Agra

A scorcher today with humidity to match. At the Taj this morning by 7am but I suspect already in the 30s and very busy........but what a sight to behold....it is astonishing!

Many have waxed lyrical about it's beauty but I rather like the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore's description as "a teardrop on the cheek of eternity"

We were fortunate to view it from across the river later in the afternoon at the newly reconstructed Moghul garden Metab Bagh and to visit the exquisite and much smaller tomb Itmad-ud-Daulah (built by a Persian woman Nur Jahan for her father).

That was yesterday .....today we moved on to Gwalior and our oasis of a hotel set in beautiful gardens complete with 400 year old carved Hindu temples and resident peacocks.....the purple and orange colour scheme of our Agra digs is a distant memory.....ah well.

The monsoon has hit so we took a rickshaw ride to the completely different world that is the real Gwalior....a very busy market stretching for kms and much religious activity as it is the start of a 9 day festival to Hindu goddesses.....so much music, noise and colour in the streets....all in the pouring rain.