Days 8

 Well, Today was getting to the Taj . . . we left our Hotel at 5:40AM with the aim of getting to the Taj for Sunset. We head off to Bangalore Airport and feel pretty good as we did the web check-in the night before . . . with only carry on luggage we waltz on in and decide to have breakfast near Security to the Boarding Gates. It was a relaxing time . . even funny . . as I went to the ‘chemist’ and described I had a slightly runny nose in which he handed me a rack of pills . . Pharmacy Grade . . (I checked the active ingredients) . . and said yep, they’ll do the trick and asked how much? He said 25 Rupee which is Aus 50 cents. I handed over 30 and he threw back a packet of gum as change . . . 

When it came time to get through the security gates we were told we needed a ‘stamp’ . . for what, we had NFI . .  we proceeded to run around asking etc . . got mixed stories as u do . . . We split up and Jenny managed to find the correct place that we needed to check in with . . the girls were sorted quicker than Brian and I (not sure what happened there as they are frisked in Private . . ) . . Anyway, with minutes to spare, Brian and I got through security after being groped and fondled by a security man . . Brian wanted to check out Polo shirts but with an Airport Staffer prompting us to Run and then running ahead of us it was easy to convince Brain that his Polo shirt can wait! We finally arrive at the door to the plane where it’s totally full except for us . .

So there’s 5 empty seats remaining near the front . .and in the sixth against the window is a girl that looks famous, Bollywood like material . .
She sees us and pulled a facial like moan . . like she thought she had the seats to herself.  . . well that’s what I convinced myself of . .

We sat, fake smiles all around and began relaxing . . . We finally pushed off and got away on time . . . The air crew were drooling and pampering over this girl all the way . . Was quite funny to observe. We were gentlemen and did not hassle her . . 8-) Brian sat next to her.

So we landed in Delhi at around 11am and met our driver to take us to Agra.
We thought it would be a 4 hour drive as informed by various sources. . . Clearly not. It ended up being about 6 hours.

Below is a pic of a guy selling car keys on a corner we passed .. . .
Fantastic!! Just name your model and I reckon you’re sorted!!

Click Image to Enlarge

Was never a boring trip . . the sights on and off the road were always interesting!!!

Click Image to Enlarge

Click Image to Enlarge

         

So we got there but missed the sunset and the Taj was closed. We had the driver park up and got a horse drawn cart up to the gates anyway just to suss the place out . . . It was interesting, met a lot of peddlers and sharks . . . and kids wanting to sell us stuff. Some of us ended up buying some quality things which was great as we knew we may not have time the next morning . . . So we headed back to the car on foot . .  walking past guards with AK47, UZIs, handguns . . . amongst peddlers wanting to sell Hashish Pipes (or Tokes on), Hooka rigs etc . . what an interesting mix!  We had to get firm with some of the peddlers as they kept hassling us . . He he. Got back to the hotel, booked a good tour guide, got fed and watered and crashed out . . . such a long day with such little return!!! Oh well . . .