We left Delhi at 6.30 am. By 7.00 it was clear that the bindi we had last night was rotten. Adrian had a bad dose of food-poisoning, resulting in unscheduled car stops with water and tissues, to the general entertainment of hordes of onlookers. It also resulted in a visit to a doctor in an extraordinary back lane, for (carefully checked) sterile injections and prescription. Although I was worried, things now seem stable, and Adrian’s asleep as I write. My bout was trivial, relatively, and after Leningrad pork, I know how he felt. Total fees? 100 Rs (£2.50) and 23 Rs (50p) for the tablets, issued by a flyblown kiosk in another back street. Wow. The guy who took us is a colleague of our driver, and he guided us all day. I believed him when he said the hotel would charge 800 Rs + for the same service. He couldn’t believe the NHS (Mind, we’ve been away 4 days. Is it still hale and hearty?)

More memorably (for me, at least) was our visit to the Taj Mahal. It is quite simply the most beautiful building in the world; or at least, this side of Coalville’s Clock Tower. It took 20,000 skilled stonemasons 22 years (rather than 3 council brickies a couple of weeks on double time). It’s totally clean, a) because they’ve banned industrial development in Agra (causing chronic unemployment) and b) by leaving poisoned bait for the birds at night. Magnificent. We’re off at 5.00 am, so I must get some sleep. We’re trying to make up today’s lost time.