Author Ian Parker!

Saturday 29/3/08 - Overnight sleeper (if you can call it that!) train to Agra....

Carried the bags over the bridge to the appropriate platform, and then walked what seemed miles (in the blazing sun) to the place where our 'sleeper carriage' was due to stop. At this point Sue decided that she wasn't getting enough attention, and she duly passed out on the platform - not once, but twice in short succession. This is quite spectacular when half the population of India seems to be trying to share the same space, and all of them were fascinated by this strange woman who insisted on laying down where they wanted to stand, spit, beg or urinate! She just about recovered enough for us to get her onto the train when it arrived, whereupon we laid her out on the nearest bunk and left her to sleep it off in air conditioned splendour (well relative splendour anyway) whilst we stowed all the bags, and persuaded the railway officials that it would not be a good idea to move Sue again. We then settled down to cold pizza (bought by some thoughtful person from the Pizza Hut before we left) and eventually set our various bunks up for a night of being gently rocked to sleep by the motion of the train. This worked well till about 1am, when an Indian gentleman we named 'John' boarded the train, settled down in adjacent bunk and I swear started snoring before his head hit the pillow. Nothing could rouse him, including his phone, his alarm nor even Adam poking him and shouting in his ear in the middle of the night, so we all suffered a fairly sleepless night (apart from Sue, who can usually sleep through anything, and did!)
 
 
Sunday 30/3/08

Arrived at Agra railway station finally by about 9.30am having been stationary about 30 miles away for about 2 hours. We got all the baggage off the train and onto a bus that was waiting for us which then took us straight to our hotel. Abhi had arranged for a doctor to meet us on arrival to check Sue out. He duly pronounced her reasonably fit, though did prescribe antibiotics for the upset stomach (that he told us one in four people in India are suffering from at any given time) and insisted that the day should be used exclusively for rest. This didn't go down too well as there was a trip arranged to see the sun set at the Taj Mahal later in the day, but eventually Abhi agreed to take Sue and I the following morning before we set off on the next leg of the journey, so we agreed to take the doctor's advice - not least because I was coming down with the same affliction and didn't feel capable of doing much anyway. Most of the rest of the group went to see the Red Fort, that we had noticed opposite the railway station when we arrived, then went later to the Taj Mahal and came back to taunt us with all their fantastic photos. Tried a little dinner, but regretted it later when the stomach bug showed how powerful it was. Conceded that I wasn't well and started taking pills to bung me up ready to travel in the morning.
 
Monday 31/3/08

Sue and I got up at 5am (which isn't a good idea when you aren't feeling too good) and tottered down the road with Abhi and three others of the group who wanted to see the Taj Mahal again. It really is just like all the promotional pictures, and there are less people around first thing in the morning (as far as we could tell) so we got some pretty good photos ourselves. I fell by the wayside about halfway down the approach to the main building, and sat on a seat to 'take in the atmosphere' whilst Sue soldiered on for the full guided tour. Spent so long there we had to get a tuk-tuk back to the hotel, and then only had about 15 minutes to pack and check out.