India - Agra

Here begins a series of blogs summarising our recent trip to India. I confess that this, the first blog, is being written after a sleepless night (jet lag) and while I wait for the sun to rise. Perhaps not the best time for finding inspiration to write, but it's certainly a good way of killing the hours until it's a respectable time to be up and about. So you will have to forgive the inevitable poor quality of this entry. A second disclaimer: I am not a historian. Any references to historical matters are likely taken from those less-than-ideal secondary sources the Lonely Planet, tourist brochures, travel books and chatting to people. Now, to begin.

As mentioned in the last post, we started our Indian adventure by flying in to Delhi with the plan to drive out to Agra that same day. Thankfully we had a local, F, to show us around. Well, I say F is a local, but in fact she grew up outside of India (but with an Indian family) and her family is from the south, rather than north, of India. For the last 3 years she has also lived in the UK and is only in Delhi at the moment on a holiday. F did, however, go to university in Delhi, and is ethnically Indian and able to speak a bit of Hindi, so I think she qualifies as a "local".

F had helpfully organised a driver and car for the North leg of our Indian tour. The plan was that F would come with us to Agra, then return to Delhi by train while G and I went on to Jaipur. G and I would then come back to Delhi and meet up again with F.

After making use of F's Delhi flat and shower, we all headed off on the 3 - 4 hour car ride to Agra. F, being the Hindi speaker, had the less-than-pleasant job of conversing with our driver during that long drive. Our driver was Mr S, a Punjabi fellow who does this route frequently with tourists. As Mr S kept telling F, Mr S's friends have all the best restaurants and own all the best shops, and so really we should stop at his friends' shops and restaurants en route. Initially F responded to this suggestion with a bit of head wobbling and "accha"ing (a handy word which means: okay; "oh really?"; "I see"; "listen up"; and "oh well!"). As Mr S grew more insistent, however, so did F, and F began head shaking and "nahi"ing (which means no - a word G and I used a lot on our North India trip). Eventually Mr S worked out that he was unlikely to earn commission by dragging us on shopping/dining trips to his friends' establishments and so we had to put up with a very surly and grumpy Mr S for the rest of our drive.

I have always known that India is a large country with an incredibly large population, but I didn't really appreciate the sheer enormity of that population until the drive to Agra. At no point, when looking out the car window, could I not see people working with the earth, carrying large bundles of wood on their heads or just sitting having tea. Even when we appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, there was an endless number of people in sight. The road itself was full of people, people overflowing from the back of trucks, hanging out of buses, on the backs of horses or donkeys and entire families squeezed on to small scooters. It took some time of navigating that traffic before we finally arrived in Agra.

Agra was formerly the capital, and its glory days were in the mid-16th and 17th centuries during the reigns of Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jahan. After the mid 17th century, a new city was built in Delhi and subsequently the capital was moved there. During it's heyday, the Agra fort was built as was the Taj Mahal. It's therefore a must-see on any North India trip.

The Lonely Planet guide says of Agra:

"the magical allure of the Taj Mahal draws tourists like moths to a wondrous flame. And despite the hype, it's every bit as good as you've heard. But the Taj is not a standalone attraction. The legacy of the Mughal empire has left a magnificent fort and mausoleums... Many tourists choose to visit Agra on a whistle-stop day trip from Delhi. This is a shame. There is much more of interest here that can be seen in that time. In fact, you can enjoy several days' sightseeing..."

The Lonely Planet guide lies. The fort and Taj Mahal are amazing (more about that below). But Agra itself is a dump. The touts, tuk tuk drivers, "guides" and tourist scams can, at times, be completely overwhelming. The restaurants are geared up for tourists and are, in the main, grubby and dire. The streets are full of men urinating and women crapping by the side of the road. Perhaps I could have coped with all of this a little better if our accommodation had been a little more salubrious. Sadly, our accommodation ,at the Hotel Sheela, was less than ideal.

We had been attracted to the Hotel Sheela by the Lonely Planet's description (it was the Lonely Planet's "top pick" of budget accommodation) and by positive reviews on tripadvisor. Unfortunately, it seems the standards must have dropped since those reviews were published. The three of us found ourselves ushered into a room with a door that didn't lock properly from the inside. There was no heating (despite the freezing cold nights) and the very few blankets we had were dirty and smelly. I also found myself picking bugs out of my bed before being able to sleep in it. To top it off, the hot water didn't work. Ever. There also appeared to be an Indian wedding or party nearby, and the loud music didn't stop over the two nights we stayed at the Hotel Sheela. It being peak tourist season, we had to resign ourselves to staying at that hotel, given most other places were booked out. I took a few photos of our less-than-ideal room, but they don't really capture its grubbiness.

Thankfully, the amazing sights of Agra were enough to make up for the dismal accommodation and dump of a city. The Taj Mahal really is every bit as spectacular as guidebooks would have you believe.

The Taj was built by Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their second child in 1631. Shah Jahan was left heartbroken, and wanted to build a monument to his favourite wife that surpassed all others in terms of its beauty. It is quite a romantic story, until you learn that Shah Jahan, in the interests of ensuring the Taj was never replicated or surpassed, apparently killed, maimed or blinded all those who worked on the Taj once it was safely completed. The story becomes even less romantic when you learn about the rumours that Shah Jahan subsequently had an incestuous relationship with his daughter, Jahanara Begum Sahib, from his marriage to Mumtaz Mahal. Nonetheless, the Taj is a stunningly beautiful building.

Similarly, the Agra Fort is incredible and well worth a visit.

Non-Indian residents have to pay an inflated fee to visit these monuments (about 20x the price), but at least in return we get a very fine pair of shoe covers to wear during the visit.

Surprisingly, G and I were two of only a very small number of Western tourists out of an incredibly large number of tourists in Agra. Most of the tourists were domestic tourists, and for some, G and I seemed to be as great an attraction as the Taj, as we found ourselves being paparazzied and, even less pleasantly, I found myself being poked and prodded by strange men. F taught me a few choice Hindi words which I used with great pleasure on these occasions.

After two nights and a day-and-a-half of sightseeing, we said goodbye to F and (far less sadly) to the Hotel Sheela and headed off along with Mr S to Jaipur.