Taj Mahal: check
Ultimately, I'm glad I went to Agra; the Taj Mahal actually lived up to the hype. Also very glad that even though I didn't get in till 11pm, I set my alarm for 5:22am and was one of the first twenty people in the gates. It was pretty magic at sunrise, and not crowded with tourists. Full photo set here.
In the afternoon I went to the Agra Fort, which was also impressive (full photo set here). But what I'll probably remember the most are the hours that I spent drinking tea and talking with Pradeep, the travel agent who helped me book my bus ticket to Rishikesh. I stopped by there after the Taj, and was told to come back at 10 when the boss was in. When I got there at 10, I met Pradeep, and he told me to wait until 11 because he wanted to make sure that the bus was actually going that day before he made the booking. He invited me to share some tea while I waited, and we ended up talking for over an hour about philosophy and life in general.
After seeing the fort, late afternoon, I went back to pick up the ticket. He explained that in Uttar Pradesh you can't book bus tickets more than an hour in advance and only at the bus station, but of course there was a way around that, one for which I was grateful.
I spent two more hours there, listening to his awesome stories about how he got an American green card in the 70's, started multiple travel agencies, lived in Denver, San Francisco, and Chicago, where he worked at the bakery where my mom still buys pastries on holiday mornings. In return I shared many stories of my own, and we parted ways genuinely enjoying the conversation and friendship that had formed around a trivial bus ticket.
With his help I had a rough overnight busride (it was a real boneshaker) but met some nice fellow travellers from East Anglia and Sweden, and settled into a joyless room in Laxsman Jula, Rishikesh. Put on some Beatles and think of me watching the mighty Ganges!