Extortionate Bills and Oval Wheels

Ive finally arrived at Indias premier attraction, The Taj Mahal in Agra.
The Taj is admittedly very beautiful, although I must confess that I haven’t been completely blown away by it. While most people know the story behind the building of the Taj, I will repeat it briefly for those of you who don’t.
First the Essex version….. Once upon a time there was this kingy like geezer who’s missus kicked the bucket, he was well miffed and after bawling like a baby for a few days he builds this chuffing great building and stuffs the ex ball and chain in it. Then his son sticks him in the slammer and later he kops it after spending a few years eyeballing the tomb of her indoors from his perch in prison cell block H.
And for the others, The Taj Mahal is a wonderful monument to architecture and to the loss of a loved one. Emperor Shah Jahan , the ruler at the time, built this building as a monument to his deceased wife Mumtaz. Several years later Shah Jahan was betrayed and imprisoned by his son Aurangazeb. Shah Jahan spent his last years, looking at the monument he built through the window of his cell. Awww....sad isn’t it……
Arriving in Agra, you very rapidly realise that you are in a place where tourists almost outnumber the locals and as a consequence your hounded almost every step of the way by everyone who thinks that they can make a fast buck out of you.
No matter how tanned you may be and how 'India wise' you may seem, everybody seems to treat you as you have come straight in off the banana boat and the prices around the tourist entrances can be horrendous.
You have to be careful with the admission fees too. These are not made clear and can cause a considerable amount of confusion. The AGA ticket that can be bought for 750Rs is supposed to cover the Taj Mahal, Fadepur Sikri, Agra Fort, Sikandra and Etmad-ud-Daula. On buying the ticket, you are led to believe that if you keep the ticket then it will gain you entrance to all 5 sites. Unfortunately, however, this is not the case. In typical Indian style, the mission to rip off tourists continues and once you get out to the other sites you are told that holding this ticket means that you get out of paying the individual “tourist taxes” which at most sites is a measily 10 Rs….. wow….. It doesn’t make the taste in your mouth any better when Indian tourists pay a paltry 10 or 20Rs to get into most of the sites.
Avoiding the tourist onslaught is not a major problem though, as long as you are willing to get up at the crack of dawn. The Taj opens at 6am and its worth getting there early just to avoid all the rickshaw drivers, hawkers and other individuals who would like nothing more than to take a few bob off of you. While many people do tend to think alike and make the early morning trek down to the Taj, the Eastern entrance seems to be the least crowded place and the best one to make a beeline for. Take as little as possible with you, rucksacks must be left outside and your physically searched before you go in. Once inside you still have to face the gauntlet of Russian and Japanese tourists who have to be in every photo they take, however around 8-9am the rampant hoards in their tourist buses start turning up so waiting a few minutes to get an unobscured shot is a small price to pay.
The mission to find India’s most unroadworthy bus continues too. Travelling out to Fadepur Sikri we had the fortune of travelling in a bus with oval tyres, making the entire bus vibrate horrendously the faster we went. How more people don’t die in bus accidents is beyond me, either they do and we don’t hear about it, or the Hindu Gods are a powerful protecting force indeed!!!
The bus back wasn’t much better and while its wheels seemed to be round, the interior looked like it had been set upon by an epileptic wielding an angle grinder!
Anyway, our hotel was great, having possibly the best views of the Taj from the Taj Ganj area and to top it off our chef Babu made the best honey pancakes that I have ever tasted…. It was worth coming to Agra just for those alone!
Im now actually looking forward to taking a break from India and with only one town to go (Varanasi) before leaving for Nepal im just hoping that this small country to the north is going to fulfil my expectations, especially after all the great reports ive been hearing about it.
But first, its off to face death and cremation in Varanasi, this should be interesting……

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