We took a bus from Jaipur to Agra early in the morning, but of course, it took a lot of time to get out of Jaipur, to go through some 250 km and to drive through Agra to arrive to the bus station. So we were there only by the afternoon.
The main tourist attraction of Agra is the Taj Mahal and that’s what we went there for. The city itself did not look too enticing upon arrival. The surrounding of the bus station was smelly and filthy. We took a motorickshaw to Taj Mahal. The ride wasn’t particularly pretty either, to put is mildly. We were quite surprised when the rickshaw stopped in the middle of what looked rather like a slum and the driver indicated that we had arrived to the West gate of Taj Mahal. This wasn’t a very good setting to go to visit this place.
The surrounding of Taj Mahal was packed with people, mostly Indian tourists, who pay 20 rupees instead of the 750 that the foreign tourists have to pay (no discount for students even). Having passed all the queues and security checks, we finally faced one of the world wonders – the Taj Mahal. It was nice indeed, but not much nicer or more impressive than it looks on pictures. The surrounding mosques, pavilions, gardens and looks at the river are quite impressive, but with the hordes of tourists there dilute the wow effect. So, all in all, the city and the surroundings, where Taj Mahal is located and its over-crowdedness, as well as the fatigue of the bus ride, did not do justice to the great tomb.
Having seen enough of Taj Mahal, we looked for a place to have a bite before taking another bus to Delhi, but it was quite difficult to find an appealing place (read: a place that did not have “get a stomach disorder for free” written all over it). We finally found a place that called itself an LP-recommended restaurant, and as there were indeed other foreign tourists there with LP guides on their tables, we trusted the restaurant claim and LP’s choice.
After the meal, we headed back to the bus station to take the bus to Delhi. We caught a nice picture of a sacred cow hanging around the bus station. Cows are protected by the Indian constitution, as they sacred animals for Hindus. Hence, the sacred cows hand around on roads quite loosely.
We got back to Delhi later than we expected, as were stuck in the traffic of suburbs. Nakul had recommended us to take the pre-paid taxi to hotel, but we couldn’t find any around. We went to ask from some policemen, where to find such taxis, but apparently that service was closed for the day. But the policemen were nice enough to negotiate for us a motorickshaw to the hotel for very reasonable price and they seemed to warn the rickshaw driver heavily not to intrigue any scam (they even right down the rickshaw number). So, we got safely to our guesthouse and were very happy to be finally back to that sanctuary.
After seeing this commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e6s06l76Zw I had to admit, that my experience from India was somewhat different than of this ad, but it is an amazing country and there is so much to discover.
Can’t wait to get back there!
Nice to read about your adventures – keep ’em coming 🙂
Be safe!
Hugs,
Margot and Jan