Agra and the Taj Mahal

It's just after 5am and I'm stil in bed... Feels like a sleep in. We don't have to leave till 7 today and seeing as my body wants to be awake I will write the blog post I thought I could manage last night but could not. Zzzzzzzzz.

We are leaving Agra today. Have had some incredible, interesting and slightly macabre experiences. I'm leaving feeling like I have ticked a big ticket item off my bucket list, with visiting and photographing the iconic Taj Mahal, which is everything people say about it. It's bloody magnificent. A sunset view from across the river, followed by an early rise to be some of the first in to get some images without myriads of people. 

Our stay here has been refreshing, particularly because our accommodation has been like a real oasis. In an earlier post I wrote I felt like I was in a movie, and here it felt a bit like Eat, Pray, Love. The Coral Court is a home stay which only opened in about the last year. It's bright, vibrant, clean and cool. Our rooms are fab, and we have also taken a few meals here. Each dish is different, and just what Mumma in the kitchen feels like cooking up. At dinner we were given a specialty sweet from Agra - petha - and it was delicious.

Yesterday on our rest day, Susan 2 (not to be confused with Susan he tour leader) and I decided to take a "walk around the block" to get some water and maybe meet some local children. I took with me two small books of stickers to give in exchange for photos. The first kids we met were obviously no stranger to the tourist cameras. Whilst we were probably after candid shots, we got some outrageous posing from the first group of boys we met. Cute and cheeky.

Then I brought out the stickers and within minutes multitudes children had eked from the buildings and I was completely surrounded by out reached hands and calls of "One! One!" I felt like the Pied Piper as I attempted to walk away to get some space, but no.... Even all my best teacher skills could not gain order to proceedings. The number of children had clearly outnumbered the amount of stickers I had, so I walked over to a group of mums in a doorway (we had attracted quite a lot of attention form adults too!) and passed the stickers over for them to hand out. This managed to disperse the crowd, though a few boys continued to follow us and we were rewarded with a few lovely portraits. Job done,

Thanks to Susan2 for the first two photos here.