"...i'm building a beautiful statue, to make sure that no one forgets you..."

this is a very short post that will no longer be accompanied by pictures as i originally planned. aparently this internet cafe doesn't allow photo downloads so that will be left to another time. either way thought it time for another quick update, so here we go:

since the last time i wrote we've travelled to agra (on the most luxurious train ride to date, and also the most expensive) from varanasi. we originally had booked some lovely overnighter second class grubby ol' sleeper fan train but then that got cancelled and mr khan our lovely driver/briber got us on this posh a/c car for the low low price of 25oo rupees... (our reg train was supposedy around 350) we were too tired and hot to protest and there was really no other choice if we wanted to arrive on time so grudgingly we got on and tried really hard not to enjoy all the amenities the train provided us. free food, clean sheets, coooooooooool clean air and a slightly more secure car where one is less likely to have all their stuff stolen from underfoot.

needless to say we actually arrived in agra on time (for once) made it to our hotel, met up with angelee, megan and joanna and headed off the next day to the taj!

and it was all one expects and more.... quite overwhelming really. and covered in tourists. it wasn't until the second day taht we went back at 6 am that it wasn't swarming with people. so of course we did all the touristy things like pinching the taj and glamour shots. (for pics head over to diana or eugene's blogs... i believe they have pics up already) . we looked decidedly less than glamours due to the copious amounts of sweat the heat accumulated upon us. but oh well! it was fantastic nonetheless! we also spent some time at the red fort nearby but of course the taj was the main feature.

oh, and yes, for those of you who care, i did listen to sam roberts while sitting in the shade admiring the lovely white marble... it was fantastic(ally cheesy).

anyhoo there wasn't much more to do in agra besides sweat and eat (oooh and find a cool mall to buy reaaaaalllly tacky shirts to replace some of dee's wardrobe that was lost in pondicherry) so we are now off to delhi for our flight out to....

kashmir! yeah that's right.... read the next post more to come from leh.