Thursday 24th - Agra, The Longest Day

We manage to get up, get dressed and find a tuk-tuk by 5.30 a.m. and arrive at New Delhi Railway station in good time for our train. For once Indian Railways are off the mark and our train is half an hour late but once we get going it was fine. The 70's airline food theme continues as we are served "Morning Tea" with 2 caramel toffees and then breakfast. The food containers are labelled "Meals on Wheels". At Agra we are met by a tour manager from Delhi Magic with driver and a big Toyota 4x4. We are whisked off to a hotel for a comfort break and introduced to Akshay, our guide for the day. First stop is the Taj Mahal. The approaches and the gatehouse are impressive enough in their own right, and the monument itself is absolutely stunning. Our guide explained the history of how it came to be built and was a mine of information about the actual construction. By the time we came to enter the mausoleum the crowds were beginning to build up and it was a real scrum getting in and out.
Time to move on to the Red Fort, on and off over the years the seat of power of the Mughal emperors. It is a huge sandstone and marble construction looking out over the the River Yamuna towards the Taj. Once again the crowds started to build as we followed our guide around the Fort. It was starting to get hot and we were quite glad to be told that lunch was the next stop. We were driven to a small darbah where we had a beer and a simple lunch of dahl and roti.
The next leg of the tour involved a drive of about an hour out to Fatehpur Sikri, a 16th century city. This drive was our first expeience of the roads outside cities in India and was hair-raising to say the least. Not only are signals optional but so is keeping left on dual carriageways. When we got to FS it proved to be worth the trip with a well preserved set of palaces sitting on a hill. At its height the walled city was 4km in diameter and had a population of 750,000. In 1585, fourteen years after being completed, it was abandoned.
The drive back, as the sun was starting to set was even more entertaining. We passed numerous wedding parties and followed overloaded vehicles carrying bands, sound systems, lighting rigs and just dozens of people, all heading towards wedding celebrations. At one stage we had to stop the car as it was engulfed in a wedding procession.
Back in Afgra we parted with our guide but kept the car as we had time to kill. An hour catching up in an internet cafe was followed by a quick beer. Our driver was most concerned that we did not vanish and followed us everywhere. Presumably he did not get paid until we were on the train.
Back at the station the notices said that once again our train was 30 minutes late. By the time it arrived it was 80 minutes behind. We found our seats and dinner was served at the gallop - the usual rice, dahl, chapati and cheese curry (yuk!). We arrived at NDLS at midnight and took the first taxi hustler who spoke English and claimed to know where our hotel actually is. We had a very good ride home in a School mini-bus. India - the true home of free enterprise.