As other reviews have pointed out, ajays guesthouse is run by dodgy, thieving dishonest men. Whose names are ajay, babu and another guy who shrouded his identity with a scarf over his mouth. I'll start with the only positive - the location, that's all.

Not only did they try to rip us off during every situation they also thought we were idiots.

To be honest these situations were too numerous to mention but some low lights included:

Stating we would have to buy a black market train ticket for 3000rps, saying there was only one flight to Delhi and it would be $300 per person but when I insisted that I would look it up I found it for $150! Then they said the internet wasn't working so we couldn't book our own tickets.

In retrospect we are pretty sure we picked up our parasite infection from the hotel's restaurant (caged from monkey invasion)

In summary don't stay here, the owners are cheating dogs

Two friends shared a twin room for 3 nights, given a great view over the Ganges. The staff were very helpful and we would both go back!

We stayed here for three nights, and the view was so amazing over the ganges. When we first got there they said that all rooms were booked, except this little cold room without windows. When we started saying that on the internet there were free rooms with them, they suddenly found a room with a view.

The room prices are a bit to high compared with that it is not very clean. We even had a mouse in our room - going in and out of the airconditioning. We didn't find out were the noise was comng from until the last evening. They searched the room, and it seemed liked they didn't really belive us.

Since there was no traintickets to Agra for the next 4 days, we booked a 10 day trip with driver and hotels through the guesthouse. Ajay tells you that the kilometer price in rupees is 10, but we checked in some other cities and its only 8 on average. We felt so safe with our driver on the roads, but he only spoke very little english.

We would not recommend that you book the hotels through Ajay. The hotels were not very central located, some we could't even find on trip advisor, the staf at the hotels only knew very little english and you don't meet any other travellers besides indian businessmen. We also tried to email ajay about the rooms, but they never gave us a respond.

Everybody has something wonderful to say about someone they met here and ours was no exception - we had a wonderful young guide called Lalit who was funny, enthusiastic, very knowledgable, dedicated, welcoming and helpful. I learnt so much, laughed so much and felt that he had willingly shown us more than he needed to - the extras that make a wonderful experience so much more than that and made it an incredible one. Beware though - he might test you on what you've remembered!

The truly luxurious part of the guesthouse is its location right on the river - you really don't want to miss this experience. Brave the marauding monkeys and go up on to the terrace, have a go at kite fighting (then let Lalit show you how it's done) and thenlet him lead you through the winding alleyways for a mind-boggling experience of sights, sounds, smells and 1000s of temples, large and small. Make sure you take the evening boat trip and the early morning one for two very different experiences of the timeless and vibrant life of this place,

The rooms are not luxurious but the welcome is warm and friendly. Ask for Lalit when you book and let him both lead you and teach you.

If you're looking for internet you'll have to go to the office or the restaurant (where bizarrely you'll feel like you're the ones who are caged exhibits being viewed by the monkeys marauding around you!) Thank you to everyone - but mostly to the wonderful Lalit!