Travel Along With Me

Tilak, Llyn and Carter did not get to the hotel until 1:50am this morning. There was some confusion regarding the arrival of their plane. Anyway that only allowed them a couple hours of sleep (if you want to call it sleep) before we had to get up to catch our train. We all tossed and turned because we were so cramped. Llyn and Carter shared one of the twin beds. Kali and I shared the cot. Texil slept on the pallet and Tilak had the other twin bed.

When we all got out of bed at 4:30 we got dressed and packed the things we would need for the day. We left the rest of our stuff there because we would be back that evening to spend the night before heading to Rishikesh. When we got outside the gates were locked to the hotel and to the street leading out of the community. We had to wake our hotel owner and have him wake our driver (who was supposed to have been waiting on us). Half awake our driver took us to the train station to catch the Shatabi Express. Tilak had to keep clearing his windows for him because they were fogged and for some reason (probably because he was driving in his sleep) it didn’t seem to bother him that he could not see!!

We did make it to the train station in one piece. The train was on time and we were thrilled with the seats we had. They were cushioned and cloth. They had head rests and feet rests and laid back to take naps. Llyn immediately covered herself and got some sleep on the ride there. It was humorous to see her wrapped like a cacoon. We were all served tea, breakfast and a newspaper. We did all catch a few cat naps on the way.

It was around 8:30am when we arrived in Agra. We were immediately bombarded with sales people as we got off the train as well as taxi drivers wanting our business. It was worse than any city we had been in so far. Tilak did a wonderful job at taking charge of the situation and the persons annoying us. We went to the taxi booth to get a driver for the day at a set price. Our driver, once again, was very kind and helpful.

He first took us to the Agra Fort. It was massive! It looked exactly like what you would expect a princess to be living in. Or a dragon keeping watch over it. There was a moat was around the fort that used to hold alligators. There was a grand entrance with huge wooden doors that were opened with a large round stone. When we walked inside it was like walking into a city. There actually was grass growing in there – something I had not seen since we had been to India. The grass was being hand-cut with a machete knife. The side walks were being swept by home-made brooms (twigs tied together by string). The rails of the balconies were being hand washed with sticks that had cloth tied to the end of them. So obviously, there is great pride and a lot of hard work that goes into keeping the Fort in good condition.

The Fort had 3 levels and MANY different rooms to it. We found some secret passage ways from one room to another. We were scolded by one of the security guards though. I guess those were supposed to be off limits. They were fun to go into. It was completely dark and you would have to feel your way through.

The detail of the walls and rooms in the Fort was nothing short of amazing! We took a lot of photographs as we walked through the Fort and it took us several hours to see all that we saw. We brought our Lonely Planet book with us to read about the different rooms that we were exploring and to learn of the history of the place.

On our way out of the Fort we were stopped by two gentlemen who were feeding chipmunks in the courtyard. Of course the children wanted to do it too. The men shared the food with them and the chipmunks ate from the kids’ hands. Of course afterwards the Indian gentlemen wished to be paid for their assistance and food. We agreed to pay them but felt robbed in a sense.

We also saw a beautiful monkey drinking from a juice box near the front gate.

We found our taxi driver after sifting through a lot of salesmen again. The salesmen put their products directly in your face and say things like: “Good price. You buy?” or “50 rupees, just 50 rupees! OK 30 rupees. You buy for 30 rupees?” Person after person showing us postcards, jewelry, fans, batteries, etc. It was extremely overwhelming.

Our taxi driver then drove us to a place where there were a lot of restaurants so that we could get lunch. We decided we would try to find a restaurant called Joney’s Place. Tilak had eaten at this place when he was in India in 2001 and it was listed as a good choice in the Lonely Planet.

When we found the restaurant we were greeted by a very jolly, happy Indian man named Joney (thus the name of the restaurant). As we walked in he said “We have yummy, yummy food if you have money!” “Bad food if you have no money.” We laughed and found ourselves a seat. He proudly told us of his specialty foods he made and presented us with his “brag book” to read while he cooked. The brag book had the compliments of many customers in it from all over the world.

The restaurant looked like a shack from the outside. There was only about 5-6 tables in it. The kitchen area consisted of a counter no bigger than a computer desk and two burners that sat on the window seal. We sat and watched with amazement as our cook and 2 assistants made each of our dishes from scratch and with very little supplies needed and the food was great!

When we finished eating the owner’s father came to sit with us and chat. His name was Honif. He was very kind and wanted to tell us about his business of making and selling perfume essence oils. He showed us pictures of his flowers he grows and some of his family. He then walked to the front of the restaurant and brought back an old ratty-looking, blue suite case that was filled with the oils he was speaking of. He proceeded to put oil after oil on our arms and hands so that we could smell them. He was quite the salesman but in a fun, not annoying sort of way. We all bought some of his oils for our family and friends. We then took some pictures and left to find the entrance to the Taj Mahal.

When we arrived at the gate the ticket stand was closed. A gentleman next to it said that the Taj Mahal was being closed for some VIP guests. He said to come back at 5:00pm and we could get tickets then. We were very disappointed with this news. We decided to go to an internet café and write to our families and maybe do a little shopping.

A funny thing happened while I was looking for a collector’s spoon for a friend of mine. India is such a poor country that the other cities we had been in did not sell souvinere items. I thought Agra would be the place for sure to find the spoon. I was harassed by all the salesmen while walking down the road and I finally told one of them what I was looking for. He said “Oh Yes, Yes! I have the spoon that you are looking for. Come with me and I show you.” I followed him into his shop. The shop was filled with great gifts but nothing along the lines of what I wanted. I told him I did not see what I wanted and he told me to wait there and he would return with my spoon. The other gentleman in the store asked if I would shop while I waited. I declined. The man returned after just a few minutes. He closed the privacy curtain in their store and was pulling something out of his pocket as if it was something GRAND that no one else should see. It was a ratty old table spoon that he must have ran and retrieved from a restaurant down the road. I could not help but laugh. He said “This is what you want?” I told him no and tried to explain that it is a souvinere spoon that I wanted that may have “India” written on it or “Taj Mahal”. He looked at me puzzled and said “I write India on it for you and you buy it?” It was soooo funny how bad he wanted to make a sale!!! I told him no and walked out of the store. Later, when I told my husband and the others about what happened they told me I should have bought the spoon just for the fun of it. It would have made a great memory piece.

After we shopped for awhile we decided to try going to the ticket counter again to see if they would go ahead and let us buy our tickets for the Taj Mahal. Some of the Indians we talked to in the cyber café said that they doubted the Gates would be closed until 5:00pm. They said that you can not purchase tickets after 5:00pm. We walked back to the ticket counter and sure enough they were open again. It was 4:00pm. We locked our baggage up and bought our tickets.

As we were walking through the gate to the Taj Mahal Tilak said we should look at the ground until we got into the gate and then look up to see the whole Taj Mahal at once. He was right. It was AMAZING! It was everything that I thought that it would be… It was HUGE. It was beautiful. I kept thinking to myself, “wow, this is a building built out of love for another human being – what LOVE that must have been”! All the walls and doorways, etc. had detailed art work on them with jewels and stones. The floors and walls were mainly white marble.

We walked around and took lots and lots of pictures. The only place that photography was not allowed was inside the building where they housed the coffins. We respected the rule to take no photos inside but many people did not. Strangely enough it was the Indians there that did not obey the rules. There was a mosque that we walked through next to the Taj Mahal as well. We stayed for a couple hours exploring the place and then said our good-byes to it and headed off to find our taxi driver.

We had our taxi driver take us to Domino’s Pizza in town. We ate well. We talked, laughed and shared photos with each other. We then found 2 cycle rickshaws outside the restaurant and asked them to take us to the train station. After we had been riding for quite some time we realized that we may be lost. Tilak asked the gentlemen if they knew where they were going and they said “Yes, to the police station”. Tilak said “No, we asked you to take us to the train station”. The seemed angry and demanded more money than what was originally agreed upon. Tilak paid them what he said he would pay and we walked away from them while they were shouting and got into an electric rickshaw and asked him to take us to the train station. He was friendly and fun to talk to. He agreed that we were just getting scammed with the other two drivers.

We got to the train station safely and boarded our train. We were all excited about our day and talked about it for awhile and took cat naps. We arrived back in Delhi at 11:15pm.

Tilak and Llyn decided to go ahead and pay for our room at the hotel that evening since we would be leaving early in the am to head to Rishikesh. We were NOT pleased to find that they had charged a HUGE luxury tax (22%), more for our cot and more for each extra person in the room. It ended up costing $140 (American money) each night!! We would never use them again!!!

We went to sleep looking forward to the rest of our week.