We decided to walk to the Taj Mahal just becuase we couldn't face the hassle of using the rickshaws or motos. It was perhaps a 20 minute walk but as it was early it wasn't too hot. We got our tickets and eventually made it through security, you're not allowed wires in the Taj Mahal! First there's a big kinda of court yard and the Taj is behind a huge gate so you can't see it. As you walk through the gate you get a full view of it. It is amazing, so big and so white. It is quite hard to comprehend the size and it was only really later when there where loads of people round the bottom of it you could see how big it is. We walked up to the bottom of it and you can go inside and see the inlaid marble and carvings all quite impressive. I think that the pollution is maybe getting to it though and you can see yellow patches appearing where it should be white.
After spending some time in the grounds, it was nice to have some peace and quiet, we headed out again. We thought we'd walk back but try and find a different way. There are loads of marble and souvenir shops all trying to get you in. We wanted a drink and asked the price at a place, it was double the normal price so we carried and about 400 metres further down there was another shop selling drinks at the regular price. We decided as they weren't ripping people off with the drinks we'd also get poatcards and a couple of souvenirs from them, the chap was friendly and we had fun haggling with him. I think both buyer and seller left happy.
As we were walking back we ended up in a not so touristy area, which was really interesting to see but at a point I did wonder if we should have just walked back the way we knew! A couple of local kids decided to follow us for quite a long way. It was really hard as they just kept pestering us and I felt really mean ignoring them but I'd read about kids just wanting money and stuff from westerners so we decided it was best to not get involved. Eventually we hit the main road and knew where we were, it was a bit of a relief, it was good to see another side to Agra but I wouldn't want to hang around there for too long. Some of the smells were revolting and the conditions people were living in were disgusting. The place is just so dirty with so many people just going about their daily lives, living in it.
To be honest I felt pretty bad as we ate our pizza hut lunch, the amount we were spending in there compared to the amount of money some of the people must have is obscene, but it was good pizza. We felt bad about not eating from local restaurants but with the things we had read about illness and the state some of the places looked we decided it wasn't worth it.
After a short rest at the hotel we decided to head out to see Agra Fort. On the way out we called into the hotel shop, this was a mistake as we were shown loads of elephant ornaments and kept being told he would give us a good price. Eventually he offered us an elephant for about £15! We left fairly quickly.
The fort is pretty impressive if not slightly similar to yesterdays visit to Fatehpur Sikri. from the fort you can look across to the Taj, which was still hard to tell its size. There were some interesting carvings and marble work and architecture so it was good to wander around and look at it all. Obviously as we left there was the usual bombardment of sellers, with postcards and necklaces and ornaments. We had taken to just ignoring people unless we actually wanted to buy something. It felt kinda of rude ignoring people but it did seem to work as they soon gave up asking you to buy stuff.
Back at the hotel we tried out the swimming pool and decided to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant. Whilst we were waiting for the restaurant to open for dinner Adam went across the road to a shop he'd been too a couple of times for water. The shop was also an internet cafe, which Adam told me was actually just a computer in the basement! Ad also bought me a marble elephant from the shop and seemed to make friends with the owner as he ended up giving him his email address and the guy asked if Ad had anything he could give him as a present to remember him by! When Ad said he only had a hotel pencil the guy said perhaps the hotel had some other good stuff Ad could give to him.
As we walked into reception to go dinner we saw there was a puppet theatre set up, kinda strange, we declined the offer to watch a show and went for some food.
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