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Agra, India

Oh I do love a good train trip! This time the 6 bunk sleeper train took us from Varanasi to Orchha. If you are to travel for 15 hours straight, you may as well be laying in your sleeping bag with aircon. Our hotel in Orchha looks like a finished 'Hotel Marigold'. The beautiful Indian architecture and manicured gardens and courtyard is the perfect setting for the 3 hotel staff sitting in the garden singing Indian hymns with traditional drums – at 9pm.

Orchha, is like no other. It's kind of city meets country town. Extraordinarily small and scattered with temples. It's not exactly the tourism capital of India with only one other western person spotted. So few in fact that we were, not discreetly, but obviously stared at. This didn't bother us but was quite confronting and unique at the beginning.

A festival for Lord Rama was on, so many thousands of people from the outer villages came for a day or two. Many of the children and teens had never seen westerners. As our leader walked us around for the orientation walk, we were followed by at least 30 people of all ages. They just stood, often very close, and just stared – wide eyed – and watched our every move. It is interesting seeing it from the other side, we were staring at the Sadhus and the ladies in saris with the same fascination. That night our leader took us into the temple where many thousands gathered and prayed, loudly and openly. Arms were raised, some were laying on the ground and all where chanting and praying. It was quite an experience, it was fascinating for us and for them watching us. While our leader explained what was going on. The crowd around us got so big we had blocked the corridor to the temple. So much for trying to fit in. We felt we were taking the attention away from this important day, so decided to move on. Such an amazing experience to witness and be a part of a Hindu festival in a tiny little town.

Our morning in Orchha we spent visiting temples: Raja Mahal, translates to Kings Palace, built in 1503 and Jahangir Palace built by Bir Sing Deo for his friend Jehangir, the great Mughal ruler in 1605. To top off this morning, we visited an NGO, where they collect dust from around India and make recycled roof tiles – pretty cool right. The organisation is also a paper making plant and was set up to give 'tribal' women from the area a chance to work outside their traditional areas. All the paper is made from recycled clothing and wood pulp. It's good to see this as 32.7% of the total Indian people fall below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day while 68.7% of India live on less than $2 per day.

Dave has food poisoning from the mutton rogan josh, which in India is goat. (Ive seen what all animals eat here and it's not grass, but rubbish, hence I've only eaten vegetarian). So, it's just me going to the Indian cooking class tonight, ironic I know! Although we didn't learn that eggs aren't boiled in the microwave, we did learn to cook 5 vegetarian dishes, chapattis and masala chai tea. the power wasn't on for the first few hours so it was iPhone light and two candles but that just added to the romance of a group dinner. Butter chicken isn't as common in India as one would think. I'm forced to try new things now when I go to an Indian restaurant – I can expand to Dal and Thali in my list of (previously) one thing to order.

The chef also gave the ladies henna tattoos, not something I particularly wanted but peer pressure prevailed. For some reason it was easier for me to eat a cricket rather than art drawn on my hand. I think I was just in a grumpy mood. For the first time in 60 days, Dave and I were separated for a whole 3.5 hours, so It was nice to come home and report something – even if it was cooking instructions..

"Interesting Fact #354: India is theoretically under the Commonwealth and only split from being under the British Empire in 1947. Considering this, for an Indian to visit England they must pay a $3,000 bond (on $1.25 p/d) that they'll leave again! $3,000!!" Ridiculous

You haven't experienced intoxicating smells until you have visited a smaller Indian train station, like Varanasi or Orchha. The toilets are an unbearable sight. Literally everywhere is a strong smell of urine, rubbish and human waste. And that's not a guess, I can actually see all of this scattered everywhere we stand. I think most of the flies around the world live at these train stations. Trackside is used instead of toilets. The actual toilets on the trains don't have catchers therefore waste goes straight onto the track. But as always it could be worse, at least we are in allocated seating, unlike the locals who are so squished in they are hanging out the train's doors and windows. Well sort of, a large family bought only one reserved ticket, therefore there were 10 people in an area only a few metres wide – in comparison this is luxury. Tolerance is the word I need to chant to the little sod kicking me for hours. (The child, not Dave). Everything's an experience.

The Taj Mahal, wow. To actually be there is just like stepping inside a postcard. From every angle this monument is truly beautiful and such a grand statement of love. It is pure symmetry from the gardens, the water features, the mosque on one side is matched with an identical guest house on the other, to every single piece of marble and art on the perfectly designed Taj Mahal. Some observations:

– Inside is an octagon shape, and everything seen is in white marble. It's not solid marble. If it was it would be too heavy for the ground to handle.

– It's located on the river (not the Ganges though) as the all marble structure is better preserved closer to the water where it's cooler.

– The marble is kept clean by the 3 yearly mud baths.

– The only two things not symmetrical are the two tombs for the emperor and his empress: Shah Jahan and his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Their actual tombs are in the burial chamber below the surface tombs. It was symmetrical when she was buried there but once he died that put things into symmetry chaos!

– No photographs can be taken inside, no shoes on any marble, no videography and no petrol vehicles in a 200m radius of the entrance.

– The calligraphy around the entrance of the Taj Mahal are verses from the Quran. The calligraphy on the Great Gate reads "O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you." Bet you didn't know that!!

When entering through the grand entrance to the Taj Mahal complex there are seats just off to the left of the reflecting pool. My beautiful Mum sat in that exact spot and waited for Dad 30 years ago, as she was too sick to take the walk down into the Taj. I now posses the same photo. It was a special moment. The other famous picture was the one where Princess Diana sat and of course I had to make my own moment.. In front of many of the conservative type, I jumped high (as you do) but my skirt accidentally flew higher – at least I had undies on!

Yesterday we were so ecstatic about being in a fancy western hotel (with couches and a t.v) we celebrated by having pizza and macaroni cheese in the hotel's roof top revolving restaurant which even has a view of the Taj. It sounds odd but just for one night we missed western comforts. One of the other girls who needed a western day went to Maccas, which doesn't have Big Macs or any beef food on the menu but does have a Mc Masala Burger. – anywho – I'm thankful because everyone who ate the local cuisine at this restaurant is super sick today. I'm also feeling on top of the world this morning after a long Skype date with Mum and Dad over our first breakfast in bed. We are now ready for the Red Fort. Well, Agra's Red Fort was nothing like what I'd imagined this post card setting to be like. Yes it's red and fort like but there are sections of it which are white marble, exactly like the Taj Mahal! The first emperor (Akbar) started building it, with red sandstone in 1565. Then the second emperor Jah

angir added a bit more to the palace. Then prior to the Taj Mahal being built, emperor Shan Jhan added all of the marble elements. He lived there with his third wife, then once she died he built the Taj. Then his son Aurangzeb arrested his other two older bothers and house arrested his dad, Shan Jhan, which then gave him the throne. Until Shan Jhan's death in 1666, he watched out the window over to the Taj Mahal, at his wife's tomb. Their daughter then placed his dad in a boat and floated him down the river to the Taj Mahel where they now lay together in a tomb.

New Delhi is nothing like what I'd expected. It's probably the best 'city' in Asia we have been in when it comes to traffic and cleanliness. New Delhi is modern and has many gardens. We spent the day in a hired taxi, and saw the Raj Ghat, Bahai service in the Lotus temple, Humayun's Tomb and the Lodi Garden. I've come down with a bit of a bug on the last day so I stayed in the car for the gardens bit. Unsure how as I had porridge for dinner last night. 😦 As a positive Dave bought me a Tiger stone to make into a pendent and he bought the star of India stone to make into cuff links. Too poor to buy them pre made. That'll be a job for when we get back I think.

You really haven't seen the whole world until you have been to India. The smaller towns like Varanasi and Orchha were our biggest culture shock but the cities like Agra, and particularly New Delhi weren't what we'd expected. Although there are billions of people everywhere, they aren't pushy and are extremely friendly and inquisitive. India is like no other place we have been to or will go to. It would be easy to "sum up" India by the rubbish, the traffic chaos, the cows and their patties, the smell, and the entire look and feel. But there's so much more to it, something quite special.

To end our stay in India, we went to see a Bollywood film. It was 3 hours long, but due to our train leaving, we only got to see the first half. Hands on my heart, that was the best (half) movie I have ever seen. It didn't matter that there was no English or subtitles, as our leader translated the important bits – then it went like Chinese whispers down the 9 of us. This Bollywood film had the love of Shakespeare, the suspense and romance of a drama and it was a seriously funny comedy! It was set in Varanasi, a city at face value, we wrote off as a dirty town. Without a real concept of what the movie was about, we starting to see India from a different perspective. The ladies in their saris, the Sadhus, the animated Indian people, the energy of Indian weddings, the beautiful temples and the Ganges through their eyes was something else. Not to mention the holy festival. The festival of colours just shone through with coloured powder used to chuck at each other. It lights up the city like nothing I've ever seen. Our leader said this isn't dramatised, it really looks like this with people dancing and singing.

Being in a place that has so much history and culture and then seeing it from another perspective was literally mind changing.Often when travelling you're tired and all of the days merge into one, temples are the same and people's true passion and colour cannot be seen. Seeing this film brought India, its beautiful culture and it's spirt alive.

There's India and then there's the rest of the world. There is no doubt travelling through India was challenging, but what shines through is the heart and soul of the India culture and it's warm welcoming people. We will be back.

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