Apologies to all those waiting with bated breath for my first post (I know, there are hundreds of you). I haven’t had much to report as I have essentially stayed inside and tried to get some work done until we started the tour today. I’m sure you will notice these first few paragraphs are boring as batshit. So, if you want to skip to the tour-awesomeness, scroll to the **.
I had a bit of a fiasco trying to get to my hotel on which I will elaborate later – essentially there were a few mix-ups, missing people, crazy driving, lost drivers and dodgy neighbourhoods. But, the important thing is that I made it!
I didn’t investigate Delhi much – I was tired, and tried to get some work done. I ventured outside into the smoggy fog once to update Facebook to let you all know that I was alive. Stray dogs pick through the rubbish that lines the streets, wary of the people walking and driving past, erratically albeit slowly. Lanes schmanes people. Pedestrians, tuk-tuks, rickshaws, cars, cyclists all sweep across the road in a cacophony of horns and voices, chaotic yet calm as nobody is in a rush and road rage does not exist. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that people don’t hassle me as much as I thought they would. I have discovered today it may be because I have learnt the art of exuding eff off from every cell in my body rather than being swept up in the awkwardness of the intense beseeching.
So, yesterday they moved me from a twin-share room to a double room, so I naturally assumed that I would be by myself. I know, only the fool. Turns out my room mate is a lovely girl from Canberra named Anna (certainly the only nice Anna I’ve ever known J) and we chatted, sharing traumatic experiences of getting from the airport to the world’s hardest to find hotel.
We met up with another girl, Vanessa, who has been volunteering in Jaipur for a couple of weeks, and we headed out to the Australian High Commission for the afternoon. Why you ask? Well…turns out Anna was actually born here in New Delhi and her parents worked for the AHC, so they teed up for her to come out and meet old acquaintances of her parents and see the house that she spent the first year of her life in. So, we wandered around and checked out the place and you will be pleased to know that if anything goes wrong I have contacts I can call now!!
Well….tour meeting….blah blah….meeting great people – nearly all from Australia. Anna and Vanessa I have already mentioned, Sarah and Norm; a sibling pair (which I only discovered today) from Melb, and Ian and Megan from Brisbane. We all went out to dinner taken by our tour guide Paddy (don’t ask me what it’s short for because I keep forgetting!), the warm, humorous, Bollywood-esque appearance (including a moustache that I would usually label dirty-porn except for the beautifully genuine smile it tops). After eating and meeting we all headed straight for bed for an early start.
**
5:30am and we were up to take the early morning express train to Agra. We jumped into the mini-van and huddled together for warmth whilst the driver navigated his way through the post-apocalyptic neighbourhood which was eerily empty during these wee hours. We met the last pair on our tour, Nigel and Mercedes from the UK. We arrived at the train station shortly after 6:30am and worked our way through the beggars, rubbish and backpack-armed tourists. Wait….
Soon enough the train arrived and the people clamoured towards it, with our group just trying to follow our tour leader. We were fortunate enough to stop right next to a frequent-user section of the tracks. Nothing like the strong stench of decaying urine to wake you up in the morning. Thankfully we moved on quickly and boarded the dark train, lights-out to encourage sleeping at this time of the morning. Which, of course, turned on as soon as we got into our seats and put our bags up on the racks. Duh.
Four hours and an omelette later, and we were in Agra. We were picked up by another mini-van which took us away from the imploring pools of sadness that were the eyes of child beggars and towards our hotel, which thankfully has been a step up from the last one.
We all decided to take an optional tour to Agra Fort, constructed mostly from red sandstone (though some portions had marble). Once upon a time, it was so cool it had a crocodile-infested moat to keep out intruders. Despite losing the crocs, it was amazing to walk through, and I’m pleased to say I have my photo-taking mojo back. Well, coming back anyway. I only took 184 photos! Most of which suck. But anyway…the fort. It was very calming, a wonderful contrast from the pandemonium in the streets. A few touts, but nothing serious. We strolled through the gardens, looking up to admire carvings in red sandstone or marble, pausing to gush at gorgeous chipmunks (I think) and of course stopping to take photos. Another nice thing was that the majority of tourists wandering around were Indians dressed in colourful saris rather than the seemingly ubiquitous westerners.
After roaming around and making our way to the top to peer through the fog at the distant Taj, we eventually made our way back down the bus so that we could have some lunch, though not before scaring the bejesus out of Sarah by pointing out a man inflicted with polio (she didn’t have a polio shot before she left). Lunch was fantastic. The food here is great – I didn’t realise how greasy we make Indian food. Here it is filling, but not heavy; no grease lies at the bottom of dishes, it is almost squeaky for the lack of oil. Well, the few places I have eaten at anyway.
So after this we headed to the renowned Taj Mahal. Built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife who died giving birth to their 14th (!) child, the Taj is as every bit stunning as people say. I am ashamed to admit that it doesn’t quite take my breath away as much as the Pantheon, but you just can’t stop looking at it. The tour guide was trying to explain a few different things to us but we found it difficult to concentrate on what he was saying as the splendour in front of was just captivating. I won’t elaborate much – there are a plethora of descriptions on the net that are most likely more eloquent and encapsulating than my own.
We wandered around and took shot after shot after shot of the Taj. We had a few ‘professional’ photos taken, of which a few actually worked out all right. I will add these to the album at a later date (possible when I get home so that I can scan them in to the computer). Not too much to say except….wow. Magnificent doesn’t even begin to cover it. There was an overabundance of people there, which I think may have taken away from some of the magic that the building has to offer, but you still just can’t help but look at it. I could very easily come back and try to catch it at sunrise, or moonlight apparently is quite good. We went inside briefly (I know – there’s an inside? What the?) where the tombs are found (though technically these are beneath us) and then sat out in the gardens waiting for the inevitably anti-climactic sunset – we didn’t quite see the streaming colours that were ‘promised’. But in short, words and photographs don’t do it justice. Just do it.
Back to the mini-van – well, eventually – did I mention that you can’t use polluting vehicles within x km of the Taj? We had to take battery-powered carts from a designated pick-up point to get there. After fighting off the local vendors thrusting their arms in our faces and then into the van, we made our way back home and staggered towards bed, though not before heading to Pizza Hut to satisfy the western diets of the majority of the tour. Sigh.
Tomorrow we are heading to a little town called Tordi Garh which you won’t find in any guidebook – it is an ‘off-the-beaten-path’ experience offered by Gecko’s – you can’t even get to it on public transport: we have to take jeeps. Needless to say I am very much looking forward to this!
So until next time bitches….hope you’re all enjoying the heatwave.
Agra photos
