Agra

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We arrived in Agra still feeling a bit tired and we took a tuk-tuk to our hotel. One thing you must be prepared in India for is persistent and rather irritating tuk-tuk drivers. The guy who picked us up was constantly asking us if we wanted to see the Taj Mahal and Agra fort tomorrow - “no , I just want you to take us to the hotel”. He still persisted and as he dropped us off he followed us to the hotel to attempt to try find our room number, however the hotel manager clearly told him where to go and he disappeared.


We ordered some food to be sent to our room, veg soup for deb and scrambled egg for Ang. Deb got half way through her soup before noticing the mosquito floating in it. Mmmm tasty. If she had wanted mosquito soup she would have ordered mosquito soup. We fished it out and showed it to the guy at the hostel who refunded our bill. Eeeww.


We decided to use our Saturday as a day of rest and had a lie in. We both had lost our appetites for food and were still very unwell. During the last 3 weeks we had made a number of purchases do decided to go to the post office. Indian post office’s are crazy, we had no idea which queue/desk we were supposed to be at so went and asked some guy who told us the second last desk. The second last desk was empty so we went back and asked again and he showed us to a desk that was definitely not the second last desk. They weighed our two parcels and then told us to come round the back where we filled in customs forms. Then a lady who appeared to be shouting at all the men in Hindi took us into a small room where we sat and watched her stitch up our parcels in white fabric and seal it with wax. She didn’t speak a word of English but was very smiley! After another 20 or so minutes standing and being ignored by the guy who was supposed to be helping us, having our parcels weighed over and over again for no apparent reason and some shouting in Hindi we finally paid for our postage and left feeling relieved to be out of there! And we thought our post office was bad!


Later that evening we decided to go to pizza hut to regain some of that appetite. We sorta did, though Ang was unimpressed with the “lack of pepperoni in his pizza”!

On Sunday morning we planned to get up and get to the Taj Mahal, a 2 minute walk from our hostel, for sunrise. Initially we both went “I thought it would be bigger than that”. Don’t get us wrong, it was in no way a let-down and we were blown away by its beauty. We spent the following few hours snapping the Taj and of course we couldn’t leave without taking some pics of us on the Princess Di bench!

After a nap back at the hostel we made it over to Agra Fort which we think is the best preserved and biggest fort/palace we have seen so far in India. We hired a guide and it was well worth it for Rs200.


Monday we got up late and made our way over to Itimad-ud-daulah, nicknamed the Baby Taj, which was intricately carved in white marble but nothing compared to the real thing. Across the river from the Taj Mahal is a park, Mehtab Bagh, said to be one of the best places to view it. They charge Rs100 per person to enter the park so instead we walked down the side of it to the riverbank where the buffalos wade in the water and viewed it from here for free. It was quite beautiful and from this angle really does look huge.

The afternoon was spent surfing the net, trying to book train tickets, writing this blog and generally lounging around. We went up on the rooftop of the hostel today where you can view the Taj. We had to be escorted by one of the hostel employees holding a big stick to poke any monkeys who get too close. There were no monkeys, I guess it’s too hot even for them at this time of day!


Tonight we are taking the train to Khajurho. We had not originally planned to go here and didn’t even know anything about it but it was suggested by our hostel manager when we said we were struggling for tickets to Varanasi. Khajurho is famous for its karma sutra temples which should be interesting!

We have mixed feelings about Agra. While seeing the Taj has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of our trip this place seems to be filled with more beggars, litter and mosquitos than everywhere else we have visited. Maybe its just the blistering weather combined with the bacteria infection, who knows, but you can’t come to India without visiting one of the most beautiful sights in the world!

Deb & Ang

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Photos

the imposter mosquito
trying to get some free veg soup

at the post office
lady sealing our parcel with wax

Taj carvings
We were told all the flowers droop because its a sad place

Monkeys at the hostel
eyeing up our breakfast

Palace at Agra Fort
You can see the Taj through the arch