Namaste!

I've only been for a few days but it seems ages ago that I left home. The first day I was surprised about everything: the cows, the heat, the (bad) smell, the poverty, the dirt and garbage everywhere and the power being cut off every few hours. They don't have any bins here so they just burn all the garbage. The roads are mostly unpaved and I've seen so many poor people already, sleeping on the streets and begging for money. Loes and Brian told me they've seen far worse poverty than this, but this is enough for me.
It didn't take long to realise that literally everyone here tries to rip you off. Which I can understand in a way, but it's rather frustrating. Yesterday we went on a bus tour to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The guy from the tour agency told us it would only take 4,5 hours to get there. We left at 6.45 in the morning and only got there around 1.30. We had the worst seats on the bus - next to the driver - because apparently we had booked seats without air conditioning. Of course we could have other seats; if we paid. On our way to Agra we saw tractors, horses, camels and cows on the road (some going in the opposite direction and almost causing accidents).

In Agra we first went to see the Agra Fort. We didn't want to get in so we waited until everybody else got back. Then we went to some handicraft shop, after that we went to have lunch and only after that we went to the Taj Mahal. To find out we only had one hour and ten minutes before we went back. From the parking lot it was still a 1,5 kilometre walk to the entrance. We bought tickets (which cost 20 rupees for Indians - 750 rupees for foreigners) and saw an enormous cue. A guy came up and said he would get us in immediately - if we paid. We didn't have much choice. I already passed security when they held Loes. They said it was absolutely forbidden to take your ipod inside (although a camera was no problem). She had to take it back to the cloakroom, pay a 1500 rupees deposit and come back. We didn't have any more money with us so that was no option. Eventually we gave the ipod to a guy from a store near the Taj. We only had 15 minutes left to see the Taj Mahal - a mausoleum that some emperor had built for his wife when she was giving birth to one of their children. We ran through the complex, taking as much pictures as we could. Then we hurried back to the bus, longing for our guest house in Delhi. But we should have known it would take some time before we got there. We stopped at another temple. We stopped at some sacred garden. We stopped to have dinner, although it was after midnight. At 3 o'clock we finally got back in Delhi. What a day.