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Published: February 26th 2010
first of all, thank you to everyone who has posted comments, but it does not tell me who the comment is from so you might want to sign them!
anyway, i am in agra. the travelblog think about picking the location and doing a map doesn't seem to work so you will have to look up if you want to know exactly where i am!
we just came for a overnight trip but it has turned into a mission! the project organised a car for us, as we thought it would be more comfortable than the train... it is a 200km journey so we thought it might take around 3 hours or so.... ha ha ha ha. obviously we are still completely niave about india! we had been going about an hour and half when we came to closed railway crossing. we waited for a while, and when the train passed and the gate didn't open we asked around for when it might open. they told us 2pm. it was 11am at the time. at first we could not beleive it. but in india you learn two things quickly. (and i am sure much, much more to come...). but so far, we have learnt 1. patience is not just a virtue it is *essential* and 2. to adapt quickly. so we decided to make the most of it.
the crossing was also a bridge across the ganges, so we walked down to the riverbank (across a building site) and found a lovely small market selling trinkets and sweets, and families playing and boats. it was soooo lovely. there were no tourists at all, but we didn't get any negative attention at all. i think our indian clothes and tiny bit of hindi are really helping in that respect.
so we milled around for a while, and then when we started to get a bit of attention on the actual road from the massive traffic queue that was building up, a policeman came and organised chairs in the shade and brought us tea and food. we felt like royalty as we sat there being generally looked at from a polite distance!
the crossing did open at 2pm amazingly, but then traffic from the otherwide of the bridge was allowed to corss first, which took a further 40 mins or so....
we eventually arrived in agra at around 6pm after leaving apk at 9:15am!!!!
we got a little bit of hassle on arrival from touts for hotels, but quickly managed to fend them off and found an excellent backpacker hostel for around $2.80 per night.
we had been planning on seeing the taj mahal that evening for sunset but it was obviously too late, so we decided to stay an extra night.
today (friday) we hired two auto-rickshaws for the day and they took us whereever we wanted to go and waited around at each place for a fixed price. it was a really good deal (about $3.20 each). we have been to the red fort (huge, amazing) and another amazing thing which they call "baby taj mahal" i forget the proper name. we had coffee and a chocolate muffin in costa coffee (yes, really, monica and i were in heaven - it is very difficult to get proper coffee, or anything even approaching coffee so far, mostly when you ask for coffee you get sugary milk).
the auto rickshaws are great fun to ride around in (last night we did the last bit to the hostel in a horse drawn cart as no cars allowed in that area, still have yet to try to cycle rickshaws). the traffic system is chaotic but i am convinced there IS a "system" or sorts.
then we watched the sunset over the taj from the opposite river bank. it was actually a bit disappointing, as it did not glow orange or pink or anything, but it was nice as loads of other tourists and friendly indian kids trying to cheerfully sell us stuff to chat to.
tomorrow we will actually go into the taj to see it properly.
as you all know i LOVE indian food, and the food at apk is fantastic, but we have taken this opportunity of being in civilisation to each toast, crisps, chocolate and tomorrow we are going to costa again for breakfast!!!!
sorry no photos today as i diod not bring the cable, in afew days maybe.
hope all is well back in UK, and yes, i am missing work terribly...... (snigger)
xxx
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Stuart
non-member comment
costa heaven!
Wow, what a wait for a crossing to open. Good thing you are travelling and not working. Good excuse for the locals though.... ;-) Love the bit about being provided chairs and shades by the police! So are you driving... Must be fun but a bit scary... Bet you couldn't believe your luck finding a costa coffee! costalot? One more thing, the blog say 3 photos on the blog, but I can't find them... maybe it's a mistake... Enjoy agra! Stuart xx