[Agra, India. 19th - 20'th Oct 2006]
My Agra trip happened as an afterthought, i didn't even consider it initially. Then someone asked me if i'll be going to Agra and i thought to myself "why not ??... if im going all the way to Delhi i might as well visit Agra and get it off the list". It is like the great wall, i didn't visit it when i went to China the first time and i had to endure the constant "Did you go to the great wall ?? Did you go to the great wall ???" questions for a whole year. I didn't want the same to happen with the Taj Mahal, and anyway i wanted to see what the fuss was all about and i was excited about visiting it.
The 'Ride' to Agra :
My flight landed in Delhi at 6:30 in the morning.I took a pre-paid taxi to Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) and the moment i got off the taxi i was approached by an elderly auto driver. Within a couple of minutes, he managed to convince me that there were no buses to Agra running from ISBT and for just 20Rs offered to take me to a place nearby from where i could get a bus to Agra. Before i could realize that i was being scammed, i was taken to a travel agent, parted with 550Rs for a non-AC bus to Agra, made to pay 100bucks for the Auto ride, put on the last row of a AC bus. Then the bus went around Delhi collecting more passengers and when the last row began to fill up, i was thrown out of my seat and into the drivers cabin. Midway into the ride we stopped for a break and i switched buses and got a seat finally. I was fuming with rage but there was nothing i could do, except calm myself and take it all part of the 'india' travel experience. I was expecting this sorta thing to happen, but not this soon and not this bad.
The rest of the ride was actually pretty interesting, it was great watching the rural landscape go by. The green fields, tall grass, hay stacked liked huts and the occasional camels. Once i saw a small cart pulled by a camel.. "whats so special??".. you might ask, well the driver was sleeping on the cart and the camel was ambling down the road by itself. It reminded me of a similar scene from the movie "They Call me Trinity", one of my favourite westerns. The bus reached Agra at around noon, it went straight to the Agra fort and one of the conductors said that everyone had one hour to see the place, it was then i realized that i was on a day trip tour bus, i didn't even bother to try and get a refund, i just took out my backpack and set out to find a hotel. I've been travelling for almost 12 hrs straight and was dead tired, the Taj can wait i needed to catch up on my sleep.
In Agra..
My first order of business was to find a place to stay. After consulting LP i choose to stay at the Taj Ganj area as it was close to the Taj Mahal complex and also had the best budget accomodation. Everything works on commission in Agra, every auto guy i stopped offered to take me to some hotel and when i told them that i'll find a place by myself they refused to take me anywhere. Finally i met a guy who appeared nice and offered to take me around until i found a place i liked. He was taking a more subtle approach to the commission game and i was too tired to argue and asked him to take me. After looking at some 3 to 4 places, i picked Santhi Lodge. The room was 250 per night, spacious but nothing special. Just a place to sleep. I didn't bother to have my lunch, i just crashed right away.
The Taj:
At around 5 after a quick lunch near the entrance, i entered the Taj Mahal complex. I've read so much about the place, about how exquisite, magnificent it is and i was expecting to be awed by it. But it wasn't to be, it was beautiful i'll admit but nothing to take my breath away and make me go "WOW". The whole complex was enclosed within high walls (infact its hard to see anything from the outsides), at the entrance there were the beautiful gardens, fountains and walkways leading up to the Taj. With every step you take towards it you take in more of its beauty and slowly it grows on you. I spent a good hour seeing the place from the outside, from the sides, taking it all in. The complex is huge and on both sides of the central tomb there are these prayer halls. Not much crowd goes there, its a great place to sit and take it the surroundings without being constantly disturbed by the crowds. By the time i went into the Tomb, it was dark and i couldn't see anything much. Then slowly the crowds started going back and the place emptied out. At around 7, there was only some 20 people left and we were treated to some beautiful sights seeing the Taj at sundown in the slowly fading golden light. I played around with my camera a lot, took many pictures of the Taj at night.
Dinner was a rather bland affair at one of those Lonely Planet 'recommended' restaurants. It was westernized indian food and i didnt like it much. The high point of my food experience that evening was when i went down to a local sweetshop and asked the shopkeeper to pack me different pieces of his best sweets and gobbled it all up on my way back to the Hotel. Agra is a city of sweets, there are sweet shops everywhere you go and all doing brisk business. The peda from Agra is supposed to be very famous, but i didnt get a chance to taste it :(
Day 2, Fateh-pur-Sikri :
My first order of business was to go to the train station and book a ticket to Jodhpur. Originally i had intended on spending 3 days in Agra but i didnt like the place much and decided to leave a day early. I couldn't get a confirmed ticket though, i got 3'rd AC WL6. After a light breakfast of Katchoris i hopped onto a local bus bound for Fathe-pur-skiri. Fateh-pur-sikri is some 17km from Agra, its a 40min drive normally but our bus blew a tyre while on the highway and the whole ride took nearly double the time.
The moment i landed at Fath-pur-sikri, i was mobbed by touts offering to be my guide to the Jama Masjid. They were mostly school kids and their price kept steadily decreasing, from 100 to 50 to 10Rs for their services. I would've liked to take a guide, but their constant nagging put me off and i went on without any guide. At the entrance to the Jama Masjid stands the Buland Darwaza, a 40m high imposing sandstone 'victory' gateway built by Akbar in 1573 to celebrate his victory against a Gujarat King. It was Eid time and the place was filled with locals coming to pray and take part in the festivities. For once i enjoyed being among the crowds, it was not the usual camera toting tourists but regular people going about their business. It was good to see, and the kids kept coming up to me and asked me to take their pictures. It was the first time i really ever took picture of others while travelling and i enjoyed it, i loved taking pictures of kids, especially when they take so much joy posing and looking at the pictures.
After the Jama Masjid i went over to the Jodh Bai palace complex nearby. It was an huge complex, beautiful but rather bland without any proper guides. The one thing that sticks with me form the place is the huge stable area, there must've been space there for at least a 1000 horses over there, maybe even for some elephants. The best time at Fateh-pur-sikri was spent roaming the narrow bazaars, taking pictures and eating all sorts of junk street food. Thanks to my strong stomach i can indulge myself in all those oily guilty pleasures without falling sick.
The evening was full of suspense, my ticket was still not yet confirmed, it was at WL 1. The scheduled departure time for my train was at 7:55pm but it was delayed by a couple of hours, so i went and had dinner at a Dashprakash nearby. My first proper indian food in 2 days (i've vowed never ever to eat at a 'lonely planet recommended' restaurant, ever again). I went back to the station at 9, only to find that my train's been delayed for another couple of hours. I made myself comfortable on a bench at the station and started reading my book and messaging some friends. The train finally arrived at around 12:40 a whole 5 hours late, i spoked to the TT and got a confirmed seat. Relieved, i boarded the train off to Jodhpur and to start the main leg of my Rajasthan Trip.
Travels of Saravana
