Agra

We arrived at about half eight in the morning and luckly manage to get a room in an area immediately to the south of the Taj. he hotels here all have roof top restaurants with great views of the Taj. Unfortunately though the area is a bit of a dive. We didn't let that deter us and booked into a room with a bizaare air con contraption. It was a box about 5ft hight and 3ft wide filled with a kind of grass or moss. The room was fine actually and we didn't need it. We had two days here and as the Taj is shut on a Friday we went to see Agra fort which is a really nice building. all the forts in india are really well preserved and you get the feeling they are still in use. Half way round here the heavens opened and we were drenched. We did have a cycle rickshaw man waiting for us outside and both felt very guilty as we sat under his canopy while he peddaled away in the torrential rain..he seemed delighted with the 50p tip (which lso appeased our sense of guilt.

The second day we visited the Taj. Its simply amazing and we spent hours there gawping up at the building from every different angle. It somehow carries an aura and provides a peaceful feeling and we really can't describe it - fantastic.

That evening we had a diner on a family run restaurant overlooking the Taj. We had a passable enough meal served by a waiter who was at least 103 years old. We were asked to pay the owner downstairs and he directed us to take a seat, went through our bill and we exchanged money. Then, without a word of a lie, he offered us a very good discount on some quality toilet roll. Now in India under normal circumstances this kind offer would be readily accepted but when your restaurant owner offers you a post meal bog roll you really do start to worry. We both wondered if this was standard practice or whether he had simply run out of mints.

Needless to say any fears we had were allayed over time.