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Published: February 20th 2010
Indian trains
This is how it looks like if you travel in the unreserved carriage... massive crowdGreetings All,
OK we're in India, so we had to do our tickmark list there. Agnes was totally focused to go to Agra. So from Delhi we took the train to Agra: non-reserved 'seats'. Seats is between brackets as we were actually lucky (or rude enough) to get some places on what we would call in Europe the luggage racks above the actual seats. However this being India, these spots are indeed intended to be seats as they are spacious enough to sit up straight on top of them. The only thing missing on these racks was a place to put your sandals. So these had to be stached on top of the ceiling ventilators: happy travels!!!! We actually didn't see a conductor there, but then again that would practically have been suicide. As in the alleys the unlucky people without seats were packed like sardines in a tin can....
The Taj
But okay. Before planning our trip to India I never heard about Agra, but Agi was pretty full of it. So it appears that the Taj Mahal is in Agra and not in Delhi (what I thought). So Agra became a must-see. Arrived in Agra, all
We went for the unreserved option
Me sitting on the upper bank, sandals are on top of the ventillator... ok, went to a cheap hotel. We just had one requirement: a rooftop with a view on the Taj Mahal. So said, so done. Had a good sleep, finished some small bottles too fast and went the next day early to the Taj in order to beat the floks of tourists. I must admit it was indeed a very nice building. The fact is built on top of a marble plateau makes it all the more impressive. Fine details, perfect symmetry and inside the Taj the 2 tombs: one of the Maharadja who built it, and one for his wfie, for which he built the Taj, which is basically a huge mausoleum. The fact that the Taj was built for his second wife as an expression of love, makes me wonder how the graves look like from his other wifes.... By the way this wife died while giving birth to their 14th (!) child. Auch... The story tells that the maharadja wanted to build an identical building of black marble on the opposite side of the river, but his son put him in jail till death, so this mission could not be completed.
As we failed to get tickets
for the overnight train to Varanasi that evening, we spent one more day and decided to go to Fatehpur Sikri, which was a capital city for approx 14 years. The maharadja who built that city did this in honor of one holy man, who had predicted that this Maharadja would get a son. As the son was indeed born, he moved his capital city to the town where this holy man lived. One minor detail: in that area there is no open water (like rivers) or enough wells, so a city was built in an arrid, dry area. So after the Maharadja died himself, the capital was abandoned and left in ruble... Looks nice though.
.... bring out your dead ....
But after the the ruins from Fatehpur we went to an other very lively place: Varanasi. On the shores of the Ganges this is
the place where the Hindi want their dead to be burned and scattered in the holy river. Sorry for sounding disrespectful, but seeing the people carrying the stretchers with the covered bodies, made me think of the "Bring out your deads" scene in Monthy Phyton's 'The search of the holy grail'...
They go through the narrow streets carrying the stretcher towards the burning ghats (areas near the Ganges shore). We got close to one burning ghat and watched. No pictures taken out of respect and also as the photo would have disturbed the soul of the buried as they say, but interesting it was. We got an explanation of a local guy on some principles for free. No money for him as that's against his karma, but in the end we were kindly requested to make a donation to enable the poor to buy some wood for when their time comes.... He stated that one kg of wood was 175 rupees and recommended us to buy 5kg each, as this is a standard and nice contribution by foreigners. This was a bit stinky, scam-like moment, so we left only 100 rupees behind and told him to spend it on himself as we appreciated his explanations on the burning procedures. He hardly wanted to accept this amount, as being too small, but at the end he took it though... how surprising...
Next day we took 2 small boat tours on the Ganges (dusk and down) to see the various ghats (mostly
bathing places, but also some burning ones), being a free service from our guest house. There we found out that the kg price of the burning wood is indeed 5 rupees. So we paid for 20 kg, that is a really nice contribution we think by now. During the boat ride we also learnt that the locals from Varanasi use this water for everything, including drinking from it. They train their stomach from birth, so they get used to the enormous infections, bacterias, etc in the water. The LP says the contamination is 500 times of the value of the medically accepted level. Indeed, the river looked dirty and was dirty but ce la vie...
(Ok few pics from Varanasi, as the Internet cafe is closing, maybe later more...)
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