Blogs from Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia
May 20th 2012
We left bustling New Delhi on our second full day in India. We were excited to leave the busy capital of India and head to the home of the Taj Mahal, Agra. This marks our first trip on an Indian train. The train station was a mere 5 minute walk from our hostel, so we packed up our bags and set off for a day of travel. The train station was easy to navigate and before we knew it we were sitting in our cabin of the train at platform 3. We had a sleeper cabin with fan no A/C. The train itself was not fancy or overly comfortable but we had a place to sit and a window to enjoy the views that passed by. It seemed like we were the only foreign travelers that ... read more
May 18th 2012
From Darjeeling we caught a flight to Delhi which was all a bit of a frustrating experience. There is so much bureaucracy here that it seems to take forever to go through the simplest processes like checking in baggage, going through security, queuing to get on the plane, it was all a bit much! Once in Delhi we checked out a few of the sights, Red Fort, National Museum, Khan Market (Tom was very excited at being able to buy vegemite). Nothing too impressive about Delhi, just a big, dirty city. At this stage we're feeling a bit mixed about India... the constant noise of horns, rubbish, filth, people spitting everywhere and the relentless hassle from touts / tuk tuk drivers from the minute you step out on to the street is pretty wearing. In Delhi ... read more
April 29th 2012
Agra has two main attractions – the Taj Mahal and the Agra fort. The first is more famous, most probably due to being clean and more westernised than any other place of interest, much more advertised literally everywhere, and charging you much more too. This is not to say the Taj is not nice – it is, but not so special after all, and there is not so much to see to be honest. Agra fort is a remote copy of the Lal Quila inDelhi, or rather the other way round, is a large complex of buildings and a home to monkeys and green parrots. Not as white as Taj, but who cares? Monkeys and parrots are better! The idea to book a hotel in Agra was a good one, for we had a place to ... read more
April 29th 2012
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April 28th 2012
After having enjoyed the peacefulness and the cooling wind of the Himalayas, we headed for one of the hallmarks of every Indian trip, the magnificent Taj Mahal in Agra. We took an overnight bus from Nainital directly to Agra and arrived there early in the morning to enjoy the Taj at sunrise.... read more
April 5th 2012
Well i've now been where all good India tourists and nationals must go, the Taj Mahal. It is pretty amazing actually, so big and sparkling and it just looks pretty magic. Loads of tourists but because the place is so huge they seem pretty insignificant. Inside, not quite as exciting as i thought it would be, the place would be alot more spectacular inside with the right lighting... then again they are trying to preserve the stone, so no lights are really allowed in anyway. Pretty amazing though, guaranteed 'wow' sight. would definatley like to go back again sometime, not this trip though since its quite expensive to get in. You should all go! The rest of Agra I didn't really see, was so tired and only there one day so just concentrated on the Taj. ... read more
March 31st 2012
Saturday March 31 2012. The phone woke us up at 6.15 as were being collected by Sachin and Mr Berun at 6.30 so we could get to the Taj Mahal and be inside before the sun came up. Apparently the Taj Mahal looks completely different throughout the day as the sun moves around the building and sunrise and sunset are the two best times of the day to see it. We queued for our entry with all the other early birds - mainly white tourists. There were four separate queues to get in. Two for foreign men and women, and two for Indian men and women. Sachin had warned us the night before not to bring anything except a small bottle of water, wallet and a camera. The men’s queue moved fairly swiftly but the women’s ... read more
March 30th 2012
Fatehpur Sikri Friday 30 March 2012. We were up and about at the same time as we were yesterday for the game drive -but today was to be our first taste of the Indain railways. The railways are said to be the best legacy left by the British. We were collected and taken to Sawai Madhopur Station near Ranthambhore. We waited on the platform with our agent for the train. The platform was full of street children and the homeless begging for food and money - so we parted with a couple of packets of crisps. There were rats running along the back on the platform and dogs and doggie do do's all over the place. The smell of the tracks was revolting and was caused by the lines of hoses that are used to clean ... read more
March 23rd 2012
14.00 Hours Wednesday 21 March I get back to the Falcon GH and have some lunch and pay my bill. I have a bit of lunch and then it is off to get the bus to Agra. The bus stop is just round the corner on the same Jaipur Agra road I travelled the other morning. I wait at the stop and try to find some shade as it is again a warm one. First bus is not for me and the second which is to Agra is full . Back into the shade. 20 Minutes and another bus comes, this time it’s to Agra and I am on. I sit next to a lad called Michael from Frankfurt and no sooner then we had said hello when in the seats in front are 2 of ... read more
March 16th 2012
We decided we needed to move on from Jaipur sad that we missed the number one thing to see on trip advisor but very happy we saw holi and the elephant fest which were probably once in a lifetime experiences. We tried to get the train out of Jaipur but were unable to due to them being full, so far we have a 0% success rate with the trains as everytime they are full. The system is pretty useless unless booked way in advance, so we had to get the bus. The bus left at the awful time of 6.30am so we forced ourselves out of bed and got to the station. On arrival we had to avoid the local scam of trying to take your bags for you, ended up Litterally having to grab onto ... read more
