Taj- check! 1st stomach revolt- check! 1/7
Up early to see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. I forgot about the male (2)/female (1) line cue again and had to move. They opened around 7 but the smog was he at so there was no sunrise to be seen. The smog did create a mystical feel around the minarets, mosque, mausoleum, and towers which was really beautiful but not great for pics. We went to the front of the Taj and took some pics with the water down below, then went to the east waiting for the sun to rise. To the west we got some great pics of the sun rising behind the Taj. 
Then we went inside the mausoleum and looked in aww at the intricacies of the flowers in the stone work around the stone caskets. The flowers are made of precious stone and then laid and glued in the marble. The flowers were made up of such tiny pieces, it was amazing the detail and how the colors came together, such as the slivers of pearl to highlight a petal. The garden on the grounds is a really nice break from the garbage and chaos outside the walls- green grass and trees from all over Asia.
We went back to the hotel for a quick bite of butter bread and masala tea, showered, then left around 11. Freakin Sanjay took us to a place so we could see how they make the artwork in the stone. Yeah well two guys did show us and it was really cool. One guy was grinding the stone to form the flower, the other guy was etching the marble it's going to be placed in (they cover the marble in henna so they can see where they are scratching). Then of course it turned into a shopping show. Our response was "we don't buy souvenirs" it's hard to argue with that. Then we just walked out. Andy laid it out for Sanjay to not take us to places like that anymore. "Whatever you wish". Later he said he has to take us to a couple of state stores or he'll get in trouble. Ugh. He can take us but we aren't getting out of the car. Everyone is trying to get something off of you here. It makes it easier to ignore the beggars, don't look at them in the eye, don't even say no, just move on. It took us 1.5 hours to get out of Agra. Our car sideswiped a family on a motorcycle. Of course it was their fault. No harm, we keep moving after he yells at them.
On the way to Ranthambore National Park we drove past fields of mustards and workers baking bricks in the kilns and were using camels to move them. We bought some oranges and bananas and enjoyed the perfect temperature. I told him we wanted to stop for snaks so he took us to a fucking tourist rest stop. "Some street food is very dirty". OK then, take us to less dirty street food. We are big kids. The food was blah (how do you mess up samosas?) and expensive ($5 for two samosas and chai teas). Either Sanjay doesn't get that we really don't want this tourist BS or he's not listening which will piss us off quickly.
We watched a beautiful sunset of red over the mustard fields as we reached the hotel at 6. So much for the 5.5 hr ride dude. As soon as we got to our room Andy's breakfast of cold curry something pissed off his stomach and he puked- a lot. Aww my love. Let's hope that was all. We have another early day tomorrow.
Tick update: my bite finally stopped hurting after 3 weeks. It's still very visible but going away. Andy's on the other hand acted up 2 weeks later. It looked infected. I thought I was going to have to amputate. It's starting to dry up so I think we are good ("think" is the key word). These fuckers are vicious. Come to think of it, we are back in the jungle! Ugh. Bug repellent I suppose. I don't want the shit the bugs carry here in India.
And then the puke hit me too- stomach revolt #2- check.