20.09.2009 to 21.09.2009
We arrived in Agra late in the evening, after, what turned out to be, a thirteen hour train trip. It was the first time we travelled by day and next time round we will make sure to get loads of food with us as we were starving by the end of the trip, especially watching all the Indians next to us eating fresh vegetables, fruits and home cooked meals! Our eating experience on our first night in Agra was a disaster. The food was not good at all and we ended up in two places. We chose the first one as it has a very nice view of the Taj… we did not know as yet that the Taj was not lit at night so there was no view at all! Given the fact that the menu did not inspire us at all, we just took a couple of drinks and headed off to another restaurant, having high hopes that the food would turn out good… which hopes never materialized. After a far from satisfying culinary experience, we made our way back to our room, where we enjoyed a restful night. The next morning was obviously an early start given we had to see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. But even if the sunrise would have been visible, which was not the case due to the weather, we would nonetheless have missed it due to the slow queue which was gathered in front of the ticket office. We eventually realized that the queue was slow as there were tour guides who were getting tickets for their tour, some of them made up of twenty people!! In fact once our turn came for the tickets we were able to jump the queue which was in front of the East Gate entry.
The first sight we got of the Taj Mahal was unsettling. This building is simply perfect… and from a distance it looked like a ghostly structure floating in the air… like a mirage. Given the early hour we were lucky enough to visit the Taj with relatively few tourists, compared to the later invasion of herds of tourists, mostly in a tour group. The reflection of the Taj in the water is beautiful… and the mausoleum, itself inside the structure, is beautiful as well. There are the reproduction tombs of Akbar and his beloved wife. The real tombs cannot be visited and are situated underground.
The history of the Taj is like a fairy tale. The great Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, built this mausoleum in memory of his beloved wife, known as Mumtaz Mahal (Persian for “Elect of the Palace”). On her dead bed, after just given birth to his fourteenth son, Mumtaz Mahal asked Shah Jahan to build something which will remind everyone how big their love was until the end of times. And, true to his promise, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal. It took twenty years to finish the building, 20,000 workers and 10.000 elephants. The story along with the building, are wonderful.
The legend also says that after the construction had finished, one finger from every workers’ hand was cut off in order for them not to be able to reproduce the work done on the Taj. The same faith was reserved to the architects’ hand too, who, before the actual fact, is said to have gone quickly inside the Taj and changed something to the structure. This change leads the lower part of the Taj to flood during the rainy season. Till today no one was able to discover where the water comes in from. Although Agra offered other interesting sights, we decided that the Taj was the only one we would be visiting, also giving the fact that the Taj itself was really expensive to visit (Rs750 per person : 12 euros), especially considering that Indian nationals paid only Rs20 to get inside!!! After more than four hours hovering into its gardens, we left the Taj. By then our taste buds where in desperate need for some good food. We were rewarded by finding a great place to eat…Joney’s… a whole in the wall corner bar which made excellent food… their closed toasts were great.
Once discovered we had our breakfast, lunches, dinners or whatever from this place. Here we also met a very cute dwarf-like man called Hanif. Hanif’s job is to sell essential perfumed oils… his shop is a small, metal case which he carried everywhere with him. The man was so nice, and his perfumes so good, that we ended up buying four of them! We spent our last day in Agra out and about, given our check out time was ten o’clock and our train to Varanasi was at eleven thirty at night.
So we went off to Fathepur Sikri. The old city itself is beautiful but the experience turned out not to be a very pleasant one given all the touts who did not leave us alone for one second. First some guides tried to make their way in. Then it was the young boys who said they only wanted to speak to us in order to practice their English as they were students. When we finally managed to leave behind a guy who had pestered us since our entry, we found another very nice guy inside the tomb who was telling us things about the place’s history. It turned out that this was their ‘manager’.
Trying to get rid of him, but not managing, we ended giving up to his request to see his ‘shop’, which was basically a small stall with marble miniatures of elephants and the like. When we eventually managed to convince them that we were not interested in purchasing any of their merchandise we were let free to roam around in peace. We walked as far away as possible to ensure that no one would follow us again and ended up next to the so-called Elephant tower. It is said that this tower was erected in the name of a warrior elephant. The surrounding fields were very peaceful, with only a couple of peasants and kids roaming around. After some time spent there we decided to head back to the bus station to catch our ride back to Agra.
Back in Agra we went straight to Joney’s place to have some quality food and walked back to our guesthouse to kill some time there. After a drink and some chit chatting we made our way to one of the marble shops we visited yesterday. Though many small shops promised quality products for a minimal prize we were totally unconvinced by their self-advertisements. We decided that if we were going to purchase something, we wanted to be at least sure it would be something of good quality. This would turn out be a very wise and lucky decision. After spending around an hour to find a good gift for our mothers, and having had a very nice conversation with the salesman, we decided to head off to the internet to call our parents.
We spent around two hours at the internet café, by which time it was already nine thirty in the evening. At ten we were leaving for the train station and we had already made arrangements with an auto-rickshaw to take us to there. After having a last quick meal at Joney’s and on our way to the guesthouse to get our backpacks, Janet froze on the spot… her camera was not with her… and she knew exactly where she had left it… at the marble shop… three hours ago!!! With lost hopes we would make it to the train station for Varanasi that night we made our way quickly to the marble shop, with the knowledge that they had closed as soon as we had left the shop.
When we were approaching the shop we realized that there were still lights on so we broke out into a run… there was still someone inside!! The salesman was there, waiting for us, but was just about to lose hope and leave. He told us he had gone to our guesthouse to ask for us and left a message to call at the shop when we returned. He even went through the trouble of checking a couple of restaurants. Janet was so happy that she wanted to offer him a compensation for all his trouble, but he refused to accept, which shows more how genuine this man was. After this incident we went quickly for our bags, met the rickshaw driver and drove off to the train station.
The train ride towards Varanasi was far from being uneventful. For the first time since we had ridden a train in India we were confused by the numbering system of the seats. There were two sets of numbers and we could not make out which were the correct ones until some Indian passengers confirmed them for us. From them on the show started. First a passenger approached us claiming one of the seats was his…he had number seventy and we had numbers 64 and 65, but one of the ‘older’ numbers was 70. The same passenger who instructed us where the seats were told this man that his seat was another one not ours. After this another man just decided to climb on our upper seat to sleep. When we stopped him he, together with his friends started complaining and telling us that there were three seats not two. When we asked him to show us his ticket to check his seats no ticket was offered so we told him that if he had any problem he should go and fetch the conductor. Eventually we decided to go to sleep and Janet went on her upper bunk.
An hour later a guy tapped loudly on her seat to move down and those seats where his and his wife’s. We started explaining that the numbering system had changed but he insisted. We insisted as well and he went to fetch the conductor. He returned saying no conductor was on the train at the moment. At this point some words where exchange between him and another man who was sitting, not yet asleep, on the seat adjacent to ours. When the conversation ended, the man sitting next to us moved to sleep in our bunk, on the one which was closed. When we complained, another man told us to let go and that we were not right in what we were saying. At that point we were totally confused and Janet, exasperated, told them that she only wanted to know the truth as there were too many people stating different versions.
The end of the story is that Janet moved in the middle seat, on top of Yakof, and the couple went on the seats adjacent to ours (which technically were not theirs according to what they claimed). When the conductor came, through half-opened eyes, Janet stitched together what was happening. The couple was right in saying the seats we were occupying were theirs, which meant that the seats we were in belonged to this couple and the first man who claimed his seat as number 70 and eventually went on another seat. What happened was the following.
Some of the passengers had no tickets so they occupied other persons’ seats (persons who had paid for the ticket). Two such seats were ours, but these were not only occupied by asleep men when we climbed the train, but their friends or whatever we can call them, confirmed to us for their sake, that our seats where the ones they pointed to us. Obviously they knew we would get hassled by the real owners of the seats and that we might end up without a seat ourselves given we were the only tourist in a cabin full of Indians. Janet saw the conductor ask for the ticket money both to the man occupying our real seat and to the one sleeping on top of her. She also noticed that the conductor was asking something else out of the men after giving them the ticket, which she realized was a bribe not to fine them. So the story was complete.
We were tricked from the beginning and this made our trip very uncomfortable. During the day the trip was much nicer as most of the passengers stopped in Lucknow and we had nearly all the cabin to ourselves until we reached Varanasi.
The only reason we wanted to visit Agra was for the world-famous, wonder of the world, Taj Mahal. Most of the travelers we met and who had been to both, told us that the Golden Temple was a nicer experience than the Taj Mahal. Another thing everyone told us was that Agra was a horrendous place and that we would hate it. While the first assertion is definitely true the second one we totally disagree upon. Maybe it’s the fact that Agra is usually one of the first places tourists visit in India so the impact is not good, or maybe because we have definitely been in much worse places, but we did not hate Agra, not at all.
It was a first timer for us to book a place to stay, but we did so given all the bad things we heard about the Agra, so we wanted to make sure we had somewhere decent and quiet. This is why we booked Hotel Sheela, which is a lovely guesthouse, with a beautiful garden, nice rooms and very quiet surroundings. It was also very convenient as it is only a stone throw away from the Taj Mahal’s east gate.
We arrived in Agra late in the evening, after, what turned out to be, a thirteen hour train trip. It was the first time we travelled by day and next time round we will make sure to get loads of food with us as we were starving by the end of the trip, especially watching all the Indians next to us eating fresh vegetables, fruits and home cooked meals! Our eating experience on our first night in Agra was a disaster. The food was not good at all and we ended up in two places. We chose the first one as it has a very nice view of the Taj… we did not know as yet that the Taj was not lit at night so there was no view at all! Given the fact that the menu did not inspire us at all, we just took a couple of drinks and headed off to another restaurant, having high hopes that the food would turn out good… which hopes never materialized. After a far from satisfying culinary experience, we made our way back to our room, where we enjoyed a restful night. The next morning was obviously an early start given we had to see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. But even if the sunrise would have been visible, which was not the case due to the weather, we would nonetheless have missed it due to the slow queue which was gathered in front of the ticket office. We eventually realized that the queue was slow as there were tour guides who were getting tickets for their tour, some of them made up of twenty people!! In fact once our turn came for the tickets we were able to jump the queue which was in front of the East Gate entry.
The first sight we got of the Taj Mahal was unsettling. This building is simply perfect… and from a distance it looked like a ghostly structure floating in the air… like a mirage. Given the early hour we were lucky enough to visit the Taj with relatively few tourists, compared to the later invasion of herds of tourists, mostly in a tour group. The reflection of the Taj in the water is beautiful… and the mausoleum, itself inside the structure, is beautiful as well. There are the reproduction tombs of Akbar and his beloved wife. The real tombs cannot be visited and are situated underground.
The history of the Taj is like a fairy tale. The great Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, built this mausoleum in memory of his beloved wife, known as Mumtaz Mahal (Persian for “Elect of the Palace”). On her dead bed, after just given birth to his fourteenth son, Mumtaz Mahal asked Shah Jahan to build something which will remind everyone how big their love was until the end of times. And, true to his promise, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal. It took twenty years to finish the building, 20,000 workers and 10.000 elephants. The story along with the building, are wonderful.
The legend also says that after the construction had finished, one finger from every workers’ hand was cut off in order for them not to be able to reproduce the work done on the Taj. The same faith was reserved to the architects’ hand too, who, before the actual fact, is said to have gone quickly inside the Taj and changed something to the structure. This change leads the lower part of the Taj to flood during the rainy season. Till today no one was able to discover where the water comes in from. Although Agra offered other interesting sights, we decided that the Taj was the only one we would be visiting, also giving the fact that the Taj itself was really expensive to visit (Rs750 per person : 12 euros), especially considering that Indian nationals paid only Rs20 to get inside!!! After more than four hours hovering into its gardens, we left the Taj. By then our taste buds where in desperate need for some good food. We were rewarded by finding a great place to eat…Joney’s… a whole in the wall corner bar which made excellent food… their closed toasts were great.
Once discovered we had our breakfast, lunches, dinners or whatever from this place. Here we also met a very cute dwarf-like man called Hanif. Hanif’s job is to sell essential perfumed oils… his shop is a small, metal case which he carried everywhere with him. The man was so nice, and his perfumes so good, that we ended up buying four of them! We spent our last day in Agra out and about, given our check out time was ten o’clock and our train to Varanasi was at eleven thirty at night.
So we went off to Fathepur Sikri. The old city itself is beautiful but the experience turned out not to be a very pleasant one given all the touts who did not leave us alone for one second. First some guides tried to make their way in. Then it was the young boys who said they only wanted to speak to us in order to practice their English as they were students. When we finally managed to leave behind a guy who had pestered us since our entry, we found another very nice guy inside the tomb who was telling us things about the place’s history. It turned out that this was their ‘manager’.
Trying to get rid of him, but not managing, we ended giving up to his request to see his ‘shop’, which was basically a small stall with marble miniatures of elephants and the like. When we eventually managed to convince them that we were not interested in purchasing any of their merchandise we were let free to roam around in peace. We walked as far away as possible to ensure that no one would follow us again and ended up next to the so-called Elephant tower. It is said that this tower was erected in the name of a warrior elephant. The surrounding fields were very peaceful, with only a couple of peasants and kids roaming around. After some time spent there we decided to head back to the bus station to catch our ride back to Agra.
Back in Agra we went straight to Joney’s place to have some quality food and walked back to our guesthouse to kill some time there. After a drink and some chit chatting we made our way to one of the marble shops we visited yesterday. Though many small shops promised quality products for a minimal prize we were totally unconvinced by their self-advertisements. We decided that if we were going to purchase something, we wanted to be at least sure it would be something of good quality. This would turn out be a very wise and lucky decision. After spending around an hour to find a good gift for our mothers, and having had a very nice conversation with the salesman, we decided to head off to the internet to call our parents.
We spent around two hours at the internet café, by which time it was already nine thirty in the evening. At ten we were leaving for the train station and we had already made arrangements with an auto-rickshaw to take us to there. After having a last quick meal at Joney’s and on our way to the guesthouse to get our backpacks, Janet froze on the spot… her camera was not with her… and she knew exactly where she had left it… at the marble shop… three hours ago!!! With lost hopes we would make it to the train station for Varanasi that night we made our way quickly to the marble shop, with the knowledge that they had closed as soon as we had left the shop.
When we were approaching the shop we realized that there were still lights on so we broke out into a run… there was still someone inside!! The salesman was there, waiting for us, but was just about to lose hope and leave. He told us he had gone to our guesthouse to ask for us and left a message to call at the shop when we returned. He even went through the trouble of checking a couple of restaurants. Janet was so happy that she wanted to offer him a compensation for all his trouble, but he refused to accept, which shows more how genuine this man was. After this incident we went quickly for our bags, met the rickshaw driver and drove off to the train station.
The train ride towards Varanasi was far from being uneventful. For the first time since we had ridden a train in India we were confused by the numbering system of the seats. There were two sets of numbers and we could not make out which were the correct ones until some Indian passengers confirmed them for us. From them on the show started. First a passenger approached us claiming one of the seats was his…he had number seventy and we had numbers 64 and 65, but one of the ‘older’ numbers was 70. The same passenger who instructed us where the seats were told this man that his seat was another one not ours. After this another man just decided to climb on our upper seat to sleep. When we stopped him he, together with his friends started complaining and telling us that there were three seats not two. When we asked him to show us his ticket to check his seats no ticket was offered so we told him that if he had any problem he should go and fetch the conductor. Eventually we decided to go to sleep and Janet went on her upper bunk.
An hour later a guy tapped loudly on her seat to move down and those seats where his and his wife’s. We started explaining that the numbering system had changed but he insisted. We insisted as well and he went to fetch the conductor. He returned saying no conductor was on the train at the moment. At this point some words where exchange between him and another man who was sitting, not yet asleep, on the seat adjacent to ours. When the conversation ended, the man sitting next to us moved to sleep in our bunk, on the one which was closed. When we complained, another man told us to let go and that we were not right in what we were saying. At that point we were totally confused and Janet, exasperated, told them that she only wanted to know the truth as there were too many people stating different versions.
The end of the story is that Janet moved in the middle seat, on top of Yakof, and the couple went on the seats adjacent to ours (which technically were not theirs according to what they claimed). When the conductor came, through half-opened eyes, Janet stitched together what was happening. The couple was right in saying the seats we were occupying were theirs, which meant that the seats we were in belonged to this couple and the first man who claimed his seat as number 70 and eventually went on another seat. What happened was the following.
Some of the passengers had no tickets so they occupied other persons’ seats (persons who had paid for the ticket). Two such seats were ours, but these were not only occupied by asleep men when we climbed the train, but their friends or whatever we can call them, confirmed to us for their sake, that our seats where the ones they pointed to us. Obviously they knew we would get hassled by the real owners of the seats and that we might end up without a seat ourselves given we were the only tourist in a cabin full of Indians. Janet saw the conductor ask for the ticket money both to the man occupying our real seat and to the one sleeping on top of her. She also noticed that the conductor was asking something else out of the men after giving them the ticket, which she realized was a bribe not to fine them. So the story was complete.
We were tricked from the beginning and this made our trip very uncomfortable. During the day the trip was much nicer as most of the passengers stopped in Lucknow and we had nearly all the cabin to ourselves until we reached Varanasi.
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