The Morning After the Night Before...

Things haven't quite gone to plan.

Problem 1 - Sarah had a terrible night with food poisoning - my night wasn't great. But probably not as bad.

Problem 2 - Both felt okay-ish when the alarm went off at 5am to catch the Taj Mahal at  sunrise. In silence we get up and walk the 50m to the Eastern gate queue before we find out the ticket booth is not at the gate. It's 1km away - I leave Sarah in the queue and run down the road to find the booth, being misguided by tuk-tuk drivers to their cousin's fridge magnet shop. He also sells tickets, my friend. No. No he doesn't.

Problem 3 - I find the ticket booth, it's definitely more than 1km away. I'm definitely dying of heat at 5.15am. Tickets purchased - I find a rickshaw driver who'll take me back to the gate. He's older than he looks. He's slow. So slow. I tip him, he gets in the back seat and I get in the front and cycle my ass off to get back to the Eastern Gate, grinding to a halt at the police stop point. Confused faces all round. I try to take the driver to my Uncle's fridge magnet shop. The joke is lost on him.

Problem 4 - We queue for 5'. The sun is pretty much up. The ladies handbag searching queue is bad. Sarah vomits on the guard station outside the Taj gate.

Success story 1 - I wash her clean. She gets in the queue. I take my darling, vomitting wife into the most romantic monument in the world. She sweats a lot.

Success story 2 - It's beautiful. Really beautiful. I don't want to use lots of superlatives and big thoughts - but the photos don't do it justice.

Problem 5 - The photos start to do it justice - then my battery runs out. I've left the spare in the hotel.

Success story 3 - We just relax, walk round and enjoy it. It's incredible. Thank you Sarah and Roger for the entrance tickets - we really did enjoy it. Promise!

Success story 4 - A not quite recovered Sarah and I take a rickshaw journey around the North of the city, visiting the "Baby Taj", tombs and a park the other side of the Yamuna River to the Taj for a different view.

A memorable day.

In case you didn't know, this is the Taj Mahal.

Romance with the sweaty one

Standard.

The last photo before the battery died...

Broken by India

Worming our way through busy streets by rickshaw

From the Taj, to the edge of the slums. In 10 minutes.

The Baby Taj, in Northern Agra

The Taj from across the Yamuna - a magical building