We took the Shatabadi Express to Agra, which left New Delhi at 6 am, arriving in Agra at 8 am. The train was actually the nicest I've seen in India so far... including an announcement of distance to the next stop (what a novel idea), and a free breakfast. In the train station, as we awaited the arrival of our time (our driver must have made record time to the train station!) we listened to the announcements of the other trains... I was most amused by the "inconvenience fee" one of the trains had... Doesn't an inconvenience fee sound like something the passenger should be paid!! Our ride was uneventful, my only complaint was some of the scenery... as I had commented many times before I have seen my fair share of Indians (vast majority men) peeing and pooping... perhaps I'm even up in the hundreds now. But with such an early morning ride, I got to see more than usual... in fact, at one point I took my glasses off to blur some of the detail. Although, later, in talks with Kerry, I decided to re-write the words to have "10 Little Indians Crapping on the Line"... since I saw a row of ten Indian men at one point, perched on the railway tracks... well you know. Ew.
We arrived in Agra... and I wasn't surprised to find that our promise hotel transport wasn't there. It's always overwhelming arriving at train stations here because everyone approaches you attempting to get your business... we finally found someone willing to take us to the hotel for Rs. 50 (which I later deducted from my hotel bill). Agra (and Delhi for that matter) are even more visibly polluted than Bombay, with a thick layer of smog always present. We checked into the Tourists Rest House, but had to sit in the garden quite a while to await our rooms. I got exactly what I paid for in my room... which cost $7.00 for the night, but luckily we would be in Agra for less than 24 hours, so it wasn't a big deal that I wouldn't be able to shower... or more like, would refuse to shower.
After we checked in, we skipped the nap and hopped a rickshaw to the Taj Mahal. It was SUCH an Indian hassle to get into the Taj (which charges Rs. 750 for foreigners... Rs. 20 for Indians!) including security that wouldn't allow any bags through. Since the ladies line was shorter then the mens line, I went and grabbed the Danes stuff and ventured off to the "bag check." A number was written on my bag in chalk (similiar to how they write your baggage claim number in chalk on your bag in the airport) and handed me back a little tile with the corresponding number.... needless to say, I kept my wallet and passport with me, just in case. I finally made it through security and wound up waiting with two other foreign females who were also waiting for guys... and finally met an American tourist (my first!) and as we stood and chatted for a bit, we were asked to be in multiple pictures. The Danes were quite impressed with my celebrity status in India... and liked the fact that if I walked in front of them, noticed noticed them.
The Taj Mahal was awesome and really beautiful... although very crowded. I most likely appeared in a lot of Christmas Card Pictures though as I was constantly asked to be in pictures... there were signs for licensed photographers and different packages they could offer... I suppose some of the packages were "Picture with family in front of Taj... Rs. 30" "Picture with foreigner in front of Taj... Rs. 300"... "Picture with American in front of Taj... priceless." I had Mark, my personal photographer, follow me around to take pictures, which will be posted later today. It was quite humorous at one point when we had to put shoe covers on our shoes (one of the benefits of paying the foreigner fee... a free bottle of water and shoe covers)... but the pictures will have to do that image justice.
After walking around the Taj (there really isn't much else to do there), we decided to move on to the Agra Red Fort. We made the 2 km walk to the Fort (stopped by every camel cart, bicycle rickshaw, auto rickshaw, and horse and carriage that couldn't understand why we would walk!) but at this point, Nic was feeling poorly again so wound up staking claim on a grassy patch just inside the Fort while Mark and I walked around. The Fort was impressive, but not as much as the ones in Rajasthan, so we made a quick circle through, and collected Nic to head back to the hotel. My favorite moment at the Fort was when I was taking a photo and turned around only to discover 5 cameras aimed at me... I guess they won't have quite the same photos of the Fort as I have.
We headed back to the hotel for nap time (which the Danes didn't wake up from on time... I guess they aren't used to traveling with someone as punctual as they are)... so after I woke them up at 5, Nic decided to stay back while Mark and I went out in search of food. We settled in a restaurant in the main bazaar of town and we wanted to walk (those crazy foreigners, always wanting to walk) and we had a bicycle rickshaw follow us almost the entire way... the fare by the end was free... that's how badly he wanted to take us. The problem was he was a very old man, and I'm pretty sure if we loaded onto his bicycle rickshaw he wouldn't make the trip... and besides, we wanted to walk! We went to a restaurant called Park and had a decent chicken meal. On the way back we stopped to pick up some crackers and bananas for Nic and a pack of cards (so Mark could teach me a**hole... which he thought as a "Newbie" I might have trouble grasping...). Mark and I sat in the garden of the hotel and played cards... after I had won two games in a row, Mark was "tired" and grumpily went off to bed. Haha. Actually, he wasn't feeling well (or at least claimed not to be since he was losing so badly to me), so I feared that I would have two sick Danes on my hand the next day, and that would not have been fun.
I laid awake for quite a while in my room, unable to fall asleep... but finally managed to get some sleep in before our 5:15 am check out time to head to the train station to head back to New Delhi. The same train was booked for our return trip so we took the InterCity Express... for about half the price... and that was Nic and Mark's first "Indian train" experience. It was a very long ride (a scheduled 4 hours... an actual of 5.5 hours) with plenty of "scenery" (not the good kind... you know the kind) and I was quite antsy by the end. I did talk to a guy from Australia that was volunteering with an NGO here teaching English... he had been here a week and was homesick... yea, NO sympathy here buddy! Try 4 months... then come talk to me.
We finallllllly arrived to the New Delhi Train Station and faced the swarm of taxi and rickshaw drivers attempting to earn the favor of our fare. We almost got roped into a scam right from the Lonely Planet Guidebook... but I caught it in time and we wound up walking to our hotel. The walk was longer than anticipated, and I'm afraid my suitcase may never recover from what I drug it through in the big bazaar we passed through. I was a little nervous about what we would find when we reached the location of our hotel, but I was pleasantly surprised. The hotel was quite decent (a relatively soft bed and hot water, always a plus). I was sharing a room with the Danes so the hotel made up a mattress on the floor for me and we all attempted (but failed) to nap, so instead ordered room service. At this point both Nic and Mark were not feeling well, so we took an easy in the afternoon and watched some CSI (I wish we had more English channels at the Hostel :-(...). We then decided to hit Old Delhi (I was armed with a roll of toilet paper... which is how I earned my keep among the Danes) and wound up being hassled on the way by a good-intentioned rickshaw driver that was trying to convince us to take an entire tour of Old Delhi... we declined but finally agreed to go to two shops so that he could get a discount for bringing tourists. He also took us on a personal tour of his Sikh temple which was pretty interesting. At one point, when we were deciding whether to take the tour he was offering, the Danes complained that I should know Danish, because then we could talk about our plans without the rickshaw driver knowing... I blame them for not teaching me... I now know one phrase "How are you?"... and I used it repeatedly for the rest of the day... I blame them for not teaching me more than one phrase.
We visited a Mosque in Old Delhi which was incredibly crowded!! We had to wait outside the Mosque for prayer time to finish, and we discovered Nic might have equal celebrity to me (until they learned he wasn't American.... and poor Mark has zero celebrity). We finally were able to go inside and we climbed to the top of one of the towers... which was quite scary. We had to take our shoes off and climb up uneven, steep stone stairs in a very tiny tower... in the dark. So for those of you who know my fear of falling down stairs.... the trip down... NOT enjoyable. But slow and steady wins the race, and we all managed our way down the narrow tower (with two way traffic no less) with only a few stubbed toes and scraped heals. The mosque was pretty exhausting, as was the surrounding area, so we opted to skip out on the Red Fort in Delhi (we figured one Red Fort was enough. We hopped a rickshaw back to the hotel (Prince Polonia) and I managed to convince the Danes to order Pizza with me... which was delicious by the way. I also finally got that shower I needed and was delighted to find a clean shower with hot water and water pressure. We laid in the room (ordered more room service... those boys can eat!) and watched part of Die Hard 3, Election, and the Pink Panther.
We were FINALLY able to sleep in!! We decided to get up at 10 the following morning in time for breakfast... which was fine considering we were all asleep before 10 the night before. I woke up before the alarm, as did they, so we went up to the rooftop for breakfast. We had toast and eggs and planned our day ahead (since we had to check out at Noon, but our flight wasn't until 11 pm). The boys "claimed" there was an earthquake the night before and they were shocked I didn't wake up... I didn't believe them, but they were eventually able to corroborate their story and there was a 4.3 scale earth quake in Delhi the night before. When they tell the story though, I'm sure the hotel will become the epicenter of the earthquake and it will gain a few numbers of the Richter scale.
The boys both showered, and I laid in their bed (the floor wasn't so desirable) and watched Gossip Girl, much to their dismay (I repeat... I wish we had more English channels in the hostel, cause then I wouldn't have to download my shows each week) and eventually headed to the heart of Delhi, Connaught Place. We walked about 10 kilometers that afternoon! We circled around Connaught Place, walked into an underground bazaar where shop keepers attempted to sell the boys Indian porn, stopped at Cafe Coffee Day for a snack(where I managed to get sick... I guess it was only a matter of time, I hadn't been in stomach distress for almost a week) and then walked to the astronomical observatory (very similar to the one in Jaipur). Don't go to an astronomical observatory with Danes that study physics for fun... haha. It was cool though, they explained how all the instruments worked and then complained on the lack of maintenance on some of the instruments.
We then trusted Mark's map reading (which for once, actually paid off) and made our way to India Gate, and then to the Presidential Palace and Parliament. We had a small detour as we had to take direction to avoid the riots! All along the way, we of course had multiple rickshaw drivers stopping to offer us a ride... we got one offer as low as Rs. 2!!! They still couldn't fathom us wanting to walk... but walk we did! When we got to India Gate... Mark almost got a celebrity moment until he discovered they didn't want a picture with him unless I was also in it. I finally agreed to be in the picture, to allow Mark his five seconds of fame, but after the second photographer started snapping photos we said we were done and walked away. We also stopped in at Le Meriden hotel for a cool drink (milkshakes!) and to use the bathroom... which is perhaps the nicest bathroom I have ever been in!
We then walked back to Connaught Place (which is a really neat part of Delhi) to eat at KFC and kill some more time before our car was scheduled to pick us up at the hotel. We decided to try out Delhi's new Metro (which was probably a mistake at rush hour) since our hotel was just one stop away. The metro was really nice... despite the MASSIVE crowd... and we walked back to our hotel and sat in the lobby and played a**hole until our taxi came.
We arrived early to the airport and sat around waiting until we could check in. Our flight was at about 11 pm, putting us back in Bombay at 1 am (quite unfortunate). We had to wait on the plane a long time, since the "stair driver" couldn't quite seem to get the stairs up to the door of our plane. We finally collected our luggage and hit the taxi stand.
Rachel and I shared a cab back to the girls hostel... where our taxi driver tried to outrageously rip us off! (His meter was clearly broken as it read 18.80, where it would usually read 6.40 (the meter reading is then roughly multipled by 13)) We wound up paying him only Rs. 200, but he was not satisfied and stood there trying to convince us to give him more... the fact that he wasn't angry meant we weren't ripping him off, he was trying to rip us off. But he stood outside our hostel with us and we attempted to wake the guard and then the guard stumbled to the gate and attempted to open the padlock with a foil wrapper from whatever narcotic he had been... of course this didn't work, he stumbled back to the desk to get a different foil wrapper. This is "fat guard" that often tries to get money from us when we come in late... so we assume he might have been trying to get money from us, but once we handed him our luggage and prepared to climb over the fence he miraculously remembered he did have a key to the padlock and went off and quickly grabbed it.... did he really think a foil wrapper would open the padlock!!?
So at 2:15 I collapsed into bed... I changed my skirt for shorts and quickly fell asleep, since I had Finance at 10 this morning.
All in all, a VERY adventurous time!! I will quickly post pictures... as they often tell a far better story than I do. It was a lot a lot of fun traveling with the boys though, and a very nice reprieve from my usual crowd. But then again, boys are always more fun to hang out with ;-)
This evening I am heading off to Bollywood to meet with a representative from the U.N. ? (I have no idea... that will be a story, I am sure).
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