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Published: August 22nd 2013
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We’d only been in India for a few days before we got to see the Taj Mahal. Our hotel (Hotel Kamal, recommended) was about a 5-10 minute walk away, and we could actually see it from our hotel roof. We woke up early in the morning to try to see it before it was really packed with tourists. Warning: you go through metal detectors and they don’t allow food or drinks other than water inside. Also the line to enter (divided into gender and nationality (Indian and non-Indian)) took at least 15 minutes. We had been anticipating a lot of touts inside the Taj Mahal, but actually it was peaceful. Once inside, it was quiet and not too crowded. It’s beautiful in pictures, and it’s just as beautiful in person. I was actually more impressed with some of Agra’s other sites, just because they were also so artfully constructed, but I hadn’t known about them beforehand.
My two favorite Agra sites were Agra Fort and the “Baby Taj” (Itimad-ud-Daulah). Agra Fort was constructed mostly of red sandstone, and was built before the Taj Mahal was. It’s a big complex which encloses various palaces. We did borrow an audio-tour device, but
you can probably get away without it. The day we went, the fort was full of both Indian and non-Indian tourists. The Indian tourists were enamored of my sister, and frequently asked for our pictures. However, the allure of being a VIP didn’t last long. By the end of our visit to Agra Fort, we’d had it with our fans. Overall, though, I thought Agra Fort was great, especially because of the skillful inlays in the tiles. Don’t miss it if you go to Agra!
The Baby Taj is a tomb that we hadn’t heard or read about before we arrived in Agra. It was built after Agra Fort and before the Taj Mahal, so it includes both red sandstone and white marble in its architecture. It was possibly my favorite landmark of our entire trip, just because it was so unexpectedly beautiful and pleasant inside. There weren’t any touts inside, and we sat for a few hours, just writing in our journals and relaxing. The one thing that interrupted our solitude were some children perched above the exterior wall of the complex, who started yelling “A-lo!” (“Hello!”) at us. When we didn’t turn around and acknowledge them, some
stones came flying past us. If one had hit us, we would have been furious, but they were probably just 7-year-olds who had nothing better to do than bother the white girls.
Those sites were great, but we also went to some others that, frankly, weren’t worth seeing, and also felt a bit unsafe due to their locations. These, which I wouldn’t recommend, were Chini-Ka-Roza and Methab-Bagh. We also went to a bit of a ritzy restaurant on the recommendation of a friend. It was called Dasaprakash, and after 3 days in India, we were ready to treat ourselves. It actually felt like we’d been there for weeks, just because of jet lag and the amount we’d learned and done in the previous few days. It specialized in Southern Indian food, and they also (bonus!) had ice-cream. So order a thali to split and save room for dessert!
While in Agra, we also got a cheap cell phone. You do need 1-2 copies of your passport, an address (a hotel address is fine), and some money (less than $40 for the cheapest phone and sim card). It’s definitely worth it. Also it takes a few days to activate,
so try to get one when you first get to India. You can ask at your hotel for a recommended cell phone dealer.
We had another of my favorite experiences in India while eating breakfast on the hotel roof in view of the Taj Mahal. Roofs in India tend to be flat and used for hanging out laundry, making food, hanging out, etc. One of the neighbors of the hotel happened to be on his roof with his daughter, and they seemed to be playing a throwing game. But they didn’t try very hard to catch the things they threw up, which was weird. Soon, a group of hawks started circling, and that’s when we realized they were throwing the food up for the birds to catch in mid-air. It was so cool! They had some very unique pets! Also, while that was going on, the monkeys were hopping roof-to-roof and having monkey territory drama. There is always something to see in India.
We’d come into Agra on a train, and left Agra on a train. This train was to be our first overnight one, in the AC-3 compartment, headed for Varanasi. We had initially been worried about
the train travel, but Indian trains are pretty great. AC-3 means you have a bed to yourself, and there are even curtains to block off your bed. We did always lock our backpacks up to metal bars with bike locks on trains, but the people traveling on trains were generally helpful and kind. On this trip, we ended up with about 6 hours of sleep and arrived in Varanasi around 10 am.
Varanasi was a really cool and unique place. It’s along the Ganges River, and it’s known as the best place to die and be cremated in India, because of good energy there. When we were there, it was full of people because it’s a place for both Hindu pilgrims and hippy-ish Western tourists as well. There are a lot of beggars there who seem to make do alright because pilgrims are likely to give alms. There are “babas”, holy men with a minimum of clothes, generally covered in a kind of mud or ash, who live lives of asceticism. There were cows. And dogs. Jodi saw a baba carrying a cobra. But, it wasn’t as dirty or crazy as we expected. It was colorful and a bit
chaotic. Overall, it was winding alleyways, which sometimes ended up at riverside ghats, and some interesting architecture that looked like a wedding cake about to fall over.
There weren’t so many tourist “sites” to see in Varanasi—it’s more the kind of place to sit and people-watch or think. We did take a dawn boat ride up the river, which was nice, but the pre-boat-ride bargaining over the price did slightly diminish the charm. In addition, knowing that the man expending a lot of energy rowing our boat probably got less of a cut than the man who was able to speak English to lure tourists was upsetting. Still, it was cool to see the city and ghats from that perspective. I should also mention that Jodi and I ate a good meal at the Dolphin House Restaurant (admittedly up about 7 flights of stairs from the ghat below), but the Aloo Dum Benarasi and Harilyali Kofta were delish. By this time we had looked up and learned the most pertinent menu offerings for the area (fyi—paneer/naan=bread; dal=a lentil stew; kofta=meatball or ball of vegetables; korma=a kind of stew or curry; masala=a mixture of spices; aloo=potatoes; pullau=pilaf (rice); makhani=”with butter”).
While in Varanasi, we took a day trip to Sarnath, which is actually where Buddha preached his first sermon. Something I was really excited about before coming to India was how it’s influenced by/influenced so many religions. Although Buddhism is no longer popular in India, it remains the place where it started and grew. Anyway, because I had just lived in South Korea, I was interested in Sarnath. We asked a tuk-tuk driver to take us there, wait for us, and then drive us back, which is what was recommended, but I would have liked to spend 3-4 hours or overnight there, especially because it was more of a small, quiet town. It was a nice break from busy Varanasi.
After a few days in Varanasi, we were ready to move on—this time to a little town called Khajuraho. More about that in the next blog!
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