The Taj!

---

We'd planned a bit of luxury for Agra having found a very good deal at a new Marriott - not the kind of place we would normally choose to stay but it was less than the price of a very ordinary B & B in the Dales and we thought that we might benefit from a bit of pampering. So, a 6am train from New Delhi station whisked us out of Delhi....then slowed down due to thick fog and arrived into Agra about an hour late! Still, we were at the hotel by 9.30am so expected to have to wait to check in but the room was already available so we indulged ourselves for a few hours with proper coffee, showers and bathrobes!

But we couldn't just sit in the hotel so after lunch we walked out to the main road to pick up a tuk-tuk rather getting them to call us a car (we're probably the only people staying there who didn't go everywhere by car and we were certainly the only people staying there with backpacks that we saw!). We started at Agra fort, a huge and beautiful fort which also gave us our first view of the Taj at the other side of Agra - wow! From there we took another tuk-tuk across the river to see the Baby Taj - an earlier mausoleum, smaller than the Taj but with the most amazing intricately carved marble. The tuk-tuk driver talked us into going to Mehtab Bagh, the gardens across from the Taj which are supposed to give great sunset views. While there's a good view of the Taj, the sun sets in the wrong place for it to really light up the marble and for us it was getting quite hazy so the sun wasn't really reaching the building. Still, it was good to see it from a different place although it was clear from there that there was scaffolding on 2 of the 4 towers in each corner....why does that always happen when you're looking for the perfect picture!?

So, more indulgence with dinner back at the hotel but back in the room we could hear the music from the party downstairs really loudly. After phone calls, trips to reception and endless fobbing off, it was probably about midnight when the music quietened down and we got some sleep. At breakfast it seemed we'd made a name for ourselves as one of the waiting staff apologised for the noise and hoped we'd managed to sleep when it finished. I asked him if there were any more parties in the hotel for the next couple of nights and he said that there weren't so it should be quiet - phew!

We'd originally planned to do sunrise at the Taj that day but every morning for a week or so had been thick fog and the staff said that it would just not be worth it. So, after a leisurely (and huge!) breakfast we did the tuk-tuk thing again. He wanted to take us to the East gate which was closer but we had got the impression it was quite busy with groups from the big hotels so we made him take us to the South gate. This turned out to be incredibly quiet and we walked straight through. There's another huge red sandstone gate to go through and then, there it is - spectacular. It's impossible to describe such an iconic building without using clichés or repeating all the things that people have said before. When asking people for tips on where to go they had all said the Taj Mahal and I would definitely agree. We spent a good couple of hours wandering around and taking photos and then sat in the sun looking at it for a while. We only got asked to have our photo taken with one group in the whole time which was also a bit of a relief!

From there, we found our way through the narrow streets just outside the gate to a guesthouse which had a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Taj. It's a fantastic view but amazing that the rooftops between there and the Taj have not been taken over as viewing points. More veggie curry then back to the hotel for coffee and cake - yum!

Later that afternoon we set off with a guide, Sandeep, for a walking tour of some of the more earthy parts of Agra. Sandeep is a history graduate and freelance guide and he was interesting and enthusiastic about his country and its history and culture. He took us past the fort to Agra fort station, the first one built by the Brits in Agra, and then across to the cities central mosque where the caretaker showed us around. From there we walked into the bazaar and deep into narrow winding streets, came to a very old Hindu temple with the god down the stairs from the street, almost in a basement. As with all temples, we took off shoes and spent about 15 minutes inside with Sandeep telling us things about the temple and Hindu gods. When we came out, mine and Sandeep's shoes had been moved onto a plastic sheet but Hugh's were nowhere to be seen. Sandeep caused a big fuss with the people working at the temple and suddenly Hugh's socks appeared on the floor next to him but the shoes never appeared. These were his big walking shoes so probably looked quite valuable though at size 11 would not fit anybody in India! We eventually had to accept that they'd gone so H put his socks back on to wind our way out of the alleys so we could pick up a tuk-tuk. We tried to buy a pair of flip-flops just to get him home but size 10 was their maximum and his heels were falling off the back.

Sandeep called our cycle rickshaw guys to pick us up and out of the bazaar we transferred to a taxi. Sandeep was clearly very upset with what had happened and also very embarrassed. He had been in touch with the owners of the business that had organised this for us and they asked to speak to us on the phone. They were very apologetic and said that we shouldn't pay anything for the tour and could they arrange for us to be taken to some sports shops the following day to try to replace the shoes. I explained that we would need an outdoor clothing shop and they agreed that there probably wasn't somewhere in Agra, particularly with large enough shoes. We were heading back to Delhi in a couple of days so said that we would try there - H had enough with him to manage. I got the impression they were holding Sandeep responsible as they suggested he should have ensured that somebody was lined up to keep an eye on the shoes but it's hard to be angry with anybody except the person that took them and even then, in the area we were in, I can see that expensive looking shoes would attract attention.

So, back into the hotel and H had to walk through reception in his socks...just making ourselves a bit more conspicuous!

It was then that things really started to go wrong at the hotel as a cold shower was followed by an engineer coming and going from our room and leaving the tap and shower running on full. He kept telling us it was fixed when it wasn't and after we'd been listening to the running water for 20 minutes and somebody turning up to clean up the bathroom after the engineer, I ended up going down to reception to tell them it wasn't fixed. To cut a long story short, we turned all the taps off again when we couldn't wait any longer for dinner and told them at reception again. We also asked about the music that we could already hear playing in our room because we had been told that there weren't any parties that night. Turned out there was, a big one, and outside this time. The guy on reception tried to assure me that it was around the other side of the building so we wouldn't hear it but he couldn't tell me when the water would be fixed. Getting very frustrated with people not telling me the truth I asked to speak to the manager on duty who eventually turned up an hour or so later just as we finished dinner. He tried to explain the conflict between guests staying in the hotel and party guests but he didn't seem to agree that it was not appropriate to hold loud parties that could be heard in guest rooms. However, he was concerned that they couldn't be certain when we would have hot water so he offered us a different room at the side of the building furthest away from the music. While annoying to have to pack everything up we agreed to move in the hope that things would improve.

To our surprise we got upgraded to a suite but most importantly we had hot water and couldn't hear the music...finally!

It did seem that we had really made a mark as everyone seemed to be tripping over themselves to be nice to us the next day - it became a bit overwhelming! They kept bringing us food to try at breakfast and offering us all sorts - seems like we weren't going to get the anonymity that we'd hoped for by checking into a big hotel!

That day we'd booked a trip out to Fatehpur Sikri, an abandoned city about 40km north of Agra, built by Akbar, one of the Mughal emperors. Our guide told us that he had been unusual in being open to all religions and marrying 3 wives, a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian. He travelled to the area to see a Sufi sage who lived in a cave to get some advice because he had not managed to have a child with any of his wives. His Hindu wife gave him a son and he stayed and built the fort and mosque. Each wife had their own house, the Hindu's being by far the largest as she had given him the son. The guide we had wasn't the best and tried to hurry us around when we wanted time to take photos and wander a bit - we haven't had guides at many places we've been to, partly because it's hard to work out who to take as there's lots of people hustling and partly for the reason that they seem to rush you through a place.

From the fort we went to the mosque which is beautiful. It is often visited by couples who want children and they tie a thread around a window, make an offering of a brightly coloured piece of cloth and make a wish. Our guide took us to somebody who was selling these and tried to get us to buy one saying that they were collected up and passed onto local poor people. We were not happy that the guide had taken us to be hassled by somebody selling things and we told him - this got a very cold response and many of his answers to questions after that were monosyllabic.

He then rushed us around the mosque but we stood our ground and went where we wanted to take pictures before finally leaving to catch the bus and then our taxi back to Agra for a final night in luxury. I fitted in a complimentary massage as offered by the manager the night before....could definitely get used to this!

The following day we had been due to take a train in the evening to get back to Delhi but watching the previous few days trains it was clear that they had been badly affected by fog sometimes not arriving until the middle of the night so we had cancelled the train and booked a car. This was actually likely to take longer but would at least get there in daylight, though with nightmare Delhi traffic and a lost driver only just! Which takes us towards the end of our independent travelling in India and getting ready for Bhutan.....next time.



S + H x

---

Comments

[Karen]

Water
I immediately thought about your 'don't leave the tap running' emails!!!! Hope H got sorted with some suitable shoes.