the choice of an immediate room without hot water, or waiting for an hour for our room to be ready. We weighed up leaving immediately to go to the Taj Mahal to try to avoid the worst of the crowds in the middle of the day. In the end, the lure of coffee was too strong, and we got coffee and breakfast snacks to tide us over from the rooftop restaurant. From there we could only just see the Taj Mahal through the pollution, this being about two kilometres away as the crow flies. The room was ready after an hour and a half. We dumped our stuff, carefully packed a bag (many items are not allowed in the Taj Mahal) and headed straight out for a tuk-tuk to the Taj Mahal.

One cheap tuk-tuk ride later, we were dropped off near the vehicle exclusion zone, after passing through the narrow and crazy streets of Taj Ganj . We walked in, ignored the touts, found our way to the foreigners ticket office, and were separated in the queue for entry, as men and women joined different queues. This was a problem, as we had no landmark to allow us to meet again. We quickly divided up the essentials, should the worst happen and we were separated for a long time, and joined, as it turned out to be, the wrong queues. There were no signposts so we couldn't have known this, and we were definitely not going to trust any advice from seemingly helpful strangers. We passed through security of being patted down and having our bags searched by four different people. Jayna had forgotten to remove her miniature tripod, so hadn't packed all that carefully after all. This necessitated a trip to the baggage storage, about a kilometre away. Ken braved the trip and the crowds, camel spotting on the way, and returned unscathed after being patted down again. At last, we were free to explore the Taj Mahal!

We passed through an entry gate, and there it was, in all it's white marble glory . It was quite a sight. The place was busy, but not massively overwhelming, and we said no to the touts offering to take our photo for us. A few of our own pictures later, we got a bit closer, and finally removed our shoes and entered into the main area. The Taj Mahal is flanked by two mosques, one useable, and one purely for aesthetics as it faces the wrong way. We went to investigate those buildings whilst circumnavigating the Taj Mahal, climbed the stairs, and went inside. The mausoleum has two fake sarcophagi, of Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Shah Jahan, whose death inspired the construction, and of Shah Jahan himself. Their actual tombs lie at a lower level. Like the outside, the inside was ornately carved and inset with stone inlays. The detail was exquisite. After circling the sarcophagi, we headed outside and circumnavigated the building, before heading out. Ken had been asked many times for his photo, which he refused for fear of being robbed while in the process. Some people just took pictures of us anyway, including one chap who left his friends, walked over to near where Ken stood, and then acted surprised when Ken dodged the picture by hiding behind the nearest pillar.

We decided to sit and just look and admire the building for a while, so headed back in and sat outside one of the mosques. It was peaceful in the sun, and this time we weren't bothered by anyone. To get back out, we had to complete the circuit again . Not a problem to have to go around one of the most stunning constructions in the world, twice.

After collecting our shoes, we went back through the gardens and viewed the Taj Mahal from a distance, before exiting, picking up the mini tripod, and getting some food from a vegetarian restaurant in the Taj Ganj. As usual, we picked a place where the locals were eating, and the meal was very nice.

It was getting on in the day by now, so we headed back to the home stay for some rest and relaxation. This time, we chose a rickshaw to get us back. While we were monkey spotting, the rickshaw driver was busy going the wrong way. This time, our GPS system wasn't working, so we didn't know for a little while. When it started working again, we pointed him in the right direction and showed him the business card for the home stay again. When he again went to go the wrong way, we pointed it out again, at which point he crossed the road and cycled into the traffic going the opposite direction . Terrified, we told him to stop, got out, and found a tuk-tuk to actually take us where we needed to go.

We purchased snacks and supplies before going to the home stay, and when in the room immediately felt sleepy. We realised that the bed had no sheets on it (the snazzy flower covering was not something to sleep on) so asked for some sheets. We were given one sheet which didn't fit the bed. Jayna napped while Ken played games. Suddenly it was dark. We headed up to the rooftop to see if the Taj Mahal was lit by the last rays of the sun - it wasn't. We asked for three more sheets, two pillow cases and a blanket, and eventually received these, so we could make our own bed.

In trying to get the internet to work, we headed down to reception for the only passable wifi signal, and Ken waited 50 minutes to get a beer, to be told he couldn't drink it in reception. We headed back up to the rooftop restaurant to get the evening's food and enjoy the dusty ambience, whilst avoiding the mosquito bites .

Later, we attempted to shower, and the '24 hour hot water’ proved to be false. Jayna’s shower was a cold dribble. Ken’s shower had no water at all. We complained, and a chap came and made hot water happen out of the tap, not the shower. Jayna told him that her shower had been cold and rubbish, and he refused to believe her, claiming that there was hot water all the time. After he left, Ken tried to shower again and, again, there was no hot water from the shower head. We got the owner this time. This was someone who we clearly couldn’t communicate with, as the first thing he said was, "I own this place and know everything about it", whilst denying that there was a problem with the shower. We figured that there was a connection problem between the tap hot water, and the shower head. This was denied. The owner again got the tap running, and left. Ken’s shower was a dribble again, and it was terrible. We were annoyed that we couldn’t get the staff to listen to our concerns, made our own bed, and went to bed late with cold, wet hair .

On Friday 6th, we had the free breakfast of jam and toast from the hotel, and found out that we wouldn’t be able to get our free breakfast the following day as breakfast wasn’t served before 7.30am. Jayna was having sinus and headache problems, caused presumably by the dust and pollution, so we had a slow start. We took a tuk-tuk to Agra Fort, one of the other attractions of the area. Like Delhi’s red fort, Agra’s red fort was surrounded with defensive walls in red stone. We paid our entrance fees and went in, through lots of gates. This time, we weren’t searched at all, which was refreshing. On reaching the top of a pathway, we walked into a gorgeous looking building on the right side, and walked through and through, into different courtyards, into different buildings, around lawns, and more buildings, up stairs, into mosques, around more courtyards, and watched the monkeys clamber over the top of the buildings. We were entirely lost in a maze of different architectural styles, in interconnected buildings, all with their own charms . Eventually, we reached a set of gardens and though there was more to the fort, this was closed for renovations (or possibly the army, we learned later). It had been lovely wandering through, and we preferred Agra’s fort to Delhi’s. Again, several people asked us for our picture. We refused.

After leaving, and shaking off the touts aggressively trying to get us into their tuk-tuks, we walked for about a kilometre to get to Jama Masjid, via Kinari Bazaar. This was a colourful area, full of people and things, but no vegetarian places to eat from what we could see. We took a quick look at Jama Masjid, but didn’t stay for long. Open renovation work was making a lot of dust and grime, children spilled yogurt down Jayna’s trousers, and we were being harassed by children and people begging. We needed food, as breakfast had been meagre, but didn’t want to tread the unsafe streets nearby, or go to Taj Ganj. Our best option was going back to the hotel. This meant sacking off the rest of our day’s plan, as we had little intention of returning.

After some food from the hotel, we rested and relaxed for some time. There was no power in the hotel, so no wifi or lights, and there was also no water. Eventually the electricity came back on, so we could at least use the poor internet connection. More food later, we were pretty done in and retired for the night, having packed for our early start in the morning.

Next destination - Jaipur!