Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, 1.5 million people and 1700 factories, boy does it show. The streets are littered with rubbish and a thick, acrid stench that could make a murderer cry, hangs in the air. Renowned throughout India for it's corrupt politicans, the city seems to have given up on a municipal waste disposal system. Instead various animals wander the streets grazing the piles of rubbish that seem to be on almost every street corner.
The Taj Mahal itself is something else. Upon approaching the surrounding Taj Ganj neighourhood the environment brightens and the smell is no longer quite so bad, the touts however, remain a persitent irritant. Mark and I walked and recieved no end of hassle. The concept of using your legs to propel yourself to a destination seems alien to these guys.
Once inside the Taj was suprisingly quiet. This may be the result of our early visit or was possibly the result of the Rs750 entrance fee which has been leveed on foreign visitors since 2000. Wandering around I realised just how impressive this structure actually is. From photo's I'd thought 'hmmm quite nice, but nothing more special than somewhere in Europe'. I was wrong. The scale of it is immense, the symetry flawless and on closer inspection the design was highly intricate. Precious gemstones sourced from all over Asia are set within the marble forming brilliant patterns. Apparantly 2000 workers over twenty years, I can see why!
Agra's other sights don't quite match up. After a lazy day trying to buy some souvenirs we decided to see the rest of the city and ended up at the Agra Fort. The day started by hiring a cycle rickshaw to take us to the tourist office where we were assured it would be possible to board a coach heading out of town. The problem with this was the poor guy has no idea where it was. After twenty mintutes of aimless cycling and numerous inquiries to passers by the driver looked close to collapse. Not suprising considering he was transporting almost 30 stone of flesh in baking heat. We decided to give up the goose and found ourselves in the Sadaar Bazaar. Paying the driver handsomley, as he didn't appear to have any idea where he was, we headed into the market. Which was closed! I did however, encounter a potential HSE nightmare of bamboo scaffolding with numerous guys clambering all over.
We finally arrived at the Fort and it was worth the trouble. Upon leaving however, I was hassled by numerous touts. I had made the fatal error of removing a Rs50 note from my pocket in their line of sight. They were all over me like a bad case of chickenpox and I had to almost run to the nearby market to escape their attentions. With all of our sightseeing over we headed back to the Guesthouse we geared up for our last day and the train to Varanasi.
Our last day in Agra passed uneventfully with much killing time waiting for the train. We spent some time in an internet cafe and eating lunch before catching a cycle rickshaw back to the Guesthouse to collect our baggage. The highlight of the day came in this journey.
Within minutes of climbing in the Rickshaw driver asked 'would you please go to a handicrafts store as I get Rs20 if you spend five minutes'. As we are now starting to get the hang of what makes this guys tick we agreeded, on the condition that he would charge us half the fare. The shop was crappy and full of faux silk and all manner of wooden carvings. Naturally we didn't buy anything and made our way for the exit. We awaited the driver who marched out about a minute later triumphantly waving his Rs20 commission. On the way back to the Guesthouse we contemplated visiting other shops with the driver to help him boost his income, but decided against as we were hungry, tired and had a train to catch. Not a bad way to travel for free really.
Leaving Agra on the 9.15PM sleeper train to Varanasi I was a little saddened. Despite the city being what could be described as a shitheap, we had had a good time. The people, once you had cut through the crap, were friendly and funny and the city had it's own charm.
