I slept really poorly last night, despite resorting to herbal remedies.

Early morning visit to the Taj Mahal, which was beautiful, but turned into a bit of a photo shoot, at my guide’s initiative. He’s clearly very experienced in tourism photography as he directed me on where and how to pose – cross my legs and put my hands on my knees, sit across the bench with one knee up and put my hands on my knees then on the back of the bench, sit facing the Taj Mahal then look back at the camera, turn to one side and look into the distance etc. I felt like an awkward model, as I wasn’t sure if I was smiling not enough / awkwardly or too much, if my hair was flying around etc. But hopefully there will be at least a couple of good shots in the hundreds he must’ve taken…

I was just reflecting it’s a bit bitter sweet to be visiting the Taj Mahal, such a great monument of love, on my wedding anniversary. Separately, on Taj Mahal being the monument of love, my friend gave me a T shirt which says “Via Agra – Man’s Greatest Erection to Woman”, which I thought was hilarious, and probably the best thing about Agra, and that I didn’t *really* need to visit the Taj Mahal. But I’m glad I decided on a whim, based on a friend’s suggestion, to do the “mini Golden Triangle” organised tour, instead of visiting Udaipur. After all, the Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders of the modern world. And listening to stories of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz (which i suspect my guide took some creative license with, since it doesn’t exactly jibe with Wikipedia) imbued the Taj Mahal with added significance.

Then breakfast and some rest at the hotel, when I discovered I got my period. That would partially explain my uncharacteristic bloating and fullness. I asked the reception where the nearest pharmacy was. When I arrived at the pharmacy, it was just a hole in the wall with 5 or 6 middle aged Indian guys sitting around behind a desk, with floor to ceiling cabinets of toiletries, and items. Maybe even medicine. I felt a bit awkward asking a bunch of men to for what I needed, but it couldn’t be helped, so I asked them if they had pads, and one guy pointed at a shelf. I peered at it from the ground, and then grunted and gestured for me to step up onto the platform / floor. One guy made an effort to sell by saying, “This XL – very good” I was a bit stunned, as I would really prefer ultra thins, but he didn’t understand my question, so in the end I looked around at their options and picked two packs of 6 pads which looked like they may be ultra thins.

After the break, the drive and guide picked me back up for a visit to a marble workshop where they would demonstrate the marble techniques that have been used since the time for Taj Mahal, and naturally to entice me to make a purchase. I was determined not to buy anything, and resolved that if really pressured, I would buy a small marble figurine of the boys’ Chinese zodiac animals. But in the event, they had no animals, and I fell in love with the beautiful marble handicraft of flowers etc. I told the guy I won’t buy anything this time, but I will return another time, but he kept insisting, and tourist season is almost over, so I eventually caved, and bought two small elephants with flowers of lapis lazuli for success in life, and malachite for prosperity.

Then it was a long car ride from Agra to Jaipur during which I initially felt very car sick, until I managed to doze off for a little nap.

I did some running on the treadmill in my Jaipur hotel. It was a poor excuse for a gym, but it was the only one of my hotels post-Mumbai to have a gym, and it was 31 degrees Celsius outside, so I opted to run on the treadmill instead. And anyway, I am in a part of new Jaipur which doesn’t seem particularly lovely or interesting. It definitely lacks the exuberantly chaotic energy of Delhi, or the pulse of Mumbai.

After the run, I decided to walk to a nearby mall (why not?) to potentially check out dinner options. It reminded me of some sad, slightly abandoned malls in Malaysia, and the food options were dismal, so i just ate in the hotel restaurant.