Duke Palace Mathura

... my liberal western mind.

From Gwalior we hop on an overnight sleeper train. These trains remind me of the ones in Russia and China, each carriage with 54 beds, divided into 3-bunk beds. We could only book the more expensive airco class, but with it comes blankets, clean toilets and separation curtains ;-) The next morning we are there, only 2 hours late…One guy directs us to his rickshaw, bringing us to a great guesthouse in the old city. Of course we are fully aware that he ...

... br> Monday 12th October .As arranged we were met by our driver at 9am and taken by rickshaw to the car but then someone else from a travel company where the car was parked drove us. So dear friends I can tell you that Agra as we had read has the scam business sewn up and despite thinking we were onto them we weren’t this time. The price stayed as we agreed but we were subcontracted out a number of times so perhaps we were used to spread the money amongst those who had ...

Had a fantastic birthday in Agra. Visted the Taj Mahal on the Saturday afternoon, and as expected a huge and magnificent building. In true birthday style I knocked back a few ales in the evening. Fell into a local bar where the regulars tried their best to get me and Craig drunk. They introduced us to Indian Kingfisher ...

... The Taj Mahal is just as beautiful as you expect. It is perfectly proportioned, and not pure white like I thought it would be, but built of large blocks of light coloured marble. On the sides are flower designs of inlaid semi precious stones and Arabic writing. You can go in beneath the dome to visit the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal, for whom it was built, and Shah Jehan, who built it.

We spent a lovely couple of hours there, and then went ...

... it to be much more special than the one here, but we did admire the Persian, Islamic and Indian designs and especially liked the Panch Mahal which is a five-storied pavilion that was used by the court ladies. There is also an interesting courtyard where it is said the Emperor Akbar played a chess like game using slaves as playing pieces. The other quirky occurrence of the day was watching tourists wear baskets on their heads at the mosque where you have to cover your head and ...

... have time. Besides, I was not sure he would really take me to the market and, or rather, there was a large possibility to take me to a marble factory and to make me buy souveniors there. This is a kind of scams I often encounter when I travel alone in developing countries.

The first destination of the day was Taj Mahal. We had to change vehicles on our way to Taj Mahal because of the vehicle restriction of the area. We took ...

As you'll guess from the title dogs and fog are two things Agra had in abundance on my visit. Before I go any further I must share the story of my journey to the city. About 1 hour after leaving Ranthambore the car after making some strange noises came to a stop in the middle of nowhere. The two Indian chaps soon had their heads under the bonnet trying to diagnose the problem. After some minutes ...

... doorway which has a bloke stood in it!!! Now's not the time for language barriers so I gestured to him "move out the way pal i'm comming through". Thankfully he steps to the side, I grab hold of the handrail and pull myself up onto the moving train. Now's not the time to slip either..... and thankfully i didn't. Seems strange though this carriage is smokey? Gathering myself together, I take a look around to see that I've bundled myself into a 'staff-only' carriage ...

... do Varanasi je kompletne boked az do dvacatyho ctvrtyho.....A vono je to vlastne dobre, protoze na ten festival prej do Varanasi pride pres milion pilgrimu a to musi bejt peklo. Uz takle je vsude silene lidi....malicka tecka na mape ze je to jako mala vesnicka, ma tak pul milionu vobyvatel....Myslim ze snad jediny misto v Indii kde neni moc lidi, je akorat pod vodou. I Himalaje sou prelidneny prazskejma starostama!!

... und man zahlt letztlich mehr. Ich stand also in der Schlange dieses Ticket-Bueros und warte. Waehrenddessen nervt mich ununterbrochen ein Fahrer damit, dass er ein billiges Hotel kennt und der Fahrpreis sehr gering ist. Welchen Teil von "No" er nicht verstanden hat ist mir unklar, aber er hat einfach nicht aufgehoert. Nachdem ich endlich im Hotel angekommen war (das im Gegensatz zur Beschreibung im Reisefuehrer und den Werbetafeln keinen Pool mehr hat ...