The Taj Mahal and Train Agra-vation


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Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra
November 2nd 2006
Published: November 4th 2006
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So being that it is high season for tourists, getting a train from Varanasi to Agra was a little bit harder than we expected. After much hassle, we realized that we would have to leave our sheltered world of air conditioned sleeper berths and brave the "real" indian rail system. i say "real" in parenthesis because we still got a sleeper berth, just the crappy one....and it still isn't as terrifying as normal seat classes. So anywho, not knowing exactly what to expect we boarded the train in varanasi around 10am, thinking that we'd be in Agra by 7pm. When we first got on to the train, i had to triple check the ticket to make sure i had the right seats, because there were four indian people sitting across the row. After a little confusion, they got up and we sat down. We were sharing our train car with 3 guys from Bangladesh and one guy from Japan. The berth had 6 beds, the top two down and the bottom two arranged in seat formation, and then across the row another two beds. So, really, there's supposed to be 8 people total in the whole section. There were 8 people amongst our 6 bed section. The japanese guy was smart and just crawled up to the top bed and stretched out. Max and i were upright in OUR seats, but we had an indian woman accompanying us as well, who was busy making conversation with 3 other women squeezed in across the row. I was fine with sitting up since it was daytime and all, but about 5 hours in, i was ready to stretch out. I was all for putting down the middle bed and napping, but max wanted to stay up and read, and he felt bad about kicking the woman out. I found it weird that in all that time nobody came around to check our tickets, and on my trips to the bathroom i noticed that each compartment was becoming more and more crowded....people were squeezing into every little nook and cranny.
After a bit longer, I REALLY wanted to stretch out and max and i argued a bit between the two of us about the logistics of putting down the seat. I felt that since we had paid for the seats, we were absolutely entitled to stretch out and lay down and kick the lady out. Max, being a little more humane than myself, was not altogether ready to let that fly. So the time passed. Eventually the train ticket check guy came around and you'd be amazed at how fast the train car cleared out. OUr mysterious guest vanished from whence she came and max and i had our clear row. I stretched out and lay down on his lap and he could still sit up and read. We alternated between lying and sitting, and during this half sleep time i had a bit of an internal struggle. Am i just a big bitch or what? Is it wrong that i feel like we should be able to lay down and occupy the space that we purchased? Is it wrong that i kinda gave the lady a "tough shit" look when she came back to "reclaim" her spot that i was comfortably nestled in? I have to admit i was feeling a little bit guilty as men and women would pass our berth and see us comfortably hanging out while they eyed our 2 cubic inches of free space with the look of a child who can't resist stealing that one sugary gummy worm from the candy store.
During one of our turns, max was lying on my lap and being an opportunist, and Indian gentleman proceeded to plop down his tiny frame in the itty bitty space between max's feet and the metal at the end of the bed. We were ok with this until the gentleman, deciding he was not comfortable enough, proceeded to sit directly on Max's feet. I dunno, i guess it was a personal space issue for us. But max, being the easy going lovable guy that he is, let the guy warm his toes with his ass, and passed the time without complaint.
When it came time for me to lay down again, Max went back for his book. I wanted to put down the second bed to stretch out and we had the same logistical arguement again, this time considering the feelings of the guy occupying our extra 2 cubic inches. Max really wanted to sit up and read so that we wouldn't miss our stop, and i was comfy and tired so i started to pass out. We both lost all sense of guilt when the man had the audacity to ask us to put up the middle bed so that he could sleep in it. I was all for putting down the bed, but for ME to sleep in........but max wasn't having it. He wanted to read, and like i said, i was ok with stretching out on him. So, for once in our lives, we got to utilize the "no comprende" confused look that Mexicans in the kitchen our so good at.
The train travel could definitely have been worse, but it was just annoying more than anything else. I didn't like having to do a scathing self analysis about whether or not i am a greedy whitebread bitch who can't share when all i wanted to really do was lay down in the bed that i paid for.........i still don't know if we were being unreasonable or if it was perfectly ok for us to act as we did. We decided to attempt to travel via AC train only simply for the non hassle aspect of it. It's quiet. Nobody tries to encroach. And there's enough space where max can still sit up and read and i can pass out which is all i wanted the whole trip anyway.
Anywho. We got into agra and to our suprise had a driver waiting for us. We had met him in Varanasi and for some reason he had decided to pick us up from the train station, which was a very nice suprise. He took us to our hotel, which was a grimy little joint that boasts "special" views of the Taj Mahal. It was black when we got there, so we settled into the familiar hum of the florescent lights and called it an evening. We woke up the next morning and sure enough, from the restaurant of our hotel we had a rather fetching view of the Taj. From where we sat we could see the red sandstone of the entrance gate and the taj itself, but it still retained a sense of far away postcard quality. It didn't seem real, but it was a nice thing to gaze upon while eating breakfast. We determined that we would go see the Taj at sunset (since nobody ever does that) (insert sarcasm) because it was closed the following day. We idled around Agra, checked email and the like and then went to line up at around 4. When we got to the gate my heart sank a bit. When it comes to snapping photos i am an opportunist, and each minute that passed in that horrible line was spent surveying the falling sun and cursing myself for not coming an hour earlier.
They separate the lines into men and women so that they can molest your bits while searching for semiautomatic weapons and fireworks that whities so often carry into national monuments. After what seemed like an eternity i finally made it through the woman line and met max on the other side. Together we passed under the red stone gate and the first glimpse of the Taj Mahal came into view.
(Insert jaw drop and overwhelming feeling of awe)
Despite the fact that the sea of tourists was blocking any chances of a decent camera shot, that first eyeful of the building itself was really fantastic. I was a little bit bitter about how many freaking people were around and the fact that by Indian standards, what we pay to get in is robbery. Indians pay about the equivalent of 50 cents to see this marvel, and tourists pay about 15 dollars. Word on the street is that this is all attributed to president Clinton's visit in 2000, in which he remarked to an indian dignitary, "wow, this is really beautiful! You guys could charge a lot more for this." Advice that the dignitaries to to heart and at which future tourists scoff.......thanks Bill.
But despite that, (and i realize i'm doing a lot of whiny american ranting here) it was totally worth it. As you get closer to the edifice it gets more and more amazing. It really is big, and even from the front gate it looks small. There's something about the volumptousness of middle dome that seems to dwarf its base and create an optical illusion of small size that is shattered when you approach and stand beside it. It is magnificent. There was another huge line to get inside, in which max patiently waited while i went around snapping photos like a magazine reporter on crack. I conveniently joined him just before the entrance and was happy to not have waited. The inside was dark and cavernous and just smelled like sweaty feet. I could've done without it. But then after marching through the dark in line you emerge again to the falling sun and the marble has taken on yet another color. I couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous of the woman who was so adored that she had THIS built in her honor.
Max and i wandered around for a while and as the day was winding down we took a seat at the marble raised area that sits in front of the Taj. As the sky changed from soft orange to purple we gazed with appreciation at that glorious heap of marble. We both echo my grandfather's sentiment that this is INDEED the most beautiful building either of us have ever seen.


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