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Next stop Agra to see the famous Taj Mahal, it would be our first time travelling by train, and for once it didn't involved getting up at the crack of dawn because we were on the sleeper train. We didn't realise the amount of time it would take us to get to the train station because of the sheer volume of people and lack of common sense. We first faced a human traffic jam, total grid lock and a guy with a cart stuck right in the middle blocking everyone, some old woman pushing and shoving us and with our huge backpacks weren't getting through in a hurry, next was the rickshaw ride, these are two seater little carrige type things with a guy peddling on a bicycle about 1 mph at the front, not the vehicle to choose when your in a rush. Looking like a pair of numpteys sat on the back of this rickshaw clinging onto our two enourmous backpacks and two small ruckcasks that were precariously balacing ontop of us, we felt guilty as we sat back and watched as our skinny rickshaw driver struggled, pedalling with all his might and dripping with sweat. Then traffic jam number two, we've never seen a scene quite like it, just a massive sea of heads, pedestrians, rickshaws, tuk tuks, going nowhere fast. Road rules have no place here and noone gives a monkeys about anyone else, it's just a mass of people fighting to get through first, and theres no such thing as a side of the road its anyones game. Stressed out to say the least but we somehow managed to get to the train station on time even with a pit stop to fix a snapped wheel chain en route, but turned out our train was two hours late anyway.
We were excited for our first sleeper train, and at about nine o'clock we finally got to go and board, the platform and train were pitch black so it was difficult to find your carriage and see the numbers was just lots of travellers with little torches scurrying around. We managed to find our seats/beds and then they switched the blinkin lights on. There are three tiers of bench seats that you can sleep on, Ryan and I had the top two bunks opposite each other. They were litterally in the ceiling and with our backpacks and day sacks it didn't leave much room for us, but we somehow managed to arrange our bodies around our luggage to get some shut eye. It's brilliant because when your woken up in the morning by the chai tea seller shouting 'chai..chai..chai' up and down the train, your in a new place, it didn't feel like we were on there for 12 hours, and when we looked out the window we could see the sillouette of the Taj.
Our Lonley Planey guide told us about Shanti Guesthouse it said it had the best view of the Taj, well the best view in our price range anyway, I'm sure there was a Hilton with a better view plus room service and a pool but hey ho. So we went to check it out. It's my job to go and inspect the rooms, so off I went, I managed to get us one with a view of the Taj, happy days. The rooftop restaurant had a spectacular view, Taj view with breakfast don't mind if I do. We had arranged our tuk tuk driver to stick with us for the day to pick us up and drop us off at all the sights, our itinerary consisted of Agra Fort, mini taj, view of Taj from across the river, lunch (our driver had warned us that sometimes scams happen where tuk tuk drivers take tourists to restaurants where they will purposley poisen them so they have to go to the doctors, which means the doctors will get paid off the insurance companies, the restaurant will get money off the doctor and the tuk tuk driver will get money off the restaurant, so it's a win win for everybody but the poor tourists, they really know how to promote tourism in this country don't they) then saving the best for last The Taj Mahal.
Agra Fort was ace, absolutley massive, and full of monkeys, as we were walking around, Ryan with his headset on telling him all about the history and me taking pictures of monkeys, thats when it started, 'excuse me can we have a picture with you?', what??? Strangers wanted to have their pictures taken with us, it's the most bizzare thing ever. I got asked by two Indian girls, and Ryan got asked a few times by Indian guys, it was hilarious watching Ryan posing for photos with all these strangers looking star stuck. He didn't mind at all, I hate having my picture taken at the best of times let alone with complete strangers, but you can't say no. It felt like everyone was staring at us, and especially Ryan as we walked around, like they never seen white people before. Maybe we should of charged money for it, like everyone else does here, we have quickly learn't that everyone wants money off you for everything, it gets pretty annoying, you think someones just being nice and will say for instance help you find your seat on the train, even though you didn't need or ask for help, they want money. At the fort we were happily watching a couple of little chipmunks and some guy was feeding them and offered us a few crumbs, so we fed the chipmunks and thought how lovely, of course he wanted paying,(he is still wanting) for 1 minute of his time and 2 crumbs I don't think so. It makes you not want to interact with anyone because your waiting for the moment were they hold there hand out. Our tuk tuk driver then took us to what they call the mini taj, it was lovely, aparently this building is older than the Taj Mahal. While driving around our tuk tuk driver had asked me if I liked the henna, I said yes it was nice, he told me his daughter does the henna artwork on the hands and feet etc, next thing we knew he had taken us back to his house, we were given a little cup of chai tea which was lovely, he showed us his cows that he had tied up in his back garden, and then we were up on his roof looking at the faint view of the Taj and I somehow wound up wearing his flip flops, we took off our flipflops when we entered the house, then barefoot on the pebbly roof he gave me his to put on, very sweet but, ahhhhg yuk other peoples feet, strangers feet. As we sat and finished our tea feeling a little awkward, his daughter appears with a pad of paper full of her henna designs with prices next to them.and they were quite pricey to. I knew it, he'd brought us here to make money off us, I felt incredibly awkward, it's hard to say no, I didn't want the henna, and if I did want henna I would like to go get it myself rather than being put on the spot, after declining the offer as politely as possible a few times then a few more, they don't seem to give up, I couldn't wait to get out of there, but it was interesting to see where local people live, they had a nice little home, and were very hospitable. We then went down to the river to see the view of the Taj from the back, I don't think many people go this side of the river, it was just us and a few locals, I couldn't wait till we got to see it properly. We were starving at this point, but our driver had decided he wanted to take us to some shops to see the local handicrafts before he took us to some place he knew for lunch, we told him we didn't want to go shopping but he wouldn't listen, he obviously gets commision for taking people to certain shops, restaurants etc but weren't intersted in buying souvineers, and we were a bit sick of him dictating what and when we were doing things and nothing stands between Mr Goodbody and food, so we ditched him.
After lunch we couldn't wait to get straight down to the Taj, it was just around the corner from our guesthouse so we didn't need the tuk tuk anyway, on our way we bumped into Anton, a really friendly, cool young German guy we had met whislt waiting for the train, so we all went to check out The Taj Mahal together. It is as breathtaking as you imagine it to be, a beautiful white marble masterpeice, built out of grief from the loss of his beloved (I'm sure Ryan would do the same when I die) a phenomenal sight every should see. As we strolled around taking it all in thats when it started again, Ryan first 'can we have a picture with you?', I still find it highly amusing, and Anton only seeing it for the first time was amazed, so we both stood back, took pictures and laughed. This happened over and over and we were buzzing off it, then I got collared in the que to go inside the Taj. I got a picture with one family but they wouldn't let me go because the light wasn't right, three pictures later and my forced smile wearing thin, I then tried making my back to Ryan and Anton then another family grabbed, now it was Ryan's turn to laugh at me, and I think now he also has photgraphic evidence of me posing awkwardly with random Indian families.
We had watched Idiot Abroad with Carl Pilkington (whom I have felt like on more than one occasion since being in India), he takes a boat ride down the river behind th Taj and it looked amazing so we decided for sunset we would go find were the boat leaves from, so we walked down the road towards the water and found it easily, there was only like two or three old wooden boats and the guy asked us if we wanted to get on, with the sun starting to come down we quickly hopped on, we were the only people there, I thought there would be lots of people doing it, it was truely magical and our favourite part of the day, the sun cast a beautiful light over the Taj and the perfect mirror image was reflected in the water, we felt priveliged to have experienece it.
- comments
anna-maria nelson who exactly did the indians think you were? did you ever find out?xxxx
Maggie Another great one katie !! You will be famouse with these blogs !! Ha xxxx