After it was about an hour after our train was due to arrive we thought we would head across to the platform where it was due to arrive and wait there; for a change of scenery if nothing else. On arriving at platform 5 we soon realised that this perhaps wasn't such a great idea: platform 5 was much dingier than platform 1; spelt of something rather nasty (probably urine) and after spotting a rat and a different train pulling into where we were expecting ours we decided to retreat back to platform 1. Once there we discovered by looking at a different board that it appeared our train was actually going to be 2 hours late, great! I was beginning to feel pretty tired and I think that Liz was too so when an annoucement came over the tanoy to say our train was arriving on platform 4, after over 2 hours of waiting, we were both pretty relieved.
So next challenge was to find our seats/beds. We spotted the only 2nd class air conditioned coach on the train as it pulled in to the station so we thought that must be our one even though it wasn't labelled up with a coach number. On boarding we found that the narrow corridor down the centre was pretty busy and we were struggling to get down with our big bags. Also all the seat numbers were pretty high and we had low seat numbers, so we decided to get off and get back on on the other end. This time we made better headway down the carriage and made it to the four person berth where our seats were, I felt pretty relieved and pulled back the curtain only to discover it was already full with 4 indian men! One of them asked what seat numbers I had and when I said he said yes this is right these are your seats, so we squashed in the 6 of us and our 2 big bags. I guess I should have been a bit annoyed, but to be honest I was so tired and pleased that a train had actually turned up that for the moment I really didn't care. It turned out that 3 of the men were just sitting there while they "sorted out some confusion" and after a few minutes the conductor arrived and took them off to some different seats leaving just the three of us in the berth. Unfortunately for us the man who was left behind was the loudest snorer we have met on the trip yet! So as it was my silly idea to catch the overnight trains I leant Liz my iPod to block out the noise and tried to sleep the best I could.
We arrived at our next destination, Agra, at about 9am and managed to dodge the initial taxi drivers trying to get us to go out a side entrance and made it to the pre paid taxi counter. We paid our fee and our driver took us to his car and we set off to the hotel. He took us straight there with out any messing around, trying to take us to other hotels or shops where he got comission as we had read might happen in the guide book, which in our tired state we were quite pleased about. We also booked him to take us to Fatehpur Sikri in the afternoon as we figured he seemed alright, although we weren't sure whether his price was over inflated...
This time we didn't get to have our room straight away but had to wait about 45 minutes. Once there we had an hour or so sleep to try and catch up and then headed to the hotel restaurant for lunch.
At 2 O' clock we met our taxi driver outside, who had brought his friend with him to keep him compnay while he waited for us. It seemed a little bit strange, but we went along with it. It took us about one and a quarter hours to get to Fatehpur Sikri which is an old abadoned palace which used to be the capital. The friend was quite chatty and about our age and spoke very good english.
We arrived at Fatehpur Sikri and decided to catch the bus to the palace. As we walked to the bus stop someone approached us and asked if we wanted a guide, we said no but he just didn't want to take no for an answer and followed us all the way to the bus, he was really very annoying and we ended up having to be a bit rude to get him to leave us alone.
The palace itself was pretty amazing, it had been sat empty for 400 years since the water supply dried up, but from it's condition you never would have guessed. It was a huge complex with elaborate carvings and arcitechure. It was definitely worth the journey.
On the way back the friend started talking about some of the carvings that Agra was famous for and asked if we wanted to see some on the way back. It sounded like the beginnings of a marble shop commision scam to us so we politely declined. Then a bit further on he started asking us if we liked tea or spices, I guess he had a different shop in mind, but again we said no. Then his next attempt was asking Liz if she wanted to wear a Sari when she went to the Taj Mahal to have her photograph taken wearing it, but surprisingly Liz wasn't keen! And his final attempt was he wanted to take us to a restaurant for dinner, we got out of that one by saying that we had already paid for our meals at the hotel (technically a lie, but a change from just saying no thanks) so eventually we made it back to our hotel without any unwanted side trips.
We were pretty tired so had room service for dinner which was pretty cheap by western standards.
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