Varanasi to Agra - 12/30

I woke up early in the morning and hooked up with some very nice Japanese tourists from our hotel for the famous Ganges boat ride during sunrise. Peter was grumpy because the monkeys kept him up during the night. Apparently they were throwing chairs and slapping each other. I didn't sleep through the night either as there were bells ringing for at least an hour during the night.

We made a mad dash through Varanasi traffic to the train station only to learn upon arrival that our train was delayed by several hours. No matter. We had our precious internet stick, so we spent our time at the train station booking more trains, hotels, and making plans. I love the magic internet stick.

This is how we sleep on the train.

Stinky Room.

Our train turned out to be over 5 hours late arriving in Agra. It was midnight by then and I absolutely hate arriving that late at the train station. It's scary and all the rickshaw men and taxi drivers flock to us like hungry wolves to raw meat. They always quote us a price we know is way more than what it should be. But this time what could we do? It was late and there was a dense fog in the air. You could barely see ten feet in front of you. Also, our hotel was not within walking distance. In addition to all this, there was a creepy young guy following me in very close proximity, staring at me like I was some alien. Very creepy indeed. We managed to find a fairly nice taxi driver who didn't rip us off too bad and made our way to the shanty town right outside the Taj Mahal. Our room was a nightmare. We have been staying in budget hotels which I am fine with, but this place was horrible. Thanks a lot Lonely Planet! The bed took up the size of the entire room, the attached toilet barely had enough room for you to use the actual toilet AND the toilet emitted a horrible sewer smell. It was disgusting. The sheets looked dirty so we slept in our sleeping bags after washing in the trickle of ice cold water that came out of the sink. It was not a very pleasant night.