Golden Temple & Taj Mahal

After the smelliness of Delhi we had a 5am(!) train up to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple. We had a fantastic day walking around the Sikh temple and even got a free lunch! It's a really interesting place and the contrast of how people act inside compared to outside is stark - no spitting or littering in sight.

The next day we had planned to see the border closing ceremony on the India -Pakistan border. Unfortunately we weren't feeling too good (perhaps as a result of the free food the previous day) so we just spent some time in AMritsar and went to a Hindu temple which is like a mini Golden Temple - quite funny really though not sure which came first!

In the temple were a couple of kids from Tibet dressed as Gods- because of this they weren't even allowed to walk and had to be carried. We also spent some time chatting to a guy who was really interested with Stonehenge and Britain in general. He had composed a letter to Gordon Brown regarding the war in Iraq - he even taught us some Hindi which we duly forgot!

Another early train followed and we were on the way to Agra. It turned out to be quite amusing as we ended up chatting to a Sikh family on their way to a wedding. Ben taught the son a few games to pass the time and we showed them some of the photos we had taken elsewhere. It was so refreshing to talk to people knowing that they don't want any money out of you (QUite a novelty in India).

Still feeling a bit rough from the day before (plus an early morning and twelve hours on a train) we didn't end up doing too much on the Friday. We just took in a couple of sights (Baby Taj etc) and got an early night in.

On the Saturday we had a double whammy of Agra fort and then the Taj. Agra fort was, well, a fort and although it was a step up from the Red fort in Delhi we felt it wasn't the greatest sight we've seen.

On to the Taj Mahal and the queues were massive - Ben had to wait ages to get in although Kat jumped in the special ladies queue and was in in no time. The Taj is pretty spectacular, especially it's size - despite the eye-watering entrance fee (well, eye-watering for India). We duly set about filling up our memory card with photos from all angles. Kat also was asked to pose for photos with Indians countless times - something she began to weary of by the end of the day. Perhaps a small glimpse of what it would be like to be famous.

Anyways, another early train followed and we were on our way to Jaipur. But that's another story.....