Agra & Delhi (20th-25th Nov)

The day after the Taj is a bit hazy, so we decide to skip the fort in the hope of good weather the following day. There isnt a great deal else to do in and around the Taj - there is a Taj nature walk, and a 5* hotel to take afternoon tea, and plenty of internet cafes (but no wifi), and our roof top bar to have beer and curry.

Thursday we wander down to the fort, which is an interesting place to spend a couple of hours - and look at the views of the other side of the Taj. Shah Jahan, who built the Taj in 1766 as a memorial to his second wife Mumtaz, was imprisoned in the fort by his son Aurangzheb, and could only look out from here to his creation. The immediate area outside the Taj complex is pretty ropey, lots of backpacker places (which do a pretty good curry for next to nothing) dusty roads, smelly camels and cows, and not a lot of relief from salesmen tempting us with their tat. At least there are no motorised rickshaw drivers asking us where we're going - all diesel vehicles are banned within 500m of the Taj to protect it from environmental destruction. We do find some good curry a little further away though!

Next morning, we're up early to get the train to Delhi. Its only a couple of hours late, which isnt too bad. We chose a hotel a little out from the centre in the middle class area of Karol Bargh. We're just off the high street, which is notable for nothing other than the lack of shop assistants hassling us and trying to get us into their shops and a nice bakery with lots of treats to keep us going. There is a metro station at the end of our road which offers an easy trip into town, even though we have to pass through airport style security (separate short queue for women and enormous one for men.) Connaught Place is the centre for shopping, eating and drinking, and we find a bar with loud music, TV screens showing sport and beer on draught, a real treat, even though we would normally avoid such places like the plague. After dinner next door, we head back to the bar to watch premier league football, and have to run to catch the last metro.

We spend our first full day in Delhi exploring the Old Town. Its an easy metro ride to Chandni Chowk a huge bustling street of bazaar selling everything possible, with the Red Fort at one end. The fort is a huge complex that is a bit of an oasis amongst the bustle, but we're a bit over forts having seen so many over the past few days, that we dont hang around for too long, and head over to the Jama Masjid mosque, the biggest in India. We blag our way past a guy who is trying to charge us 200 rupees to bring in our camera but dienst seem to be bothering the 100s of Indians who are bringing in their mobile phones and merrily snapping away. Its an imposing complex - we climb one of the minarets, which is way too small for the number of people up there. Obviously Health & Safety hasnt quite reached Delhi yet.

Next stop is Raj Ghat - we're walking everywhere much to the disappointment and incomprehension of the cycle and auto-rickshaw drivers. Raj Ghat is a simple platform of black marble which marks the site of Ghandi's cremation. We're back over to Connaught Place to enjoy the sunset from a 24 story revolving restaurant. Its a bit hazy to see too much, but at least we're in the area to go back to the sports bar and watch Sunderland lose at football, and England lose to cricket. We make some friends with some Indian cricket fans, one of whom went to Lancaster University, and advises us that Philippines has the best weed in the world, and also cant understand why we're going everywhere in rickshaws, rather than cabs (they're dirt cheap, thats why) Its a bit of a late finish, so we get a very expensive cab home...

After the hustle bustle dust and smells of the Old city, we head to the New City on Monday around the India gate and the government buildings, which were all designed by the British architect Lutyens during the British rule. Its a nice change, and good to see the open spaces of the lawns, and hedges which are well trimmed. To counter the hangovers we find a great lunch venue, and have one of the biggest currys so far (and also one of the best yet) before heading home to doze in front of the film channel, and use the hotel's wifi.

Our train North to Amritsar goes overnight, so we have a day to kill in Delhi. We head out to the Lotus temple, which was recommended by the couple from the train from Jaisalmer to Jaipur. Its a modern place, rather beautiful a good hour away from our hotel. Its the centre of Bahai worship, an all welcoming religion that says that we should all be friendly and happy with each other, and all sounds pretty lovely and tree hugging. Read a bit further though, and ends up sounding a bit like communism - removing extreme wealth and extreme poverty etc. There are lots of school trips wandering around - the highlight for one girl's school seems to be when Luce says hello to them - its then as if Britney Spears is in town the amount of excitement and attention given to Luce.

We also squeeze in a visit to Humayun's tomb, built in advance of the Taj, but not a lot dissimilar to the white marble in Agra. Its a pleasant place to spend some time, but we have to head back to collect our bags and return to the station to get the train. We're only an hour late before leaving the station heading North to the Punjab, and Amritsar. We did find a good selection of curry pies to keep us going while we waited though!