So the scene was set – Agra, the Taj Mahal, Leishia’s birthday, perfect.

Our alarm woke us at 5am and off we went, bleary-eyed, in a tuk-tuk to buy our tickets. We thought the Taj Mahal opened at 6am, turns out the ticket office opens at 6.30am and the monument at 7am. The plus was that there we were at a quarter to six at the front of the ticket office queue. All those stories about never getting a picture of the Taj Mahal with no one in the frame – we did!

But not before this little conversation: Leishia – “Mmm, it’s not as impressive as I thought it was going to be”. Ian – “That’s because that’s the gatehouse dear”. True story!

 Early morning mist.

 Serene.

The obligatory Diana shot:

The Taj Mahal was completed in 1643 (the construction took twelve years). It was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal. Their graves are in a crypt below the tomb chamber.

We went in to the tomb chamber. The acoustics were terrific and we stayed there for several minutes just soaking up the sounds. It was atmospheric. People often say the Taj Mahal is the most beautiful building in the world – we think they are right.

Here is the early morning sun rising over one of the other buildings on the complex:

After seeing the Taj Mahal we went to explore Agra Fort which pre-dates the Taj by seventy years. Another really impressive structure.

This is the Diwan-i-Aam, a hall used by the Emperor for public audiences.

and the courtyard:

 super door!

There was some great carving:

And a very amusing sign:

A very smartly dressed little girl:

And these four girls with Leishia:

We asked them what their uniform was and they said it wasn’t a uniform, they were just good friends so decided to go out dressed the same!

I managed to make a friend too, look at that beard!

We had one final stop in Agra. We needed to have a form notarised so sought out the local legal offices. Here they are:

 Open plan!

Here is Leishia waiting at our chosen advocate:

Next to her on the concrete desk was this:

And opposite where she was sitting was this:

It amused us greatly that the monkeys had chosen to congregate at “Legal Central”, for a while we couldn’t work out which were the monkeys and which the lawyers! Eventually we managed to get our sheets of paper plastered with stamps, certificates, more stamps, signatures and more signatures. When they ran out of places to put new stamps the process appeared to complete by default – and it only took ninety minutes!

We left Agra en route for Jaipur and stopped along the way at an abandoned town called Fatehpur Sikri which translates as “Victory Town”. The town was completed in 1585 but abandoned in 1599, apparently due to lack of available water. The place is in varying states of renovation:

We decided to concentrate our time on the vast mosque – Jami Masjid.

Here we are with the white Salim Chishti’s tomb behind us:

Salim Chishti was rewarded with this high honour because he correctly prophesied that the emperor, after many childless years despite having three wives, would have a son.

The inside of the tomb is stunning

People tie small pieces of cotton thread to the window screens and make a wish, the screen behind the woman above is covered in red threads.

Holy men lived on the site before the mosque was built and as they died they were buried in the new mosque:

And finally part of a very special door we saw in the mosque complex:

Eventually we left Fatehpur Sikri and drove on to Jaipur – now perhaps we’ll see some elephants!