Day 6 - Agra tour
Agra, Delhi
Wednesday, 9 November, 2011
Good morning (Su-prabhaat) everyone. 4 am and I am up. What a long night I had. Got more hours of sleep. My sniffles are still here (wishful thinking - thought it would be gone by morning). So today I will be heading to Agra with Kelly. The tour includes stops at the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, and many more places. I hope we can do the Delhi tour tomorrow which will wrap up our tour of the city. Then I might be able to fiddle with my schedule n squeeze a night trip to Varanasi. We'll see how that goes. Stay tuned to see if I make it there. First thing first breakfast (tuna snack), then I will head out to face the day.
I have been so lucky my entire time here up until this morning. My rickshaw drivers always knew where I was going. This morning he didn't, we stopped for directions and he decided he needed gas and to charge me extra 15INR; guess what, not going to happen. I refused and for 5 minutes he drove around and insisted on more money. I said no so he told me to get off which I refused as well and told him to take me back to where he picked me up from. He did and I got off and took a taxi instead (still bargained for the same 35INR). He agreed and I was at the tourism office in 10minutes. We are en-route to Agra for the "Agra day tour" which comprises of visit to the 'Shikandra tomb of Akbar', the 'Taj Mahal' (means Crown Palace) and to the 'Agra Fort' also known as the Red Fort. On our way to Agra, we stopped at Haryana at their Tourism park for breakfast and restroom break. So this is my first actual breakfast meal and it was very tasty. Seems everyone charges arm and leg for everything. The monkey tender wanted 100INR for me taking pictures of them and earlier, the elephant guy wanted 500INR from Kelly if she wanted to sit on the elephant. We headed to Agra, picked up the tour guide at Shikandra tomb of Akbar and it was smooth daily from there on.
Brief highlights of what I can recall:
I heard different historic stories about the builders of the Akbar tomb, the Taj and the Fort. The main level of the Akbar was by the grandfather, the white marble level the father, and the Taj by the son for his wife. The Taj took 22 years to build at the cost of 41million INR. The Agra fort was built by the same family but by four generation from this family. It took 95 years to complete. Here is what I recall in a nutshell.
We ran into Julie, Warren, Tali and Joanna at the Agra Fort which was the last major stop. Then the tour guide took us to a place where we say the marble cutting and design process used in all the marbles that constituted the Taj Mahal, then to the leather house of India (not sure of the name) near Purani Mandi. After which the guide was dropped off and we headed for Delhi (6.08pm).
I am not certain this is a cultural behavior or attitude but it was shocking. Myself and Kelly had asked if the driver would drop us off at our respective hotels and he agreed. Please keep in mind that it would cost me about 20 to 25 INR from the office where he was going to drop us off to my hotel. He dropped Kelly off first and we both planned to tip him 10INR each to make 20INR. He dropped me off last. While getting out, I thanked him and was about to hand him the tip when he asked 'How much?' ... I was shocked cos I never have never been asked that question before. We were told we could be dropped off at our hotel when we paid 1128INR each for the ride to and from Agra. I replied '10 rupees cos all I have is another 100' he said no I can't take it so I asked why and this was more shocking 'because you give 10rupees'. WOW! I didn't know you could do that (reject tips). Oh well. So I said really 'how much do you want?' He didn't respond, so I said you have change for a 100, and he said no. I was so confused not sure what to do so I headed into the alley that leads to my hotel (other way in) and called Kelly. She told me he acted awkwardly when she gave him her 10rupees but he collected it anyway. Well, I guess today was my day to deal with driver issues.
Just in case you were wondering I am still with my sniffles and now with an additional sour throat. Going to get refreshed and then try to sleep cos tomorrow, I will be meeting Kelly for the Delhi sightseeing. Which means Good night (Shubh Raatri) people. Wish me (my nose) speedy recovery