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Published: February 17th 2011
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Agra
05/02/11 - 06/02/11
We arrived after 3 hours by train in Agra (Cantt) and took a taxi (150Rs) to our hotel. In retrospect we should have taken an autorickshaw/tuktuk but we got caught by a persuasive dude. Haha he was very peeved on arrival to our hotel to find that we had already booked on hostelbookers as he thought he was in for some commission thus why he walked us in! We booked into Hotel Siddhartha in Taj Ganj (550Rs per night).
Taj Ganj is basically the budget area but its hotels have the best views of the Taj Mahal from their rooftop terraces. The hotels /GHs around here are not exactly luxury but the midrange places are quite far away from the Taj. Our hotel was very basic, whitewashed Walls, no curtains, grubby bathroom and hot water by the bucket (or backet as they put it). The rooftop view of the Taj was good but it lacked the ambience of others in the area. The staff there however were really friendly and helpful and we extended our checkout until 7pm (when our train departed) for only 300Rs.
Taj Ganj is a small area
that is easy to navigate. It is quite busy with tuktuks and motorbikes but nowhere near as bad as other places. They are also really used to tourists so I got a break from being stared at. There are lots of little stores though and that try very hard to get you into buy the Taj souvenirs.
We managed to buy a marble pestle and mortar for 150Rs, some really nice good quality marble coasters for 800Rs and a magnet for my nan for 50Rs. If you go into one of the shops you can get them to teach you about how to assess the quality of the marble as there is a lot of rubbish around. The shop that taught us though tried to sell us the same marble coasters for a starting price of 8000Rs - he went down to 2000Rs as we exited the shop!
The Taj Mahal is of course why you visit Agra but we did visit Agra Fort (entry 300Rs) on the day of our arrival. It is quite a big fort and worth a visit. We got a guide for 150Rs plus 50Rs tip. Negotiated of course!
We visited the
Taj Mahal at sunrise! I woke up feeling pretty grotty and had a mild case of Delhi belly. The worst was averted with a dose of antiemetic and I was able to go on! Entrance is a whopping 750Rs each and even at sunrise the queues at the West gate (earliest opening time of 7am) were surprising! The ticket office opens at about 6:30 and they give you a free water. We went with friends we met in Darjeeling (Joan and Al).
The Taj is pretty spectacular, you have to go through one of the gates to see it on ground level. The building was more compact than I expected but just as tall if you know what I'm talking about!! Inside there is the mausoleum containing the tombs of Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz (his wife of which the Taj was built in memory of).
The gardens of the Taj are huge and although it was busy with tourists it didn't seem that bad. We got hundreds of photos as the sun came up over the Taj and also got in those famous reflection shots that everyone has!
The remaining part of the day consisted of me
feeling poorly and was spent in our White cell. Duncan got in some shopping as mentioned above.
Next onto Jodhpur. The waiting list came through and we got a confirmed train seat! Woop!
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Ian M
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Ain't the Taj spectacular
Hiya you two Spent 15 illicit minutes looking at your recent Indian blog text and photos today We thought the Taj lived up to its hype and bought a large marble table top when we were there first time! Varanesi is another matter...but it has to be seen and done Bye for now Ian