Today we're in Agra having finished our tour and saw the Taj Mahal. The Taj is a truly beautiful building, especially the geometry and the shifting shades as the sun rises and sets. Our (cheap) hotel room overlooks the Taj so we'll get to see the morning thing tomorrow without too much effort - we saw the sunset bit today but the sheer numbers of tourists milling around kind of spoils what should be a peaceful spot. Anyway, its still not the best building in the world which as far as I'm concerned is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Our tour finished last night - after Udaipur we took in holy/hippie Pushkar, the state capital Jaipur, a "tiger safari" where the tigers didn't come out to play but there were plenty of other things to see, and then on to Agra. Some of the highlights of India so far:

The rats temple - just like an ordinary Hindu temple except that there are (literally) thousands of rats running unchecked around the place - they're holy rats apparently. Totally bonkers but taken completely seriously by the locals.

The driving - everyone who comes to India comments on the driving, so here's my turn. It's actually just a different set of driving rules - you only have to worry about the stuff in front (a bit like skiing). If something in front is in your way or looking like it might get in your way use the horn (the only time when you have to worry about what's behind). In practice this simply means that right of way goes to the first person to arrive. I like it - it rewards the inventive!

The Jodhpur fort audio tour. The tour takes a minute to talk about narcotics while you pause in front of a wizened old man with a bubbly pipe thing. It then informs you that you can ask the chap to let you sample the aroma (nice interactivity!). He then informs you that the pipe's gone out so gives you a chunk of opium instead. In the middle of an audio tour. Crazy Hindus.

The 'priests' of Pushkar were also quite funny, though not so much in a good way. They will do a prayer for you and all your family in return for a donation to the temple. This donation can be 50, 100, 200 pounds! No really sir, whatever you can afford! What price can you put on your friends and families happiness and wellbeing? Well not 50 rupees apparently. Even less so when you put the donation in the locked donation boxes instead of the tray they pass round...

We went to see a Bollywood film in Jaipur. The cinema was an amazing piece of architecture, a bit like a giant wedding cake - all pink and white swirly bits. The film we saw was something about "the journey from engagement to marriage), sort of a cross between a crap (sorry is there any other kind) soap (with the evil mother in law character and the dramatic fire) and a hollywood romcom by numbers with a cute kid who would pop up from time to time and say something funny - fortunately in Hindi. Exactly Grapes' favourite kind of film then. Most interesting was the audience participation. It was exactly like being in a pantomime with people alternately heckling, and applauding the different characters.

Having seen the Taj Agra has been largely exhausted as a destination so we're off to the station tomorrow to get tickets to somehwere. Not actually sure where yet but we'll see.