Travel Blog » Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Agra Travel Blogs

Background: The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in the 12th were followed by those of European traders, beginning in the late 15th century. By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Indian armed forces in the British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU brought independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Despite impressive gains in economic investment and output, India faces pressing problems such as the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife.

India

Map of India

India's Flag

Recommended Books:

Hostels in India
Latest Agra Blog Entries
Agra Photos

By JulieandDarian
April 7th 2008

#32 - Agra et le Taj Mahal - Messieurs prenez en de la graine pour nous prouver votre amour ! (07/04/2008)

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Journée magique au Taj Mahal, un des plus beaux monuments au monde construit au nom de l'Amourrrr !

C’était majoritairement l’idée de Darian de venir passer en Inde les deux semaines précédant notre safari africain débutant au Kenya le 20 avril. Après avoir lu un des romans tendance du moment s’appelant ‘Shantaram’, il était devenu complètement obnubilé par Bombay et l’Inde du Nord. Seulement nous n’étions pas attirés par les mêmes destinations… Darian avait entendu parler des charmes du Nord et plus particulièrement de Varanasi par d’autres voyageurs rencontrés en chemin, alors que j’avais de mon côté été persuadée par une canadi [View Full Entry]

Il nous fallait bien une photo en amoureux ! Pour le souvenir...

By Ina y Manuel
April 7th 2008

Romancing the Taj

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Before the crowds...
An unforgetable image of the Taj Mahal.

Being this our final pit stop in Asia, we thought there was no way we could find a better closure than crashing the Taj Mahal at sunrise. This also gave us the perfect excuse to escape from a very genuine recreation of a war zone, which is New Delhi after the first spring storms. We had to accept it, after almost half a year of travelling through pretty ugly areas we are still not immune to this unimaginable mix of rain with diesel, garbage, and, more than anything, animal and human excretions. So, as we thanked all the Hindu gods not [View Full Entry]

By lboy
April 3rd 2008

Delhi and the Taj Mahal.

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Face of Delhi
There were some strange goings on at the Delhi / Uttar Pradesh border.

Well, after a week of blissed out heaven on a beach or two, we jetted off to Delhi. Delhi was everything that we thought that it would be. Crowded, chaotic and crappy. Got in and got back out again, asap. The one good thing that we did was we booked a driver for our trip to Agra and our tour of Rajistan. He'll be our guide for the next 8 days. The drive down to Agra was both dreary and exciting at the same time. We drove through kilometers of endless urban sprawl followed by endless industrial buildings but we were [View Full Entry]

By S and S
April 1st 2008

Last days in India

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Us at the Taj Mahal

Hi there, we have now effectively completed our Indian leg of our travels and presently await our next flight to London tonight! We have really enjoyed India but can honestly say we are ready for somewhere a bit quieter, that smells nice, and serves beef :-) After our trek in Nepal we headed back into India to the Holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the mighty Ganges. Varanasi was quite a different experience to the other Indian cities we have visited in that all the interesting stuff is all on the ghats (landings) leading down to the bank of [View Full Entry]

By Slovenian girl
March 30th 2008

A teardrop on the face of eternity

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Impressive Taj Mahal

Namaste :) Interesting days in Rajasthan went by way too fast so we had to pack our »easy« backpacks and moved again. Again a lot of interesting places and people...and after every corner a new thing to discover :) In 16,4 million Mumbai/Bombay we visited the most gothic building in the city! The building is an impressive Victoria terminus or CST railway station which is the busiest train station in whole Asia and listed on Unesco Worlds heritage list since 2004. And how busy is this railway station? Let me put it this way...More than 2 million people pass by this [View Full Entry]

Taj Mahal, white marble and precious stones

By xta13
March 29th 2008

The one and only: Taj Mahal

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Taj Mahal

Been there....seen it...and we were very impressed! For such a long time I wanted to see the Taj Mahal and finally got there. It is indeed very beautiful and impressive. I could not stop staring at it and taking pictures. I guess I took about 7231 pics of the Taj ;-) The town itself, Agra, does not have much to see so it was a very wise decision not to stay over. We arrived in the morning and left the same evening. Just enough time to visit all the sights. [View Full Entry]

By philliinindia
March 27th 2008

You knew it was coming?

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

From the front

Off on an overnight train to the National Park now, Wish me luck! It surprises me to say that I'm looking forward to some peace. [View Full Entry]

By Neil and Jay
March 27th 2008

Death, Faith and Delhi in a day

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Taj Mahal
Diana who?

After almost a month in India we are at last starting to get a hang of Indian hotel room classifications. It goes something like this: Delux Room (awful); Super Delux Room (half decent); Super Delux Maharaja Palace Suite (quite nice). The forts and palaces of Rajastan were wonderful but it was time to head east to Agra to see the most famous building in all of India, the Taj Mahal. We stayed literally next door to the Taj Mahal complex within the vehicle exclusion zone which protects the Taj against pollution and has the advantage of keeping out the ever persistant [View Full Entry]

By Nomadic Gravies
March 22nd 2008

Seriously, don't bother going to Agra

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Colors

Agra sucks…I really can’t think of a better way to start this blog; Ok, wait, Agra really sucks. Ready to attack at first sight, the rickshaw touts are obscenely aggressive, and, once they drop you at your hotel, they do their very best to be seen by the front desk to earn a commission (which undoubtedly increases your nightly rate). In preparation for this eventuality, we told our driver to drop us at one hotel, then, we quickly grabbed our bags and ducked into alleyways in order to get away from him. Of course he pursued and we finally had to [View Full Entry]

By alibaba034
March 19th 2008

Goodbye India, Hello Nepal

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra

Irina's picking fruits for breakfast
In order to keep our expenses to the minimum Irina has always to search the fields and climb the trees for the CATCH of the DAY.

Dear Fellows ! Our last day in India today, we're heading out to Nepal tomorrow. We spent the last days in Bangalore to burn some time with our beloved friends Mahesh & Swetha and their families, then after got trapped into the probably most touristic place in entire India, called Agra in the state Uttar Pradesh. The famous Taj Mahal is situated here and somebody told us, we may not leave the country w/o visiting it. Well ... Agra is a crappy place, just my honest opinion, everything's is double costly, all kind of coyotes jump on you once you leave [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra