Hotel Atithi Agra

... Indian sweets we keep seeing and he went out and got us some good ones to try, they were yum. Off to bed early as we had to be up at 5 for train. We arrived in Agra mid morning and had some brekkie while we were waiting for hotel to get rooms ready then we went to Red fort, it was not a fighting fort but as was the home of a king it had to be prepared. Built in 16 century, this also had amazing detail etc. It was built by ...

... crafted marble and a lot of schlock, and then the Agra fortress which our driver, based on the looks of exhaustion from our faces, decided sufficed to take pictures of from the outside without going in. As has been so often the case on my travels, the Taj was the kind of great-to-see-terrible-to-describe thing best left to the pictures to do the talking.<br><br>My favorite thing about the Taj is its backstory. You always hear the story about how it ...

... dreadful traffic jams. Leaving the city we ended up on a good toll road and made up time and arrived at the site around 10.30am where our driver plonked us at the parking area and not being a guide told us nothing and so we found our way to the entry gate up a long road of about 15 minutes walk away. Here we arrived at the Jama Masjid mosque which was completed in 1571 by Akbar the ruler who had decided to move the seat of government to here from Agra. The mosque was built ...

... with its trunk. it did so, prsenting the unharmed, though rather snotty sunglasses back to their owner. after a quick wipe, he put them straight back on.<br>later that evening, we watched the sun set at a bar we had spotted earlier on in the day, next to the riverbank and the elephant-wash. the red sun reflected off the water, and across the flat grassland surrounding us. we must have taken about a hundred photographs between us.<br>our fina day in chitwan started early, with a ...

... was well happy and joyful, almost dancing in the street.<br><br>I bought a beautiful little marble treasure box inlaid with stones and another snowdome to satisfy my snowdome fetish. We're good at bargaining now. I play the Indian's at their own game. I say 'this (insert souvenir name) is cheap and best, price is not expensive, i am your first customer today, i am lucky customer, Indian prices please'? Then i ask for their starting price by saying 'how much you sell it for'? Then ...

... a great lake/reflecting pool in front of the Taj like you might imagine. The grounds are well kept (especially for India), and the gardens are in a British style after the Brits totally revamped the crumbling property a little over 100 years ago. <br><br>There are actually 3 buildings, the Taj in the middle, and two nearly identical buildings to either side. One of these is a Mosque (we even heard the afternoon prayer call) and the other is supposedly a ...

... the sound that they make......maybe it is called a HMMMMMM). So we get out of the car, unprepared for the first overwhelming feature of the Taj Mahal-that alongside the entrance is an enormous open sewer. We felt that we have just walked into an open air latrine!!! Ok, this is a third world country, but, the world famous UNESCO site should be treated with a bit more respect. It certainly generates enough dollars in tourism ...

... was downright peaceful I tell ya! The swiss guys were shocked, they had never seen it this way and they stayed there for their first week in Delhi. I told them I have great travel karma, I really do! We barely go harassed at all and when we did the boys kept referring to me. We were walking at one point, a guy came up and started chatting to Chris, I signaled them to come so the guy ...

... but he's a tough man to argue down. He was a real laugh though and our taste in TV and films is almost exact. He also gave me some superb insider gossip - Dale Winton is a nightmare apparently - and it was a most enjoyable evening. I hope to meet up with him again later in my trip. I left Agra for a tiny town to the South just for a couple of days Orcha. It's full of beatiful temples and is incredibly quiet compared to Agra. There are no touts and ...

... being robbed outside the Taj Mahal and in the streets where vendors crowd aggressively around you.<br><br>Aside from all of these scams the greatest current (tourist related) scandal in Agra is the hiking of the entry price for the Taj Mahal and other buildings. Last year (1999) the entry price for foreigners was raised from 10 rupees to 10 dollars, a four thousand percent price rise. And then, two days before we arrived the entrance fee went up to 20 dollars. At first I ...