Agra

Get an idea of its size!!

Inlay on the walls of the Taj. All semi precious stones.

Yes, it's me.

Inlay in the mosque

So cheesy!

Right, so much to write and so little time and I am wired. I HAVE SEEN the TAJ MAHAL and it was worth it. It truely is the most amazing building I have ever seen and even the people are unnoticable against it's beauty and anyway the garden layout and design around is so well done and I'm in awe. Especially at it's size and intracacies of the inlays on the walls. All completed from semi precious stones. It took 20 000 men working around the clock for 22 years to build it.

Right a quick summary of today.

I was dreading this morning incase Sanju didn't turn up. Well he did, and thanks Orlando for waking up at 3.30 am to call to see if I was OK. You are GREAT!!

We started out tour with a photo of me next to a huge SHiva built next to the chocking highway. We then went to a new temple which was great it was all decked out in red and green lights and looked like a nightclub from the 80s and even the idols were projections froma flatscreen TV. Really funky. I'm having trouble with uploading pictures so I don;t think I'll be able to show you them.

I then had a quick walk around another fort, Sikindra I think it was called and then had to hurry on to the Taj after a big lunch because no phones, food or drink apart from water allowed in. Sanju, told me an interesting fact about Agra, it has the greatest amount of crazy pople of any city in India and hence has the best mental hospital in the country.

Probably becauseof all the traffic accidents.Good inside information!!

Arrived inisde the Taj at 3pm and was one of the last to leave at 8pm when the sun had set. It was fantastic and all the mad worries of yesterday literally vanished..but I still have to phone up the co-op to make sure that the guys didn't compromise the card.

I met this student called Raj and he offered to be my guide for a cut price and he was excellent without him I would have missed so much which isn't written in my guide book. There are so many magic numbers in the Taj and its completely symetrical apart from Mumtaz's tomb is different from Shah Jahan's and the central point running through the taj goes through Mumtaz's tomb.

I stayed, watched sunset and just chilled out and met Sanju and he drove me here. The hotel is well swanky, far far better than anything I would normally pay for. SO all in all I think this tour has been a great idea. Because all you get on the streets is hassle hassle hassle. The taj was a sanctury. He met some mates and all 5 of us drove up to my hotel and had a laugh. They all say I look younger than 37 and I laughed and offered them all 10 rupees for the compliment.

Anyway about to order dinner and I am going to have my first beer on my holiday. Yes, three days without beer!