Agro in Agra!

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The Taj Mahal

The best time to view the Taj is apparently at sunrise and sunset when the light hits the Taj at different angles and changes its colour, unfortunately due to a small incident in the night (which is another story that cant be written about on here!) I was in no fit state to get up at 5.30am for the sunrise. We did however get there for 7.30am and it was still every bit as impressive as the pictures make out and a lot bigger than I had thought. The cost to get in is also very impressive at 750 rupees for foriegners (Indians get in for about 25 rupees)

The lack of photos of anything else in Agra is down mainly to the fact of the fragile state I was in for the rest of the day, we therefore did a whole lot of nothing!

Our plan after Agra was to now head north to Shimla in the foothills of the Himalayers but to get there we had to get a train from Agra to Delhi (3 hours), a train from Delhi to Kalka (4 hours) stay 1 night in Kalka, then catch the single track train from Kalka to Shimla the following day (6 hours). If only it was that easy.....

Our train to Delhi was delayed by 2 hours so we had a 3 hour wait (we now always arrive 1 hour before the train leaves) at Agra station in the morning, when we got on the train we had to fight for our seats as they were occupied by a local family. In Delhi we had to get a tuc tuc from the station we arrived in, to New Delhi station where had time for some lunch in the sun which was a welcome rest, before we caught our train to Agra which was by far the nicest train we had been on all trip, in first class we had dinner served by waiters and a TV each!

Arriving in Kalka was a little intimidating as it was 10.30pm and we had nowhere to stay and as Kalka is not even listed in the bible (Lonely planet) we couldn't plan anywhere or get a taxi to somewhere reliable looking. As soon as we walked outside the station we were surrounded by tuc tuc and taxi drivers trying to take us to 'a friend of theirs' hotel (they all work on commission) then a couple of other guys suggested we just stay in the station, which didn't look appealing at all. We decided in the end just to walk up the main road and look for a place, the first hotel tried to charge us a ridiculous amount for the night, so we politely turned them down. Fortunatley the next hotel had some really nice guys in there, although it was quite hard communicating with them and a very cheap room, I think they were also just quite happy to have some guests as we were the only ones staying!
Getting to sleep was a little difficult at first as there was a wedding going on outside in the street and if anyone has been to an Indian wedding your know its not a quiet affair.

The train to Shimla was leaving at 5.30am so at 5.00am we were packed up and ready to go, only trouble was that we had been locked in the hotel, full on metal shutters down on the front door and not a sign of anyone from the hotel! Luckily they hadn't locked the padlock so I got that off but still couldn't budge the shutters. At this point I was still having a few issues from Agra so had to run back to the room and by the time I was back Emilie had very easily moved the bolts and lifted the shutter! We then ran down the road to the station in the dark, arriving with minutes to spare only to find out train was delayed by 3 hours!!!!!!
Four hours and a very uncomfortable wait later the train finally pulled out of Kalka and we were on our up the single track line to Shimla with all memories of tuc tuc drivers and endless waiting soon forgotten!

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Photos

The Taj!
Incase you didn't recognise it

The view from our room!
The view in our room however was degusting.

Comments

[Darren]

The Taj Mahal
Tom & Emilie, Sounds like you're having a great time over there - even the hiccups you're facing sound exciting. Love the shuttered hotel story :D Great photo's (I was in stitches at the 'Our lovely room' photo, Emilie looks like she's ready for a nuclear fallout & I'm puzzled at the photo of afro guy ???). Can't wait for your next post. Darren