In India, Anything is Possible!

Since my last update, the journey south from Amritsar has been like traveling to a completely different world from the heavenly mountains of the North. With each train or bus trip out of the Himalayas, the weather has become a little warmer, the streets a little dustier. We spent two nights in Agra, stopping of course, to see the majestic Taj Mahal. We arrived in the morning after a night train brought us through the rest of Punjab and Haryana on a 14-ish hour trip. Periodically throughout the night, the Indian police would board the train at stops with guns and uniforms and just begin prodding and feeling the men’s pockets. Tim and I stayed in the “upper berths” which means we were a little out of reach for this random groping, but thankfully they seemed to generally not care about us anyway! Something about the man below Tim must really have clued them off because police came back searching him over and over again.

It was strange on this trip too because at each stop their seemed to be random disputes over tickets. A family would board and fight with someone supposedly in their seat and they would shout and argue for a while before either sharing the seat in some cases (this option seemed utterly uncomfortable and basically terrible) or the conductor would escort one of the travelers to another class or something. I was thankful the whole time that our spots never seemed to be the focus of these “double-sold” tickets and also all the while learning a new appreciation for American organization!

Upon our arrival, we were armed and ready to deal with the pestering touts we had read were just terrible in Agra. In all of our destinations so far, when we get off the train with all our stuff the rickshaw drivers immediately begin to haggle us about where we are going and what is the name of our guest house and how they have a friend or a cousin who will “give a good rate.” They are relentless in directing us where they can get commissions and so we have to be very stern with what we want and have a few ideas of where we want to go from the guide book or other recommendations before we get off the train. It is terrible in these really touristy destinations and Agra is obviously the most popular!

After much persistence we found a place with a good rate and even a Taj view in an area of Agra called Taj Ganj. We just hung out the first day in Agra, taking in the views of the Taj from the roof-top cafes and meeting other tourists from all over the world. On the next day we woke up at sunrise to take in the Taj in all its splendor. We darted through the dusty streets with all the other tourists at 6am hoping to catch the red hues of the morning against the marble…only to find out that sadly, three months out of the year, the sunrise is so clouded by pollution that you can’t really get any of the wonderful colors from the sunrise and the sky simply lightens to day - and November happens to be one of those months!

The Taj Mahal was still absolutely incredible however! We arrived at the gates early in the morning to a line of hundreds of tourists and since Tim has been here a few times before, he knew a viewing point from the back side of the Taj. We went past the lines to this little spot by the bathing ghats and admired the amazing marble for a little while before going back toward our spot for breakfast. After breakfast, I bit the bullet and bought the most expensive thing so far on the trip: my ticket inside the Taj! It cost about twenty American dollars for foreigners and only about ten cents for Indians…tourist trap indeed! But walking inside the magnificent gardens and standing just below the towering white buildings was well worth the coin. The grounds were simply breathtaking and really being inside the Taj Mahal complex is so drastically different from the outside poverty-stricken dirt roads that it is almost impossible to believe they are in the same town. One thing persisted inside however, the bothering. Indians would stop me every ten seconds asking for a picture with me and I really could barely snap a photo of the buildings myself before a new Indian family with their crying baby in arm would be sneaking in for a photo! It has happened everywhere we have been: people wishing to photograph the whities, but it was the worst of all the places inside the Taj! Eventually I was darting around the far gardens inside the complex trying to escape the paparazzi and still see some of the beautiful views of the Taj. Really it was just a silly and fun little game to play (I have really had to keep a sense of humor in dealing with a lot of the bothering or else I would just lose my mind!) and such a magnificent experience to be inside what is truly one of the wonders of the world!!

After the Taj we went to the city’s other tourist attraction, Agra Fort. After spending the afternoon inside the Taj I was burnt out of sightseeing and we only walked around this enormous and beautiful fort, but the highlight of this sight was definitely the cycle rickshaw ride to and back to the fort. We had opted for cycle as opposed to auto because we had never taken one before and it was about a third of the price so we decided to give it a try and within minutes, Tim had talked the cyclist riding us through Agra’s busy streets into letting him try! Our driver was having as much fun teaching Tim how to navigate the craziness as Tim was stretching his legs on a bike again! We finished up our Agra touring learning yet again on this trip that in India, anything is possible!