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Agra and Delhi
After saying our goodbyes to Harpreet and her family, we got the bus to Agra, home of the famed Taj Mahal. UNfortunately, our forward planning had arranged for us to get to Agra in time to see the Taj a sunset. Sadly once more, Indian transport got the better of us. First our bus was cancelled so we had to wait for another one. After eventually boarding it, we were then stationary for 2hrs. Spitting feathers, I stormed back to the travel agents and let rip just exactly what I thought of their pathetic transport system! After finally getting under way, it took another 6hrs to get there and so we arrived well after sunset, much to our disappointment. Instead, we got up the next morning and decided to get a tour of the Taj by day - unfortunately we were not eager enough to get up at 5am to do the Taj at sunrise! Breakfast was quite an amusing affair at the hotel - I ordered rice muesli, having had something similar earlier in the trip which was just like rice krispies. However, on arrival, I actually just got a bowl of boiled rice. Delicious in the morning!
The Taj was amazing but the town itself is a s*** hole and I would only recommend spending 1 night in Agra. We had a guide who's English was questionable and who was insistent in pointing out just how 'symmetrical' everything was, over and over again!
After a spot of lunch, we jumped on a train to Delhi which should have been a brisk 2hrs, but actually ended up being 3 hrs late. Ah well - other travellers had warned us to spend as little time as possible in Delhi due to all the hassle one gets as a white person. We therefore only had one full day in Delhi to do some last minute shopping before hitting China. Unbeknown to us was that Monday happened to be not only the last day of some Hindu festival (where women fast for 9 days for the health of their husbands - the bloody cheek!) but also Mahatma Gandhi's anniversary so it was a national holiday. Instead of the bustling streets we had imagined, it was positively peaceful in the city centre and we had to hunt high and low for shops that were actually open. We did however manage to come up trumps with a spot of lunch at Costa Coffee and dinner at a rather lovely sea food restaurant recommended by the ever trustworthy Lonely Planet. Seriously dont know what we would do without that guide book. We met some nutters on the bus to Agra who had NO guidebook with them whatsoever. Utter madness if you ask me!
Our much anticipated 'Air Ethiopian' flight to Beijing was early next morning though we thought watching some crappy horror film in our room was more preferential to getting an early night!
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