Day 3 - Taj Mahal

5:15 am wake up - need I say more?

Ok so I do need to say more - 5 hours in a car!! OUCH

So today was eventful. We got mobbed several times, for several different reasons, Linda got proposed to and a 12 year old boy confessed his love for me. Also, saw the Taj Mahal :)

We began with a 5 hour drive from Delhi to Agra. Perfectly uneventful until the driver stopped for a minute to grab some food. NEVER, and I mean never, wind down the car window when you're stopped at the side of the road. Scenario - I saw a child walking around with a monkey so I took a photo of him which he noticed and turned to smile, so I wound the window down to take a better picture. I then thought I'd give him some money since he was so accommodating, at which point he walked over to the car put his hand inside and demanded 5 times what I was going to give him. I then had to fight him off, plus two other men, an old man selling jewellery, and a guy with no legs who wanted Linda to marry him. Mobbing #1

The Taj Mahal was spectacular - but then who would expect anything less. We also had a very happy tour guide, who also acted as our professional photographer for the day. After taking all our photos and doing the dutiful tourist bit we sat for a rest and were set upon by group after group of school kids, teenagers, and the occasional old lady, as they wanted to have photos taken with us. Mobbing #2

Setting off home also didn't go as planned. We stopped outside an unmarked building and the tour guide asked us to follow him. He sat us in a room with some very pretty embroidered artwork and suddenly we found ourselves in the typical "My cousin has a shop… very good prices… you won't find it anywhere else…" £200 for a piece of carpet - what would Linda and I do with a piece of carpet? So we politely said we weren't interested and left. Slight mobbing #3

The rest of the ride was fine - we slept, and slept, aaaand slept. Dinner was amazing again. On the way a small boy followed me and told me he loved me, and on the way back we were invited to watch ongoing wedding celebrations - or so we thought. They actually wanted us to dance for them and were all rather excited about our arrival. Mobbing #4

After all that we are completely exhausted, but happy :)

This trip is looking up!