Agra - India
3/15/05
Again we saw the morning scenes on the way to Agra. In the small cities that we crossed lots of people were sweeping the sidewalk but since there is only sand on the streets dust was flying around and we were wondering what they were really cleaning. It was unbreathable.
Before getting to Agra we stopped in Fatehpur Sikri which is located 37 Km before Agra coming from Ranthambur.
There we visited the remains of a palace built by Agbar, a muslin king that lived in the 16th century. It is a huge sandstone building that contains both Hindu and Muslin style and it took 22 years to be build, but due to a shortage of water, after 16 years of living there it got deserted. There is still the city wall all around and a little white temple where people go to make a wish. Here again we had a terrible guide that was just trying to rip us of like so many others in India. Angie was really pissed of by the Indian mentality. Then we drove to Agra crossing terribly dirty streets. On both sides of the road there where huge piles of garbage and lost of dust flying around and this for several miles.
We finally arrived to the famous Taj Mahal.
It has been built by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his queen Mumtaz Mahal. The monument took over 22 years to be finished, from 1630 to 1652 and it is made entirely of white marble. It looks greater then on pictures and we enjoyed sitting there relaxing and waiting for the sunset.
When it got dark we were the only white tourists left and again turned into tourist attraction. Indeed, several Indians, mostly teenagers wanted to take a picture with us. How weird we felt.
We then walked back to the hotel in the dark which was quite scary, a lot of people was turning around us and following us, but luckily nothing happened and we made it safe to the hotel. After Delhi it was the first city where we saw Internet access again, unfortunately none were working.
3/16/05
On the night before we had an argument with our driver because he was too pushy and upset because we simply didn't buy anything. And the other problem is that they think that just because we are white we are rich and stupid and would go out buying any junk his friends throw on us. No no no, for those of you who know Angie, knows that nothing can change her mind, not even a high skilled Egyptian or Indian salesman.
Our train was scheduled to leave at 8:15 PM and so at 11 am our driver took us to the back of the Taj Mahal where there is a river in which people wash their clothes and let them then dry on the sand.
Some kids living on the side of the river came to ask for our bottle of water and surprisingly they poured all the water out, they just wanted the bottle.
We then made a stop at the Itmad-ud Daulagh's Tomb, also named Baby Taj. It has been built before the Taj, though smaller, the architecture and the lay out of the gates around the garden is the same. It is a nice relaxing place.
There, we met some European and Australian tourists and they were all pissed of by the Indian mentality. Indeed Indian people are always trying to rip off the tourists, are very pushy and keep lying to trick you. You always have to pay attention to everything and it is very unpleasant. Even when they give you directions, for example, they asked for money. I guess you just have to be prepared for that if you choose to come here and you will have a great time as we did. Then our beloved driver dumped us at the train station at 1:30 PM.
We were waiting outside and had to stand all kind of hassling, sales, beggars and porters. Our first concern was to get food and water. We had to go outside the train station carrying the bags, since there was no safe place to leave them, and go to the market to buy fruits. The market just seems to be taken out of an Indiana Jones movie and I can't really mean in words the hassle that it is for foreigners to accomplish such task, but we eventually made it, and after some bargaining (Angie is really good at it) we got some bananas and tangerines at regular rates.
Back in the train station, we tried to move into the waiting hall. It was full of mosquitoes and flies. Some mans were just laying on the benches and the floor with maybe a hundred flies laying on them (I'M NOT KIDDING), and it didn't seem to bother them.
We tried to get some information about our train on the information booth and for our delight we found out that the employee of the Indian Railways didn't speak English, so it was hard to get something out of what he was saying. He could write English though and we came to know that the train was 3 hours late. So, basically we had to wait in the station from 1:30 PM to 12:30 AM which is when the train actually departed. I had plenty of time to read and finally finished reading the Military Survival Guide that we got from Mickey :D (Thanks Mickey)
We went back outside because we couldn't stand the flies as the locals and after a while of hassling we met a nice person.
Nitin Gupta, whose dream is to go to USA and has already collected for his H1-B visa. Other American affinities of our friend were the taste for Hollywood movies mentioning Spiderman 2 and Terminator 3 as heroes and also, he was proud to have McDonalds around in India, worldwide known for its high quality and hygiene on preparation. Even though we couldn't share the same opinion on that matter, he was friendlier then one can expect. We learned a lot about the everyday life in India and he was happy to have a chance to practice his English. He helped us with the train and he translated to us the announcements which were only done in Hindi. We even exchanged addresses to write letters to each other and we certainly will.
So, in the end, we had contact with a real local that didn't try to sell us anything or offer help for tips. We had a great time talking together.
When it got dark, around 7:30 PM we moved to the waiting room, thanks to Nitin. There everything was fine, a closed room with fans on the ceiling, clean and with toilets. Only ticket holders can go in. Our cab driver could at least have informed us about that and we wouldn't have stayed outside the whole day. Well, he will get his review done by Angie. In the waiting room we met another portion of interesting people: an Indian girl, that lives in the States and was on vacation with her dad, and an Iranian man who has been traveling around the world and spent some time explaining to me about the Bahai's movement which is based on the universality of the religions, as we have already mentioned in the Lotus Temple. They won't try to convert you in a Bahai, according to him, but they work on your mind to accept all other ways of god worship. A group of Indian teenagers also got in the conversation who later helped us to find our seats in the train. So, at the end we finally spent a great time meeting people and talking to them. It was actually really interesting.
The time has finally arrived and we boarded at 12:30. We went straight to bed, which was more comfortable then expected. We could finally lay down and rest our back.
Again we saw the morning scenes on the way to Agra. In the small cities that we crossed lots of people were sweeping the sidewalk but since there is only sand on the streets dust was flying around and we were wondering what they were really cleaning. It was unbreathable.
Before getting to Agra we stopped in Fatehpur Sikri which is located 37 Km before Agra coming from Ranthambur.
There we visited the remains of a palace built by Agbar, a muslin king that lived in the 16th century. It is a huge sandstone building that contains both Hindu and Muslin style and it took 22 years to be build, but due to a shortage of water, after 16 years of living there it got deserted. There is still the city wall all around and a little white temple where people go to make a wish. Here again we had a terrible guide that was just trying to rip us of like so many others in India. Angie was really pissed of by the Indian mentality. Then we drove to Agra crossing terribly dirty streets. On both sides of the road there where huge piles of garbage and lost of dust flying around and this for several miles.
We finally arrived to the famous Taj Mahal.
It has been built by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his queen Mumtaz Mahal. The monument took over 22 years to be finished, from 1630 to 1652 and it is made entirely of white marble. It looks greater then on pictures and we enjoyed sitting there relaxing and waiting for the sunset.
When it got dark we were the only white tourists left and again turned into tourist attraction. Indeed, several Indians, mostly teenagers wanted to take a picture with us. How weird we felt.
We then walked back to the hotel in the dark which was quite scary, a lot of people was turning around us and following us, but luckily nothing happened and we made it safe to the hotel. After Delhi it was the first city where we saw Internet access again, unfortunately none were working.
3/16/05
On the night before we had an argument with our driver because he was too pushy and upset because we simply didn't buy anything. And the other problem is that they think that just because we are white we are rich and stupid and would go out buying any junk his friends throw on us. No no no, for those of you who know Angie, knows that nothing can change her mind, not even a high skilled Egyptian or Indian salesman.
Our train was scheduled to leave at 8:15 PM and so at 11 am our driver took us to the back of the Taj Mahal where there is a river in which people wash their clothes and let them then dry on the sand.
Some kids living on the side of the river came to ask for our bottle of water and surprisingly they poured all the water out, they just wanted the bottle.
We then made a stop at the Itmad-ud Daulagh's Tomb, also named Baby Taj. It has been built before the Taj, though smaller, the architecture and the lay out of the gates around the garden is the same. It is a nice relaxing place.
There, we met some European and Australian tourists and they were all pissed of by the Indian mentality. Indeed Indian people are always trying to rip off the tourists, are very pushy and keep lying to trick you. You always have to pay attention to everything and it is very unpleasant. Even when they give you directions, for example, they asked for money. I guess you just have to be prepared for that if you choose to come here and you will have a great time as we did. Then our beloved driver dumped us at the train station at 1:30 PM.
We were waiting outside and had to stand all kind of hassling, sales, beggars and porters. Our first concern was to get food and water. We had to go outside the train station carrying the bags, since there was no safe place to leave them, and go to the market to buy fruits. The market just seems to be taken out of an Indiana Jones movie and I can't really mean in words the hassle that it is for foreigners to accomplish such task, but we eventually made it, and after some bargaining (Angie is really good at it) we got some bananas and tangerines at regular rates.
Back in the train station, we tried to move into the waiting hall. It was full of mosquitoes and flies. Some mans were just laying on the benches and the floor with maybe a hundred flies laying on them (I'M NOT KIDDING), and it didn't seem to bother them.
We tried to get some information about our train on the information booth and for our delight we found out that the employee of the Indian Railways didn't speak English, so it was hard to get something out of what he was saying. He could write English though and we came to know that the train was 3 hours late. So, basically we had to wait in the station from 1:30 PM to 12:30 AM which is when the train actually departed. I had plenty of time to read and finally finished reading the Military Survival Guide that we got from Mickey :D (Thanks Mickey)
We went back outside because we couldn't stand the flies as the locals and after a while of hassling we met a nice person.
Nitin Gupta, whose dream is to go to USA and has already collected for his H1-B visa. Other American affinities of our friend were the taste for Hollywood movies mentioning Spiderman 2 and Terminator 3 as heroes and also, he was proud to have McDonalds around in India, worldwide known for its high quality and hygiene on preparation. Even though we couldn't share the same opinion on that matter, he was friendlier then one can expect. We learned a lot about the everyday life in India and he was happy to have a chance to practice his English. He helped us with the train and he translated to us the announcements which were only done in Hindi. We even exchanged addresses to write letters to each other and we certainly will.
So, in the end, we had contact with a real local that didn't try to sell us anything or offer help for tips. We had a great time talking together.
When it got dark, around 7:30 PM we moved to the waiting room, thanks to Nitin. There everything was fine, a closed room with fans on the ceiling, clean and with toilets. Only ticket holders can go in. Our cab driver could at least have informed us about that and we wouldn't have stayed outside the whole day. Well, he will get his review done by Angie. In the waiting room we met another portion of interesting people: an Indian girl, that lives in the States and was on vacation with her dad, and an Iranian man who has been traveling around the world and spent some time explaining to me about the Bahai's movement which is based on the universality of the religions, as we have already mentioned in the Lotus Temple. They won't try to convert you in a Bahai, according to him, but they work on your mind to accept all other ways of god worship. A group of Indian teenagers also got in the conversation who later helped us to find our seats in the train. So, at the end we finally spent a great time meeting people and talking to them. It was actually really interesting.
The time has finally arrived and we boarded at 12:30. We went straight to bed, which was more comfortable then expected. We could finally lay down and rest our back.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 6:51 AM
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