Lynn's Diary #3

Dear Diary

The bowlers and badminton players, along with Mike, Jacki, June, Norman, Andrew and I took the opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal yesterday, what a wonderful day out we had, albeit very long and hot.  We were taken by coach to the train station, then by special Commonwealth Games train to Agra, a journey of about 2-3 hours one way.  9 carriages are being used each day to transport the athletes and delegates to Agra, we calculated that about 600 people were in our party. We were looked after well on the journey with a breakfast on the way out and evening meal on the way back.  It was quite an eye opener and very moving to see how some people live in poverty right by the rail tracks, on occasions literally only a metre or so away from the speeding trains.

Norman is Norman Clark, of Normal Clark Photography - his record of the day's visit to the Taj Mahal is recorded here. Editor

We were met at the station by 18 coaches to transport everyone to the Taj. The roads in Agra were closed off completely whilst the convoy of buses travelled through the town.  The buses were not allowed near the Taj site and so everyone was then transported in battery powered vehicles. On reaching the Taj, it too was closed off to the public for the hour or so that the althletes were there. The Taj and whole area was amazing and well worth the long journey, I'm sure there will be photos to follow as everyone was clicking away, my words just could not do it justice.

 After the Taj Mahal, we were taken to a market place for some shopping and fiece haggling, I'm not one to haggle, but Andrew got a few bargains for me!  Lunch followed at a wonderfully grand hotel, imagine feeding 600 people in one sitting, whilst a folk dance show was put on for our entertainment.

 Our return train journey was marred by, as they thought we had lost of one of the passengers, the rail authorities and armed guards were getting quite hot under the collar.

We sat their whilst they panicked for about an hour, only to find out that the same person had been counted twice earlier in the day!  But all in all an amazing day was had by all.

 Oh no, there is just a report on TV at the moment saying that 6 snakes in total have been found around the Games Village, that would just finish me off if I saw one.

I'm off!