Taj My Hal
What is it with India and early mornings? Anywhere else in the world people sleep until a reasonable time, but no such luck here; 03.50 was the time of my wake up call. This gave me and Danesh enough time to get ready and get down to the station for the Shatabdi Express to Agra. In the end it turned out it gave us more than enough time as we arrived at the station around an hour early, but better early than late and in true Indian style I found a bench to kick-back on before the train arrived. This train was the more expensive option, boasting air conditioned cabins, refreshments and breakfast, included in the price, so before we realized it the 2hr trip was up and we had arrived at our stop. From there we went to find our transport around Agra, in the end steeling for a pre-paid tuck-tuc. I’m not sure if this was the best option but it assured we would go where we asked to go and wouldn’t have to go though the hassle of acquiring a vehicle every time we wanted to move on. Our first destination was some white marble building thats meant to be really famous, so after been charged 38 times more than those India chaps I took a little look around and what can is say. It’s alright, ok it’s pretty impressive as you walk in and quite an amazing structure, but I think its picturess nature is too much of a good thing as it was just like the photos, but I’m glade I went. Next it was on to Itimad-ud-Daulah aka baby Taj. I didn’t pay to go round this as the real deal had almost wiped me out of cash but I took a quick picture from the outside whistled been shouted at by police to buy a ticket. On your rickshaw ladz, I’m not paying to go in there. Next we were show to the rear view of the Taj which id have to say was my favorite, a quite location under the trees over looking the Yamuna River then onto the Taj. So after spending a good while there we moved on to our lunch spot, it was ok the food was alright but the prices had clearly been raised for those lucky tourists. Then it was on to Agra Fort (Red Fort). This was a pretty impressive structure again created by the Mughals, but only 30% was open to the public which was a bit of a shame but still I found it a bit more interesting than old Taj as it was new to me and I didn’t know what was going to be round the next corner (usually bats though, the flying kind not cricket) after the fort we were give a tour of the local shops producing ‘local’ goods. It wasn’t really what I was after but I had fun teasing the owners into reducing the price of good I had no intention of buying; managed to knock 1300Rs off one thing. Then it was back to the station to catch the Taj Express, the budget option shall we say. I had a bit of a panic when it didn’t show up or look likely to show up, but I should have remembered this is India and it will all work out in the end, and sure enough 20 minutes late it rolled into the station. Then we had the fun of looking for our carriage, 2 S. Not at the front of the train we jogged to the back but it wasn’t to be found, so a quick marched back up to the front for a second look was in order, but before our carriage could be located the train started to pull away, so we just hoped straight on to the nearest carriage. Once on bored we eventually found the guard who informed us that it was D7 where we were supposed to be. The ride back seemed endless with the sticky heat of the train and the black canvas of night to accompany me. But 1hr later than planed we arrived in Delhi and after more bartering for a tuck-tuc we were on the final stretch. 00.30 was the time we arrived back at the Brotherhood, we then sat down for a cold curry dinner before making our way to bed.
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| Rear View |
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| Mr. Mahal |
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| Side on |
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| Agra (Red) Fort |
What is it with India and early mornings? Anywhere else in the world people sleep until a reasonable time, but no such luck here; 03.50 was the time of my wake up call. This gave me and Danesh enough time to get ready and get down to the station for the Shatabdi Express to Agra. In the end it turned out it gave us more than enough time as we arrived at the station around an hour early, but better early than late and in true Indian style I found a bench to kick-back on before the train arrived. This train was the more expensive option, boasting air conditioned cabins, refreshments and breakfast, included in the price, so before we realized it the 2hr trip was up and we had arrived at our stop. From there we went to find our transport around Agra, in the end steeling for a pre-paid tuck-tuc. I’m not sure if this was the best option but it assured we would go where we asked to go and wouldn’t have to go though the hassle of acquiring a vehicle every time we wanted to move on. Our first destination was some white marble building thats meant to be really famous, so after been charged 38 times more than those India chaps I took a little look around and what can is say. It’s alright, ok it’s pretty impressive as you walk in and quite an amazing structure, but I think its picturess nature is too much of a good thing as it was just like the photos, but I’m glade I went. Next it was on to Itimad-ud-Daulah aka baby Taj. I didn’t pay to go round this as the real deal had almost wiped me out of cash but I took a quick picture from the outside whistled been shouted at by police to buy a ticket. On your rickshaw ladz, I’m not paying to go in there. Next we were show to the rear view of the Taj which id have to say was my favorite, a quite location under the trees over looking the Yamuna River then onto the Taj. So after spending a good while there we moved on to our lunch spot, it was ok the food was alright but the prices had clearly been raised for those lucky tourists. Then it was on to Agra Fort (Red Fort). This was a pretty impressive structure again created by the Mughals, but only 30% was open to the public which was a bit of a shame but still I found it a bit more interesting than old Taj as it was new to me and I didn’t know what was going to be round the next corner (usually bats though, the flying kind not cricket) after the fort we were give a tour of the local shops producing ‘local’ goods. It wasn’t really what I was after but I had fun teasing the owners into reducing the price of good I had no intention of buying; managed to knock 1300Rs off one thing. Then it was back to the station to catch the Taj Express, the budget option shall we say. I had a bit of a panic when it didn’t show up or look likely to show up, but I should have remembered this is India and it will all work out in the end, and sure enough 20 minutes late it rolled into the station. Then we had the fun of looking for our carriage, 2 S. Not at the front of the train we jogged to the back but it wasn’t to be found, so a quick marched back up to the front for a second look was in order, but before our carriage could be located the train started to pull away, so we just hoped straight on to the nearest carriage. Once on bored we eventually found the guard who informed us that it was D7 where we were supposed to be. The ride back seemed endless with the sticky heat of the train and the black canvas of night to accompany me. But 1hr later than planed we arrived in Delhi and after more bartering for a tuck-tuc we were on the final stretch. 00.30 was the time we arrived back at the Brotherhood, we then sat down for a cold curry dinner before making our way to bed. 
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