India Day 3: Agra

"We're have to check out by 11am!" That got this slugabed up and dressed by 6am; cold, tiredness, sleepiness be damned. "I didn't come all the way here with no money to sleep in and not see the Taj Mahal."

Our hotel was about 200m away from the west gate where we lined up to get our tickets and got a pair of ... shower caps ... for our shoes. They'd have cost us rupees we didn't have in the Mahal.

The place was beautiful. Much more to the place than just the mausoleum proper. Red stone plazas and gateways, sprawling manicured gardens, clean modern toilets. Bob and I spent as much time as we could enjoying the details and design and just the fact that we were at a wonder of the world.

Admittedly, after a while, it got repetitive and we were no longer interested. The place is symmetrical in design and while that is something in itself, there were no more surprises after a while.

So, tired from yesterday's exploration of labyrinthine Agra and of seeing the same things repeatedly, we headed back to not miss check out time. Where upon, I decided to ask the owner's son if we could check out late as our train was not for another 7 hours. We were uber grateful when he said we could check out at 1230pm.

We waited at the railway station for 5 hours. I zoned out into my book. I felt sorry for Bob, I had Two on a Tower spare, but he's not the reading kind.

Railway adventures included running to different platforms with minutes to spare, chasing after coaches, trying to figure out Indian coach numbering systems and discovering there's no food on board.

Jaipur, 11pm. Wandering the dark, lonely and creepy streets of Jaipur for food in vain. Wishing we were back in KL. Going to bed.