Shanti Lodge Agra

Im playing catch up a bit on the old travel blogs as we're now in Jaipur, three stops away from Agra but im gonna give Agra its own little write up because it was a mixed bag and deserves the attention! So we arrived from Delhi, the train journey was mesmerising, it was our first and was pretty comfortable, we bought a ticket in Second Class and landed ourselves down by a nice Indian family that looked at us less than everyone else in India, which eased the unease of being looked at like wolf...

We survived but didn't sleep a wink on the crazy sleeper bus. Don't think we'll be booking another of those any time soon! The whole night was bumpy... and a bus ride in India isn't complete without a scary toilet experience too. For me (Jenny), this pee stop will go down in the books as the dirtiest, nastiest, unbelievable, and random thus far in my life. I won't describe in detail here, but if you ask me in person I will gladly recount the tale. What do you say about the Taj Mahal? It lives...

Agra was our first major site after we returned to India. What we thought would be a logical first stop in Varanasi, after our crossover from Nepal, then a quick jaunt west to the Kama Sutra carvings of Kajuraho then Agra for the Taj, was thwarted with the Maoist strikes that flared up in Nepal just a few days before we left. Roadblocks were enforced, halting any flow of vehicular traffic bound for entry or exit from the country. Basically, we'd forgone the chance to take overland transport i...

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Finally Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal. I read so much about this place that I almost developed an Agraphobia. People said that in the restaurants they deliberately put some bacterias into the food, so that you get sick, then they bring you to the doctor who horribly overprices you. The best thing about Agra was not the Tajmahal(which I even did not visit because it was far too expensive something like the price of one week accomodation) but the one ruppe rickshaw driver. He said that he wou...

We started out from New Delhi train station at 2pm and got the train to Agra. We were just standard class which was absolutely fine, the train was a bit late and the carriage a bit more battered but comfortable enough. We met a really great Indian guy on the train called Jaz who chatted to us the whole journey, mainly to Chris about politics, cricket and beer which Em has little input on but he was the friendlies\t guy we have met in India and taught us a lot about India and their culture so ...

Agra is a much smaller, easier to comprehend town than Delhi. We felt happy to arrive here. The streets are full of every kind of vehicle and animal you can imagine, and the dirt is overwhelming and inescapable. We stayed at Shanti Lodge - definitely not the worst of things to come but still a bit of a shock to the system. Lonely Planet described it in a much more positive light - or maybe we're just flash-packers who have unrealistically high standards? The Taj Mahal was every bit as good as...

Was woken up at about 3am by what sounded like shoveling of something like sand outside. I went back to sleep again and got up at 5.15am after my alarm had gone off 10 minutes before. This morning I have a train at 6.15am to Agra - home of what some say is the most beautiful building in the world - the Taj Mahal. I checked out of the hotel and walked down Main Bazaar to the station which was still a hithe of activity even at 6 in the morning. The train was just pulling in on the same platform...

Was woken up at about 3am and was then bitten by a few mosquito's on my feet so started scratching. Got up at about 8am and had breakfast on the roof. The view of the Tah Mahal from the hotel roof is only slightly obscured by some trees. Some monkey's were playing with each other on a nearby roof. My breakfast of cornflakes, toast and coffee took well over 20 minutes to arrive, much slower than my curry last night did. I walked round to the Hotel Sheela where they confirmed my booking so I wa...