Agra

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Writing this on Tuesday afternoon but not sure when I’ll post it. There is an internet connection at the hotel but I don’t think it’s too reliable. The flight was fine so I can recommend Turkish Airlines for the future. But the journey from the airport to the hotel - well, it lived up to my expectations! After changing my money, I decided to pay a little bit more than usual for the taxi, hoping that the promise of “radio cabs” and luxury A/C cars” might mean the drivers also had a map. I’m just too gullible! When they say “radio cabs” it probably picks up a couple of stations but that doesn’t help to find the hotel. As always, the driver knew the right sort of district - but that’s it. He then resorted to asking anyone and everyone for the next 45 minutes while we cruised the back streets. As you can imagine there aren’t too many people around at 4:30 am and those that are, don’t really help. I think it was pure good luck when we found the hotel at 5 am.

I’d say it’s 3 star: I’ve stayed in similar places in Delhi and Mumbai and although there’s a few rough edges, it’s fine for a couple of days. We’re promised that the places we stay out of the cities will be much better.

This afternoon we did the quick tourist whiz round all the must see places: India Gate, Gandhi’s memorial, Old Delhi back streets……but I think we were all too tired to really take it onboard. We met for dinner at the hotel restaurant and the food was excellent. Not too spicy and great value (cost of the beer was way more than the food!). Although the Grand Sartaj doesn’t rate highly on TripAdvisor, it only has one review to date, and those people obviously caught them on a bad day. You have to press the reset button before reviewing Indian hotels - it’s just not the same as Europe.


Postscript: finally posted on Thursday morning from Agra - had a good day Wednesday at Taj Mahal (in the rain this time) and at Agra Fort which was much better than expected all round. Have to dash now - will try again tomorrow......

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Comments

[Shailendra]

taxi proble
There is no radio taxi facility available in Agra, always you have to bargain with local drivers but hope well for the future. Few of the taxi service providers from Delhi now starting service in Agra also. Agra India