After 2-nights in Delhi, Chandi our driver for the first week in India picked us up in his comfortable mid-size SUV for the 4-hour drive to Agra. Chandi had been the driver that brought us from the airport to the hotel in Delhi and again the day before on our city tour but up until this point, he had really not spoken all that much with us. We discovered this was a pattern we saw not only with Chandi and also with our driver for the 2nd week as well. Basically, when a guide was in the car, the driver is the driver and is expected to follow the guides lead and really not speak unless spoken to.

But during the 4-hour drive to Agra, Chandi showed a lot of personality as well as a lot of knowledge of where we were and answered a lot of our questions about what we were seeing.

Along the way we made an interesting pit stop at a truck stop/travelers’ station and were excited to find cans of tonic water that would go well with the bottle of Bombay Sapphire we had purchased at the duty-free shop.

We noticed that there was still air pollution but it was quite a bit improved over what we had seen in Delhi. Upon arrival in Agra we checked into the Trident Hotel and were really impressed with the property, the planned activities for guests and the staff. We wished we would be able to stay there more than one-night.

We met our guide Mr. Gupta at the hotel. We were happy with all of the guides that Cox & Kings provided but found Mr. Gupta to be especially passionate and knowledgeable about his city. He explained our schedule for the afternoon was designed for us to be at the Taj Mahal at sunset, which meant we could either take a slightly early lunch or perhaps grab something on the street. We chose the early lunch option.

We had read some good reviews of the restaurant In Dish including high praise not only for its food but also for the service and cleanliness and being located less than half a mile from the Trident Hotel it seemed a good choice. Being a little early we were warmly greeted as the first customers of the day.

My partner was on a mission to find The Best Butter Chicken in northern India and at the time she had this one, she proclaimed it the best so far. I had the grilled minced lamb kabab (Seekh kebab) and our friendly waiter advised he could arrange for (one of my favorites) grilled lamb ribs for the evening meal if we decided to return.

After lunch we visited the impressive 16th Century Red Fort of Agra. (There is a “Red” Fort in every city we visited in northern India.) It’s an impressive complex and we got our first view of the Taj Mahal visible across the countryside from one of the perimeter rooms at the fort. We also visited the Jama Masjid, built by Shah Jahan in honor of his daughter. It is one of the largest mosques in India in the Persian style of architecture.

At that point, it was time for the main event; the real reason we were in Agra. It was time for our first visit to the Taj Mahal. This is one attraction I did want to go into a bit more detail on so you can read about our afternoon visit as well as our trip early the next morning to witness the sun rise there.