India Part 3: Agra
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
8
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Agra,
Uttar Pradesh,
India
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Welcome to our Stage 3 India Trip: Agra.
Rajasthan is a State and under this State comes different villages and cities such as Agra (where the Taj Mahal is), Jaipur, Pushka etc. We did a Rajasthan tour and so it begins.......
From the broken-windowed live-wire fan train, we finally emerged, drained and dirty, at Agra Train Station at 21:30. We always seem to get to places a) late at night and b) in the dark! Thankfully, this train station was small and rather empty. Apart from the locusts. Tons of them. The size of dogs. Flying at you as you make your way for the exit. My screaming as I ran down the station corridor caused flapping locals to laugh their pants off at me! "they not hurt you, no problem lady". David had one on the back of his shirt and all I could do was go "ahhh ahhh" and flap my pashmina at it!! I then found one on my trousers and re-enacted some bizarre tribal hopping dance.
We were quite relieved at the lack of hassle until.....we got outside! "taxi?" "tuc-tuc?" "taxi?" "tuc-tuc?" sigh! We were met by our private taxi driver who was going to give us the Rajasthan tour by car. He instantly put two garlands of fuschia pink flowers around our neck and congratulated us on our marriage.
Our booked Hotel looked lovely with expansive, marble clad reception. Our room was downstairs below the road. It stank of damp, had damp walls, had locusts in the bathroom and about as much appeal as kissing a rotting corpse. We demanded a room change.
Our room with a view!
They were very obliging and apologised. The 2nd room was also damp, had damp walls, locusts in the bathroom. We demanded a room change again. It was perfect! Clean, tidy, no insects, smelt lovely. We had a lovely hot shower and then when we turned all the lights out to sleep, to our hysteria, we discovered a ceiling full of day-glo stars, moon and an aeroplane like you put on a child's bedroom ceiling and the air conditioning unit made the sound of crickets so it was really like camping outside! David pinned the tail on the donkey by saying "this country gets stranger and stranger every single day".The next morning, we were up and dressed at 5:30am to go to the Taj Mahal which opens daily at 6am!!! We had a long drive later on to another town so we had to pack it all in! I sprang the curtains open and said "let's have a look at our view". We fell on our knees laughing. Our room faced the inside of a massive exhibition hall where they served breakfast and the breakfast table was up against our window!! This country gets stranger and stranger every day.............
The Taj Mahal was only 5mins up the road. We had to walk up a long driveway while being accosted, naturally, by locals selling guides, themselves, their children, their cheap and tatty shit, before we got to the ticket booth and the x-ray scanning security area. We breathed a sigh of relief. At last free from hassling locals. HA! A place of absolute serenity and beauty and historical wonder and we get swarmed by begging locals.
Us at TJ's!
It seriously marred David's experience of the Taj Mahal which upset me too.Anyway, the Taj Mahal was truly absolutely stunning. We walked round and took some beautiful photos. Thankfully, at such an ungodly hour of the day, it wasn't particularly busy so we were fortunate to be able to take photos of us alone in front of the Taj Mahal without crowds. When you stand up close outside the actual building, you have to really crane your neck up to the sky, it's massive. Surprisingly, after the anticipation of wanting to go there, although it was visually exquisite and very spiritual, it didn't meet our expectations, as in, it was a bit of an anticlimax. We were both expecting some magnificent emotional ride upon being there in front of it and being able to touch the cold and beautifully carved marble but sadly no tears or moaning came forth. It was just simply a building of utter beauty.
Our next stop was Agra's Red Fort. This is literally a fort that's built out of red sandstone and took 9 years to build!! We thought the Taj Mahal was beautiful. THAT was nothing compared to this place. The Red Fort completely blew us away and moved us more than the Taj Mahal. Inside, there are corridors of marble, porches of ornately carved doorways and archways, stunning gem-clad decoration on walls, a vista that overlooks the main road down below, acres of barren land and, in the distance, shimmering in the early morning light, the Majestic Taj Mahal against a powder blue sky. Stunning. Outside, the gardens are expansive with neatly trimmed trees and freshly mown lawns and standing here and looking over to the whole place was breathtaking.
A big marble arch
The history and the magnitude of it all was moving and David and I adored it. Later, we left Agra and began the epic car journey to Ranthambore which took about 6 hours. We had no accommodation booked and would have to find somewhere when we arrived. We had no idea what Ranthambore was like or how safe it was. But if worst came to the worst, there was our private taxi to sleep in.
Our driver, Arif, is lovely and chatted all the way giving us information on his country. We drove through lots of little villages which gave us an amazing insight into India and its culture. We realised, during this epic drive, that Indian drivers are absolutely effing mental! Arif told us that there are no rules when it comes to driving. None. Apart from one: use the horn. As a warning to everyone, everything, at all times, repeatedly. Although there are white lines down the middle of the road, this means nothing. Just drive wherever you like. As fast as you like. Overtake on the inside. Overtake on the outside. Overtake even when there's a car coming towards you because everyone will make way for everyone else. But use the horn extensively to warn.
On a dual carriageway, be alert. Even though it's a dual carriageway, be prepared for traffic coming towards you on your side of the carriageway!!? Vehicles that want to turn down a street that is on your side of the carriageway will drive on your side of the road to get to their turn off. Perfect sense!? Everyone just makes room for everyone else even if it means moving over to drive on the hard shoulder.
Side view of TJ's!
However, there are no hard shoulders, just tracks. If there are cows, cars, bikes in your way, just use your horn repeatedly and everything will move aside so you can overtake it, on the inside or outside without slowing down! If there is a traffic jam of lorries on the road, don't panic. Just breathe in, squeeze in, and if the gap narrows between lorries, just use your horn and the lorries will move over. If there are women, children, pigs, cows, buffalo, in the middle of the road, use your horn, alert, alert, alert. Animals will just look up and go "what?" and so you then have to zoom around them.
Every vehicle is used to its full capacity to transport people or goods. Motorbikes take up to 4 people including babies in mother's arms and no one wears crash helmets!! Trucks pack people in to the back so they are all spilling over the edges. Jeeps have men hanging off the rear to shield the open back and the hords of women rammed inside with their wind-blown saris on. Quite a gentlemanly custom this. Hundreds of camels lug carts of goods everywhere at a slow pace with the rider guiding it to its destination.
Cows are Holy animals so they must never be injured or killed or eaten. If there is a dead cow the village community get together, collect money and bury the cow somewhere and give it a send off. I think the money goes into the community. If there are dead dogs, they get thrown into the river. There are millions of goats everywhere being herded everywhere by shepherds wearing day-glo turbans. Goats go to the butchers when they die. Women and daughters carry everything on their heads. It's incredible! There are women working on building sites carrying a load of bricks on their head and going up ladders! Women with huge urns of water ambling back to their village. Children with sacks of potatoes on their head strolling through their village and laughing with their friends. Women carrying bundles of sticks on their head. Men, meanwhile, sit inside the village huts that sell stuff and chew the cud with their friends or wait for custom. They lounge on chairs in the shade swatting flies and watching passing traffic.
Most homes on the outskirts of a village is a hut. Straw, wood, bamboo, mud, it's a one storey hut. Every natural resource is used to build a home. So primitive. Within the villages, there are some concrete buildings however which also double up as shops selling stuff you can't live without. Like rocks made into Camels.
As well as all of this, there are forts, palaces, mosques and hills of natural beauty to see along the way. Fascinating journey. If a bit hairy at times.
Finally we got to Ranthambore at 9pm. Now we had to find somewhere to sleep.
Read our next blog to find out IF we found room at the Inn!!!
Love, Lois and hubby xxxxxxxxxx
Comments
AGRA--TWICE
Hi Guys, Great to hear about TJ's etc. But you sent this travel pod twice and nothing in the travelpod number 4 about Ranthambore, just an empty pod.
Love from Dave and Cath
Agra-vation
Yep, Agra x 2 and still don't know if there was room at the inn. Or is that why part 4 does not appear - no internet connection on your Agra-vating bench! Holding my breath for next instalment, but I am not THAT much of a mega=-breath holder! Help! Maid Marion of Malatya