Agra

After Amritsar, we headed to Agra by train. It was wonderful to be out of the mountains and able to take advantage of train travel in India: AC, comfortable seats, and bathroom access whenever we wanted. Agra is on just about every traveler's list for India, as it is home to the Taj Mahal, as well as some other noteworthy sites.

We arrived in the evening, and only had time to enjoy the view of the Taj from our hotel's rooftop restaurant before settling in the for the evening. That night, however, disaster struck. Nissa woke up during the night with intense stomach problems, and I followed several hours later with the same symptoms. We'll spare the details but it was one of the worst sicknesses either of us have ever experienced, and at the moment we are tempted to swear off Indian food for the rest of our lives. Two days later we are still mostly sticking to toast and plain rice. Of course, Indian food has been the most consistent delight of our time here, and the only thing that could be counted on to go right every day. Now that the food has failed us, we have been looking forward to the comforts of home.

After two days of resting up in our hotel room, we were finally ready to see a couple of sites today. The Taj Mahal is indeed a beautiful building, but we would have enjoyed it more without the experience of the last few days fresh in our memory. Also, we were a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of people wanting to take pictures with us, or more accurately with Nissa; at one point a security guard broke up a particularly large crowd that had gathered around her.

The other site was the Agra Fort, a large Mughal-era fort that was also used by Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, though it was built earlier. Unfortunately for him, it became his prison at the end of the life when his son Aurangzeb overthrew him. I don't know if it was any conciliation for him that the rather palace-like fort has a great view of the Taj Mahal. The crowds were much less overwhelming at the fort, and between that and our genuinely friendly rickshaw driver we were on somewhat better terms with India again by the end of the day.

a few of Nissa's eager fans

view from Agra Fort