Agra

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Agra - 15th January 2011

Day 22 - Delhi to Agra

We had a 6am start to catch an early express train to Agra, which was fine as Peta and I are traveliing machines and manage to get fully packed and ready to go in 20 minutes - machines!! 

Luckily the train is on time today so no alternatives have to be looked at - apparently it has been running up to 6 hours late in event days due to the fog. So here we are, watching the countryside go by on our first day train of tour 2. There is just so much poverty, rubbish and general crap around it blows our mind - plus when I say crap I LITERALLY mean crap - we have been on the train for about an hour and I could easily say I have seen a hundred people 'doing number twos' from our train window. Just another day....

After the train trip it was straight to the Red Fort which was incredible - our guide, Mr Bhadra, was extremely knowledgable and spoke clearly enough for even the Germans to understand, which was great. I sometimes think it must be hard for them to get everything but they seem to be coping which is great. 

A quick lunch (ahhhhh more food!) and we are off to the main destination, the Taj Mahal (a little place - you may have heard of it!). We again experienced some of our 'rock star' status with everyone wanting photos of the 5 of us - to the point where we had to start bein rude and just say no - we felt bad but really, it was just getting too much. What else can you do when you are the centre of attention (sheeezzz... can we get any more arrogant???) 😉

It was pretty incredible to actually be there and witness a sunset over one of the seven wonders of the world. It is just such an amazing sight and you almost have to pinch yourself to make it seem real. What a trip!! 

Acter all the excitement it was back to the hotel for 3 minutes of rest (literally!) before we were off to one of the local carpet factories, where they showed us how they make a woollen rug from scratch, including the design, weaving and cleaning of the final product. Some of us bought rugs or wall decorations - I picked up a 6ft x 4ft red wool rug which is getting delivered to our hotel in Delhi, so I can pick it up for the flight home. Looking forward to seeing how it looks when I get home! 

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and all 10 of us jumped into the lift to go to the revolving rooftop restaurant for dinner (very swish!). We were pretty squished and the sign said only 8 people or 544 kgs but the doors closed quite happily and we were on our way. As we got to level 7 (top floor) the lift stopped. And that was it. The doors did not open, the lights on the screen went off and we were stuck. All 10 of us squished into a lift in the Pushk Hotel, Agra, Delhi. It was f**king terrifying! I was actually standing on tippy toes so we could all fit in and just started thinking about how long I would have to keep this position before help arrived. Akki, our leader, pulled out his phone to call the hotel and alert them as Svegna (who was closest to the control panel) tried to press all the buttons. First a fan came on, then off, then the lights switched off and we were plunged into darkness (ahhhh!) before they came back on and the lift started moving after what felt like an eternity (it was probably 5 minutes maximum). We burst forth from the lift, raced to the restaurant and all ordered drinks to take the edge off and celebrate our successful escape. Dinner was again excellent - we are getting in the habit of sharing the dishes to not only lessen the volume of food we are consuming but to also try lots of options - plus it was good just to relax after our adventure!! 

We also got to meet two Aussies having dinner - Shane and his partner (let's call him Wayne) who were in Agra to celebrate Shane's 50th birthday. They were from Springwood in the Blue Mountains and have a business in China which affords them enough to be able to go to India for 2 weeks, as Shane wanted to have his 50th at the Taj - what a lovely gift!

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