Day 3 (New Delhi/Agra)

Our final tourist stop in Delhi was a large mosque in the center of the city. Getting in proved to be a bit of a hassle as we had to remove our shoes, thus exposing our feet to baking hot stone, and anyone who wasn't covered to ankles and wrists had to don a "beautiful" luridly patterned poncho-like circus tent. Our mixed-gender multi-colored group proved to be the main attraction at the mosque (some boys even got a little "handsy" with Sasha during a photo shoot). The best part of the mosque visit was climbing up to the top of the minaret (where the imam calls everyone to prayer). The men relaxing at the top were quite surprised to find 15 Westerners charging into the small space....From this vantage point we could see the whole of Delhi, even though a 360 degree view required edging along a narrow ledge above the stairwell! This excursion finally enabled us to understand how large Delhi is (it was also interesting to see how few tall buildings there were). We even spotted a funeral procession entering the mosque before we descended down the very narrow and dark stairs. Though Dean (temporarily) left his shoes behind, we otherwise made a smooth getaway (and even took some very attractive slipper souvenirs).

The rest of our day was dominated by the four-hour slog to Agra, the town near the Taj Mahal. The most exciting moment of the drive was when we all realized a desperate Nick Spears had peed into a water bottle while no one was looking and left it on the back seat (Salil was particularly delighted).

The entire group was overjoyed to discover that our hotel rooms in Agra housed marble floors and beautiful bedsteads...which almost made up for the near-useless air conditioning! We didn't have long to enjoy our spacious rooms as we quickly went to bed to prepare for our early start the next day.