ABOVE: our view of the Taj Mahal from our hotel rooftop. looks like a scene from Aladdin, I know.

The morning of our trip, we headed to the bus station to pick up our tickets. We wound up at the station at 8am to find only a handful of people hanging out and no open ticket windows! Come to find out that the buses go often and we would have to come back just 20min before our bus time and get our tickets. My silly american mentality had kicked in. I'm in India, why plan so far ahead? 

As I left work, I realized that taking the train would be more convenient and would get us to Agra quicker! After work, we headed to the train station instead. Using my minimal hindi, I asked for two tickets to Agra only to find out we just missed a train and would have to wait an hour and a half for the next train. I stepped back to try to figure out what the best game plan would be. The man at the ticket counter could see that time was a concern of mine so he offered us a different ticket with an earlier departure time. There was a catch. Something about stopping in a town along the way and I couldn't understand the rest, but I decided to buy the tickets anyways. Just as I walked away from the counter, I rethought my decision and realized I probably missed a key piece of information. I flagged down the gentleman who helped me and he called me behind the counter. Like a father, he sat me down and scolded me (in hindi). He realized that I wasn't able to understand what he said to me earlier, so he explained that that was his reason to offer me the later ticket. He then exchanged our tickets for the later time and added that originally, I unknowingly purchased four tickets instead of two! We had purchased unreserved tickets, which are quite cheap but also a bit of a gamble. To give you an idea of how cheap they are, two tickets cost is 120rs ($2) and that is the same cost of taking a cab to the train station from my house! As you can tell by the name, there's no confirmation with an unreserved seat and you'll find all sorts of people traveling in these compartments. For short journeys, I think it's tolerable and a good deal!

Finally, we arrived in Agra at midnight only to find out from Natalie that the Taj Mahal would be closed the following day. It's always closed on fridays. Silly us! We stayed up for a few hours and caught up with Natalie, heard about her travels and her day in Agra. After getting two hours of sleep, we woke up at sunrise to catch the Taj Mahal. We went to the opposite side of the Taj, across the river, to get a good look at it. It was a really nice way to start the day, but we were exhausted. After a power nap and some breakfast, we headed to the Agra Fort. We were flocked by tour guides and eventually haggled a reasonable deal with one, which was totally worth it! After an hour long tour of the entire fort, we decided to tip our tour guide. He was just wonderful. 

Throughout Agra we would get bombarded by street-side shop keepers and auto rickshaw drivers, all who were trying to make a quick buck on us which got tiring by the end of the day. After a day of walking around in the heat, we were exhausted and headed to the station to catch a train back to Delhi. Natalie came with and brought some mehndi with her, which was perfect for the extra time we had. As I started putting the design on her, I drew a little crowd. One little girl was so mesmerized by what I was doing. She was around 10 and was a garbage collector at the station. When I was done with Natalie's design, the little girl looked up at me in her tattered old clothes and softly asked if I could give her a design as well. I said yes, and again, drew a crowd. When I finished, the look on her face was priceless and the feeling I had was pure happiness. Our joyful moment was quickly disrupted by her 'boss' who scolded her for not doing her work. She just smiled and shrugged and went on with her work, glancing up and down at her hand. 

All in all, we had a very unexpected experience in Agra, but it was a very memorable one!