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Agra -
So when I left you in the last blog, we had been totally screwed over and were sat with a random man in a car we had just paid a fortune to hire for 5 days. The mans name was Rahul and was driving a rather old, but thankfully air conditioned, Tata Indigo. His English was broken and he got the basics but sometimes the lack of fluid communication causing confusion. After the initial trauma of Delhi, we kept our guard up with him. He told us of a hotel he could bring us in Agra, a restaurant he could book, a guide he could organise for the Taj Mahal, but we said no to all. We just wanted to get to Agra. The journey was a smooth one and I slept most of the way. We arrived in Agra around 7pm just as the area began to come alive with rickshaws, market stalls and cows wandering across the street whenever they wanted. The city buzzed with colour, car horns and a plethora of smells, some nice and some not so much.
He dropped us at the Tourist Rest House, a beautiful cheap little hotel with reassuring, kind-faced owner called Amil. After the last 13hours, this place was like walking into your family home and your own mum giving you a massive hug. We immediately felt easier and more relaxed. Rahul disappeared, we honestly have no idea where he went but apparently this wasn't our problem, the cost of the service would take care of it. We ate our first meal since breakfast on the plane that morning, a curry platter called thali. It was incredible. I was very aware that I needed to eat with my right hand only (left is for wiping your bottom) a la India style. As expected, I got food everywhere but was immensely fun and surprisingly filling. I tasted my first fresh Paneer, a curry dish with cubes of flavourless cottage cheese, which has a similar texture to tofu. Sound odd but it is honestly delicious and incredibly tasty - I'm salivating just thinking about it. After dinner we spoke to Amil and he confirmed what we already knew, that the car situation was a giant scam. But he advised us to just use the car and the driver to our advantage and to just kindly refuse all other suggestions and bookings that the driver offers.
So after a restless night sleep we thought there was no point wallowing in self pity, so we arrived for Rahul to drive us around Agra for the day. We were up at 6am and headed straight to the Taj Mahal for the sunrise.
It was beautiful. What more is there to say. The sun was just rising and temperature was cool enough to be able to concentrate on your surroundings rather than sweat pouring from every orifice. Three of the 4 towers framing the main building, had rusty scaffolding around them from top to bottom, giving them a slightly comical furry appearance from a distance. This didn't, however, take away from the shear beauty of it. It was gleaming white marble which gave a haunting, ghostly haze to the scene that unfolded in front of you as you step through the main gate. Some impressive, well-known monuments and buildings I've visited in the past haven't had the wow factor they've suggested in glossy edited magazine photographs but this was magnificent. The tragic love story that inspired its construction made the experience all the more magical.
From there Rahul was waiting for us to bring us to breakfast (curry, obviously) and onto the Red Fort, the prison and the last home of the Emperor who built the Taj Mahal. It was a grand rusty coloured fort made out sandstone giving it the famous red appearance and showed off a number of intricate stone designs. The fort itself was nice and had amazing views over Agra but generally lacked the grandeur of the Taj Mahal. Something I did notice was the number of Indian tourists that came to visit both heritage sites, also with their oversized cameras round their necks and consulting guidebooks. The stares we still got, despite the obvious touristy location, sometimes made us feel like we were the attraction they came all this way to see. We also got a couple of the obligatory 'can we have a photo with you' offers, instantly giving me the Hollywood star status. So that was our first whole day in India. Our feet had barely touched the floor but we felt more grounded now and happy to be travellers again. Tomorrow, onto Fatehpur Sikri.
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