Today we were up and ready at the break of day (ok well, the break of day on a weekend). True to form though we waited and waited for our taxi, then the air-con (surprise-surprise) didn’t work. This really should have been an omen about how the whole trip would go but throughout the next two days our spirits remained high.
The train station was a challenge in itself, not even the train journey. Luckily we had read up about how people try and tell you the tourist ticket sales desk is closed and they try and lead you astray, to buy false tickets or whatever. Actually it is very confusing because sometimes you can’t even see what they are getting out of it, when they tell you the wrong information, it makes you wonder if they just try to be pains for the fun of it.
We managed to find the tourist ticket office but they didn’t sell last minute tickets so we had to go back downstairs and fend for ourselves at either desk 62 or 63. I took it upon myself to barge to the front of the queue and get the tickets. Apparently they didn’t have any cheap cheap tickets left and we ended up paying about 8 pounds for the “3-hour” train journey.
Getting on the train we were relieved to find we had allocated seats and some kind of ventilation, in the form of fans, the kind normally for desks, tied to the ceiling. I was sitting away from the girls and the guys, to the side of the train, so I soon got bored and plonked myself between the boys, so we talked, read, listened to music, it was pretty chilled, just excruciatingly long. After being on the train for 3 hours, we realised we had been stopping rather often, for rather long periods and not at stations. This was when it dawned on us we would not be there in 3 hours. The journey ended up taking 6 hours.
At Agra we were bombarded by rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, pedal rickshaws (despite being 5) all wanting to take us to the Taj Mahal. We were so unsure who was legitimate and who was not and on the map the centre we were looking for seemed pretty close (a few kms at most) so we decided to just walk for it. After ten minutes or so we soon realised our mistake, it was rather hot and we were no longer sure we were on the right road (this was the first of many times we were to find that the lonely planet guide maps are terrible, with lots of extra roads missing). Another nuisance was that rickshaw drivers do not seem to accept that you want to walk anywhere, one guy followed us for a good five minutes before getting the hint we were WALKING!!
Eventually we gave up, got in a taxi and he brought us to the centre. The aim was to try and get night viewing tickets for the Taj Mahal from this particular centre. They said it was impossible, we were too late, even puppy dog eyes and money could not get the guy to break the government rules. He showed us his list of people signed up for that night and it did indeed look very official so we returned to the rickshaw and went to the Taj to buy tickets so we could see sunrise the next day.
First the rickshaw guy dropped us at the wrong entrance, then we reached the right one but it was closed, we walked around to the East gate and found that only the West gate was still open for buying tickets. On our way to find the West gate, the lonely planet kindly led us down many dead-ends. At some points we even wondered if the locals were laughing at us we were so lost, on what should have been a simple route, the missing roads really didn’t help.
Once we had the tickets the next stop was to find somewhere to stay. We had read about a nice hotel in the guide book so went to locate it. At first we thought it was in one of the run down buildings just off to the side of the main road, but we decided despite the good reviews if this was the one we would give it a miss, it looked so run down and desolate (we weren’t even sure if it was a hostel at all). Joining the main road again, a huge sign greeted us, and we realised this was the hostel we had been looking for. The only had one room for three, and were not willing to show it to us or accept a smaller deposit than they were asking for so we left. A little further a long the way there was another hotel which looked ok, was reasonably priced, the rooms were ok and so we decided to take it.
It was the best move ever, ok they had no toilet paper (and I had to scrounge some off some Austrian tourists) and no sheets (I improvised with my scarf) but they had an amazing view on their rooftop terrace or the Taj Mahal. We had made it just in time to see the sunset over the Taj to the sound of evening prayers – magical. Dinner was nothing special but we laughed and joked, and retired relatively early, for our morning was to start early.
The train station was a challenge in itself, not even the train journey. Luckily we had read up about how people try and tell you the tourist ticket sales desk is closed and they try and lead you astray, to buy false tickets or whatever. Actually it is very confusing because sometimes you can’t even see what they are getting out of it, when they tell you the wrong information, it makes you wonder if they just try to be pains for the fun of it.
We managed to find the tourist ticket office but they didn’t sell last minute tickets so we had to go back downstairs and fend for ourselves at either desk 62 or 63. I took it upon myself to barge to the front of the queue and get the tickets. Apparently they didn’t have any cheap cheap tickets left and we ended up paying about 8 pounds for the “3-hour” train journey.
Getting on the train we were relieved to find we had allocated seats and some kind of ventilation, in the form of fans, the kind normally for desks, tied to the ceiling. I was sitting away from the girls and the guys, to the side of the train, so I soon got bored and plonked myself between the boys, so we talked, read, listened to music, it was pretty chilled, just excruciatingly long. After being on the train for 3 hours, we realised we had been stopping rather often, for rather long periods and not at stations. This was when it dawned on us we would not be there in 3 hours. The journey ended up taking 6 hours.
At Agra we were bombarded by rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, pedal rickshaws (despite being 5) all wanting to take us to the Taj Mahal. We were so unsure who was legitimate and who was not and on the map the centre we were looking for seemed pretty close (a few kms at most) so we decided to just walk for it. After ten minutes or so we soon realised our mistake, it was rather hot and we were no longer sure we were on the right road (this was the first of many times we were to find that the lonely planet guide maps are terrible, with lots of extra roads missing). Another nuisance was that rickshaw drivers do not seem to accept that you want to walk anywhere, one guy followed us for a good five minutes before getting the hint we were WALKING!!
Eventually we gave up, got in a taxi and he brought us to the centre. The aim was to try and get night viewing tickets for the Taj Mahal from this particular centre. They said it was impossible, we were too late, even puppy dog eyes and money could not get the guy to break the government rules. He showed us his list of people signed up for that night and it did indeed look very official so we returned to the rickshaw and went to the Taj to buy tickets so we could see sunrise the next day.
First the rickshaw guy dropped us at the wrong entrance, then we reached the right one but it was closed, we walked around to the East gate and found that only the West gate was still open for buying tickets. On our way to find the West gate, the lonely planet kindly led us down many dead-ends. At some points we even wondered if the locals were laughing at us we were so lost, on what should have been a simple route, the missing roads really didn’t help.
Once we had the tickets the next stop was to find somewhere to stay. We had read about a nice hotel in the guide book so went to locate it. At first we thought it was in one of the run down buildings just off to the side of the main road, but we decided despite the good reviews if this was the one we would give it a miss, it looked so run down and desolate (we weren’t even sure if it was a hostel at all). Joining the main road again, a huge sign greeted us, and we realised this was the hostel we had been looking for. The only had one room for three, and were not willing to show it to us or accept a smaller deposit than they were asking for so we left. A little further a long the way there was another hotel which looked ok, was reasonably priced, the rooms were ok and so we decided to take it.
It was the best move ever, ok they had no toilet paper (and I had to scrounge some off some Austrian tourists) and no sheets (I improvised with my scarf) but they had an amazing view on their rooftop terrace or the Taj Mahal. We had made it just in time to see the sunset over the Taj to the sound of evening prayers – magical. Dinner was nothing special but we laughed and joked, and retired relatively early, for our morning was to start early.
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