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Published: April 29th 2006
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Taj Mahal
It's made out of marble that's translucent and takes on the color of the moon or sun. Okay, so we are alive and well in Agra having seen the Taj Mahal and many other things that we'll get to but I just have to tell everyone about our arrival in Delhi.
We flew in on the 26th around 10pm and went to the Pre-Paid Taxi Booth, which is supposed to be the only way (aside from having your hotel pick you up and we aren't staying at a place like that) to safely reach your destination.
We tell them where we want to go, we go to the cab number they give us and the driver tells us it will be no problem. Sweet, we did it...but wait, what's this? An hour later, we're still driving around Delhi? I thought tons of people stayed in Pahagaranj? What does the driver mean he can't find our exact location?
Oh, this is a scam...sweet. So he tells us that Main Bazaar Rd is a big street and he's not sure where the hotel is. He just happens to stop at a hotel to ask for directions and the guy there tells us the address we have is only a building number and not an address (to me
it's one and the same but that's neither here nor there). Anyway, he informs us our best bet is to go to the ITDC and call the hotel. Immediately I know what we're in for but what do you do when you don't know where the hell you are and there is only electricity on every 3rd street and only in 1 of 5 buildings on that street? I ask the driver to stop at a phone so that I can call the hotel, he says we are going to at the ITDC (i think is stands for I Take Dumb foreigners Cash but I'm not sure). We get to this tourism center which is conveniently located in an alley with practically no other businesses and is also "conveniently" open at 11pm. The guy puts on his best fake Austalian/British accent only to ditch it when he realizes we are American and starts the hand shaking and talk of how crazy India is but how trustworthy he is.
Anyway, we sit down and he dials the number to the hotel and the guy informs us that we don't have a reservation. He wants our reservation number but we of
Agra kids
The kids are so friendly! course don't have one because we did it over the phone and got an email and THERE WASN'T ONE because YOU DON'T GET RESERVATION NUMBERS at 3rd Rate Hotels. After several "phone calls" to our hotel which is really him not dialing the number correctly and connecting us with his buddy, Teresa and I start to lose it and tell the cab driver to take us to the f'ing train station and we'll figure it out. Our helpful Australian/British/Indian tour guy let's us know he can set us up with a reasonably priced hotel and we tell him to screw off in as polite a way as we can whilst restraining ourselves (mostly me restraining Teresa) from trying to beat the hell out of the poor guy.
We ended up finding our hotel after walking through the piles of cow shit in the street and dodging the cars hurling down the alleyway but needless to say our arrival wasn't what we'd hoped for. We'd read all the stupid travel guides and took all the proper precautions, yet they still tried to take us for our money. We've quickly learned that there is a fresh scam at every turn and
The Baby Taj
This was built before the Taj Mahal you unfortunately have to go into every situation expecting it but if you get into something and it ends up being legit, it can be a lot of fun.
Yesterday, for example, we arrived in Agra at 8am and took another prepaid taxi to our hotel. Our driver, Raj, informed us he could show us around the city and take us to all the sights for 300 rupees (around 8 USD and right in line with what it should cost). We decided to go for it and it turned out to be pretty cool. Yes, we had to sit through the presentation at the carpet making place, and the marble place, but we also went to several temples, tombs, and shrines we read about but wouldn't have seen without taking the tour. In addition, he took us to some amazing free views of the Taj, Agra Fort, and the city in general. After all that he invited us to eat dinner with his family, which was quite an experience. We spent the evening in the home of an Indian family, chomping down on Mutton, Naan, rice, this really good Paneer, sipping whiskey, and talking with the guy who drove
us around all day. Sure he spent the first half of the dinner telling us how cheaply he could take us to another place today but once we got past that, it was just fun. After dinner, he shooed Teresa off to be with the women while he and I sat on the couch and talked sports with his little brother and I showed them a Ludacris video on the ipod. By the way...Teresa got the better end of the deal since she got to watch TV with the girls and learn some beauty tips, but still, it doesn't get much better than that.
Today, we went on a nature walk and ran into a group of about 10 kids on a picnic. We took a bunch of photos of them and played on the slide, the swings, etc. so that was really cool.
India truly is censory overload and so far it's been really good. I think it would be the perfect place to come after you've done a good amount of travelling but haven't been on the road for a while. Teresa and I are just not as keen to put up with the hassle as
Agra
Everything was dusty, hot and full of animals. The women all wore the traditional dress everywhere. we would be if we were doing India by itself, but still, we are forever grateful that we get to be here right now.
Today is our 3 month anniversary and so far, we've seen around 20 cities in 4 different countries together. Not to mention, we had month 1 anniversary in Tokyo, month 2 in Hong Kong, and now month 3 in Agra with the Taj Mahal a stone's throw from our hotel. Life is truly amazing.
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Jana
non-member comment
arrival to Delhi
My friends had very similar experience as you did. Fortunatelly it never happened to me. I never use the pre-paid taxis or travel agencies and always try to arrange things on my own. Of course in some states trveling with a state bus is impossible, unless you have plenty of time. In Delhi the best way how to get to the center is to take a bus - it leaves from a platform just opposite of the exit from the arrivals hall. I think they don´t go after one a.m. until early in the morning. Its a small, dirty, rattling all the way, but it will take you to Pahargunj for 50 rupees (the price has been the same for last three years!) and without any touts and scams. It is always a question, whom you can trust. Not all of the people around you want to get money from you, sometimes I felt pretty embarrased when I misunderstood someone´s good will for another attempt to make business... Enjoy your journey! :)