Day 35 & 36 (Agra)

I need to keep more up to date with what's going on..writing this up more than a week after the fact so I'm sure I've forgotten a lot that can be said about Agra and our visit to the Taj Mahal, but I'll try my best :)

Driving into Agra was an experience that will stay with me for a long time because it reflected so well what I had expected of India. It was here that I saw children and adults squatted low over the sewers using them as a bathroom. The smell in most parts of the city that we went through was horrendous :(

Another thing that struck me was the number of beggars and street vendors that flocked around us and refused to take no for an answer until we got really angry and rude with them at which point they'd back away, only to return to try again a few minutes later. While I can understand that this is their source of income, I'm not minted to the degree that I can hand over my budgeted cash so the whole experience put me in rather a bad mood.

On the first night Una, Annie and I went in search of an ATM – there was one just down the street from the hotel so we had no more than a 3 minute walk there, a couple of minutes inside and then the walk back to the hotel. For the entire time we were hounded by a guy in a rickshaw who wanted to take us to a bazaar for 10 rupees..when we refused he then wanted to take us anywhere for 10 rupees. Again we said no thank you and tried to walk on but he just kept on going and it eventually got to the point that I lost my head and screamed at him to 'drive on'. He got all apologetic then and said he hadn't intended to offend me and hoped I would forgive him...and take a ride in his rickshaw..he would take us to an ATM for 10 rupees...ARGHHHH! At that stage I just gave up and tried to ignore him.

Each time we left the hotel we were pestered by kids at the bottom of the stairs looking to sell us water, chocolate, coke..you name it. The morning that we were leaving I was on security detail and got to the point where I was ready to do physical harm to the gang of teenagers that were around the bus trying to peddle anklets, bracelets, baskets with a pop-up snake, karma sutra books and a whole lot more. The same guy asked me a couple of dozen times to buy his wares..no matter how many times I refused he kept coming back. No matter how angry I got, he wouldn't go away..up to the point that he tried to board the bus to sell his stuff and I ended up stomping up from the boot to scream them down off the bus. Security duty in India was not pleasant, but at least my stint is over now...trying to watch what's happening with the luggage of all the passengers is trying when you've got so many people milling around looking to carry your bags, take you on a rickshaw etc.

With regards to what we saw in Agra, the big ticket item was the Taj Mahal which we enjoyed at sunset and sunrise. On our first night, Kim had arranged for Ali and his rickshaws to be outside to take us to see the baby Taj before moving on to the back of the Taj proper for sunset. It was pretty surreal to be standing there and one of the first times on the trip where I've realised how far away from home I am. I never thought I'd see the Taj...it wouldn't have been on my list of things to see before I die so it's nice to add it to the list of unexpected things. We took lots of photo opportunities there (see the album) and I wanted one like Mel & a few others had had taken by a young local (I had no small change to give him and knew I'd need to give payment of some form). I jumped and jumped and jumped but all the photos looked crap until I was just about to give up from exhaustion and the last one kinda worked (not as cool as Mel's but still pretty genius).

On our full day in Agra were were up super, super early to meet Ali and his boys to go to the Taj for sunrise. It was great to be there before the masses of people arrived, not to crowded and nice and quiet. It was pretty cool, but I reckon had I gone to the marble showroom that a lot of the group went to I'd have been more impressed. After the early start I needed some time-out so went for a nana nap while Loonie went and spent a fortune on a hand decorated marble box. I haven't seen her one, but the photo of Abby's one looks pretty cool. A good portion of the group wanted to see a Bollywood movie so we took the chance to get out of the afternoon sun and spend some time in an A/C'd cinema watching 'New York'. It was about as Bollywood as my little finger – or at least in the sense of Bollywood I expected. There wasn't any of the all singing, all dancing, cringeworthy colour that I expected. Instead, there was what could have been an american movie about 9/11 except that a good 80% of the speech was in Hindi with the crucial bits in English so us crazies could understand it. It was nice to see how cinemas work in India (intermission is in here), but the movie was far from what I expected! Since seeing it we've seen the guy who played Sam on all sorts of ad campaigns and the theme tune is everywhere! Later in the day a big portion of the group went to the Red Fort for a wander around, again I sat that out so I don't really know what was involved except for the monkey incident!

Direct from the mouth of Mel...herself and Jacinta had separated from the group and she was taking some snaps of the monkeys at the fort (she's a monkey lover), when a huge one jumped from the tree beside her (she wasn't photographing in that direction) and grabbed hold of the waistband of her shorts. She started screaming because it wouldn't let go of her and Jacinta ran away cos she got such a fright. The monkey started hissing at her at that stage because she was making such a racket..and then a local guy came to the rescue clapping his hands to scare the monkey away. No monkey bite this time...not a repeat of Gibraltar thankfully :)

Overall impression of Agra is that I wouldn't go back. It was nice to see the Taj, but the place sent me even further into dislike for India.

For photos from Agra click here.