Sunday morning was my scheduled trip to Agra – a trip that didn't go completely without hiccups. Delhi (well, Noida), where I was staying, is around 190km from Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located. So, in order to get to Agra, you pretty much had to take a train or get a car. So, since I was a foreigner, one of the guys at work, Rakshit, was arranging transportation for me from Delhi to Agra for the day.
As it turns out, his friend's car agency didn't have any available drivers. Of course, since everything was done last minute, I found this out saturday night while at the hotel. No worries...maybe the hotel can arrange for a car – apparently it'd cost 3x as much. Well, since the main reason for going to Delhi in the first place was so I could see the Taj Mahal, I figured I might as well bite the bullet and give it a go. I was all set to book when Rakshit (yes...it's his real name...) called me again. Apparently there were no drivers, but the guy that ran the car agency could take me, which was cool, except for one minor detail: he doesn't speak english. Hmm...I guess that could work, so we confirmed it.
He came around to the hotel at 7:30am and we set off to the Taj! So, within a few minutes of leaving the hotel, we tried to chat a little about random things, and yes, his english really was very limited. We ended up working out a communication system where we would point, laugh, and use facial expressions, which if you think about it...isn't ideal when you want your driver to be looking at the road. oh well.. =) He did have one subject in which he was well versed in english: the road. Apparently since he runs a car business, he can talk in english about roads, so he gave me a 20 minute spiel on the pros/cons of asphalt vs. cement freeways...in near perfect english. Then when I asked him about the weather...nada. Go figure.
Most of the journey was quite uneventful, except we saw a monkey crossing on the Delhi-Agra freeway. Sadly one of the younger ones didn't make it across in time.. =( The odd thing about driving to Agra, is that there is really nothing on the road. It's straight for miles at a time, and the landscape is quite desolate...kinda like the drive down to LA.
Once we got to Agra, it was kinda disappointing. I had envisioned a decent mid-sized town with buildings and stuff kinda like Pune. Well, let's just say it was like driving down Main St. in Dixon. It was fairly quaint...a few cows, some guys pulling an ox-cart...nothing really going on. Then all of a sudden, boom...taj mahal on the left...then your look ahead and it's like 500 tour buses showed up out of nowhere. And then tourists. And then hawkers. wow...that took me by surprise. I was beginning to think the taj was just a photographer's optical illusion...where it looks huge in pics but in real life it was the size of a kid's sand castle. Well, suffice it to say, I definitely felt validated.
Of course actually visiting the taj was a very frustrating experience for me. I mean, it was amazing, but I'm one of those guys that doesn't like large crowds of people, and I quite enjoy my personal space. The second I left the car all the way to the gate is roughly 0.5km...which is not very far to go, but try walking that distance with 50 people trying to slow you down by getting you to buy stuff. The kids were quite organized too...one or two will walk in front of you to slow you down while a 3rd, 4th, and 5th will try to sell you fridge magnets for usd20 each. It was very annoying because not only are you trying to tune out the kids yelling at you, you're also trying to keep from getting pick-pocketed too.
Finally I got to the gate and was able to go in. One thing I noticed in India, is that the government likes to charge indians different price than the foreigners. For indians, the Taj ticket is Rs20. For foreigners? Rs750. Quite the price hike. Oh well, I'm here. Once I got in, it was amazing. The kids had to stay outside, and you're now among the company of tourists – not that much better but at least they're not trying to get you to buy stuff. Oh, and there was the Taj.
The mausoleum was huge, and require booties to get in...which was cool. It was ridiculously hot that day: 45C (113F) and quite humid. Don't even get me started on the smells. Anyways, every once in a while you have to take a water break, and one of the more memorable ones I've had was actually sitting in one of the inlets on the side of the mausoleum. It was 10 degrees cooler in the shade and actually quite nice to just hang out there and look at the stone detail-work on the side of the mausoleum.
On the inside it was quite nice, except for the fact that there are attendants with whistles making sure you're not loitering, and that once you've seen it for 5 seconds it was someone else's turn. Once back outside, it was time to walk around the courtyard and head back out.
After the Taj, we headed over to Agra Fort to have a look. This was a pretty cool place, and had been around at the same time as the taj mahal. It was situated on a hill, so you can easily see the taj from the fort. The fort itself was huge...16 sections and large open courtyards. It was a pretty cool place to check out.
On the drive back home, we stopped by a roadside stand for some quick food, and made the 3hr trek back to Delhi. The driver was a big fan of bollywood movie music, so most of his music selections were film soundtracks. About 30min into the return drive, he points at my phone and asks "music?" I looked at my phone, and remembered that since I only used it for music when boarding flights, and so I had very limited selection of music on my phone, as everything else was on my ipad at the hotel. I took a quick peek at the playlist: Pitch Perfect soundtrack (don't judge me), B.o.B., and Far East Movement. I plugged my phone in, and we went through all three albums. Even though it was a Tata car, that thing had a really good sub. So there we were, two guys who could only communicate back and forth with facial expressions and pointing, driving back to delhi with far east movement blasting over the speakers...quite a fitting end to an odd once-in-a-lifetime day.
He came around to the hotel at 7:30am and we set off to the Taj! So, within a few minutes of leaving the hotel, we tried to chat a little about random things, and yes, his english really was very limited. We ended up working out a communication system where we would point, laugh, and use facial expressions, which if you think about it...isn't ideal when you want your driver to be looking at the road. oh well.. =) He did have one subject in which he was well versed in english: the road. Apparently since he runs a car business, he can talk in english about roads, so he gave me a 20 minute spiel on the pros/cons of asphalt vs. cement freeways...in near perfect english. Then when I asked him about the weather...nada. Go figure.
Most of the journey was quite uneventful, except we saw a monkey crossing on the Delhi-Agra freeway. Sadly one of the younger ones didn't make it across in time.. =( The odd thing about driving to Agra, is that there is really nothing on the road. It's straight for miles at a time, and the landscape is quite desolate...kinda like the drive down to LA.
Once we got to Agra, it was kinda disappointing. I had envisioned a decent mid-sized town with buildings and stuff kinda like Pune. Well, let's just say it was like driving down Main St. in Dixon. It was fairly quaint...a few cows, some guys pulling an ox-cart...nothing really going on. Then all of a sudden, boom...taj mahal on the left...then your look ahead and it's like 500 tour buses showed up out of nowhere. And then tourists. And then hawkers. wow...that took me by surprise. I was beginning to think the taj was just a photographer's optical illusion...where it looks huge in pics but in real life it was the size of a kid's sand castle. Well, suffice it to say, I definitely felt validated.
 |
| one of the gates in |
Finally I got to the gate and was able to go in. One thing I noticed in India, is that the government likes to charge indians different price than the foreigners. For indians, the Taj ticket is Rs20. For foreigners? Rs750. Quite the price hike. Oh well, I'm here. Once I got in, it was amazing. The kids had to stay outside, and you're now among the company of tourists – not that much better but at least they're not trying to get you to buy stuff. Oh, and there was the Taj.
The mausoleum was huge, and require booties to get in...which was cool. It was ridiculously hot that day: 45C (113F) and quite humid. Don't even get me started on the smells. Anyways, every once in a while you have to take a water break, and one of the more memorable ones I've had was actually sitting in one of the inlets on the side of the mausoleum. It was 10 degrees cooler in the shade and actually quite nice to just hang out there and look at the stone detail-work on the side of the mausoleum.On the inside it was quite nice, except for the fact that there are attendants with whistles making sure you're not loitering, and that once you've seen it for 5 seconds it was someone else's turn. Once back outside, it was time to walk around the courtyard and head back out.
After the Taj, we headed over to Agra Fort to have a look. This was a pretty cool place, and had been around at the same time as the taj mahal. It was situated on a hill, so you can easily see the taj from the fort. The fort itself was huge...16 sections and large open courtyards. It was a pretty cool place to check out.
On the drive back home, we stopped by a roadside stand for some quick food, and made the 3hr trek back to Delhi. The driver was a big fan of bollywood movie music, so most of his music selections were film soundtracks. About 30min into the return drive, he points at my phone and asks "music?" I looked at my phone, and remembered that since I only used it for music when boarding flights, and so I had very limited selection of music on my phone, as everything else was on my ipad at the hotel. I took a quick peek at the playlist: Pitch Perfect soundtrack (don't judge me), B.o.B., and Far East Movement. I plugged my phone in, and we went through all three albums. Even though it was a Tata car, that thing had a really good sub. So there we were, two guys who could only communicate back and forth with facial expressions and pointing, driving back to delhi with far east movement blasting over the speakers...quite a fitting end to an odd once-in-a-lifetime day.
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