Agra - Nap Day

Took the 6:15am Shatabdi express train from New Delhi to Agra (8:12am).

Unfortunately, we didn't get to bed until after 10pm, which meant we didn't get much sleep (4:50 alarm), and Josh spent a chunk of that awake and worried about missing the train. It was fine, and we enjoyed a set of facing seats (3 facing 3 across a table). We were across from a pair of Indians and a Chinese woman. We talked about politics and electronics and all sorts of fun stuff. The Chinese woman was pro-government control and the Indians seemed pro-democracy, and it was amusing to listen to them. Though they did seem to agree that the problem with China was not enough freedom, and the problem with India was too much. There was incessant service--we had both tea and breakfast on a 2-hour train ride.

After we arrived, we overpaid for a cycle rickshaw ride to the East gate of the Taj, which has a lot of hotels near it. We found one, but a room wasn't available yet, so we sat at the rooftop restaurant and ate some early lunch, which took a while. The view of the Taj was amazing, but the food was slow coming and it was hot in the late morning sun. Between the lack of sleep and hot sun we were feeling tired, dehydrated, and generally ready to crash after lunch. We napped a little and drank some salty water (rehydration formula), and emerged to use the internet, hence the pile of backdated posts yesterday. We also resized/uploaded ~450 photos. We ate a great dinner at Taj Cafe, where we saw a wedding in the streets; it was like an instant dance party with drums. Awesome. We tried to get our waiter (a little boy, maybe 8 years old and no English beyond the menu) to tell us what it was, but he didn't understand and started pantomime the different drums with big and little booms, and told us the name of each one. He got really into it--very cute! Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera with us.

View from our hotel from Trip of a Lifetime