Agraphobia
I had a good time on the train back to Delhi, which surprised me. Matt and I met up with an American guy in his 60s called Wayne. A very nice chap he was too. He retired from selling insurance in 1991 and has spent the last 13 years living in Honduras with his partner. He travels for three months at a time whenever he wants to. I guess the pension goes a long way in Central America. An interesting man to talk to, he is a veteran of traveling the world since his youth as he started out in the Navy and spent 5 years aboard the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt. He has been stabbed several times (he showed me his scars) and he still has a "woman in every port". I saw the photos but I'd sooner not dwell on that. He seems younger than his years which gives credence to the saying, "You're only as old as the girl you feel." He's a nice guy, though I never got his email address.
Before Matt went back to merrie England we wanted to see the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is just a big empty building made from white marble that sits atop a tomb of one of the queens whom the king doted upon. Such was his grief at her death at the birth of her 14th child (she must have been like some baby machine gun) he created the Taj to commemorate her. In fact he would have built a second Taj in black marble had his heir, not wishing to see all his inheritance squandered, thrown him in jail. The Taj is in Agra; a town about 200 km from Delhi.
Agra is a bit of a toilet to be honest. It is polluted and has been scarred by the tourist industry. Beggars, hawkers, and nasty children pester all white people. I ended up at one point hitting a boy who was pestering Matt on one of our stops. He came up and asked for money, even though he was well dressed. We did the usual ignoring and he got the hump and shouted his request in Matt's ear. Not liking "cute" kids anyway I stood and shoved him away rather hard. He fell over and I chased him for a bit. I then threw his shoe at him that had fallen off. I'm glad I did it as hopefully he'll think twice before being a little bastard again. I never hurt him though, but I bet he's not had that reaction before.
We were lucky that the hotel we were in was a decent one and not expensive, being off season. I cannot imagine how bad this place will be in peak time. Anyway, we got there late at night after our train was delayed for 5 hours (!) and the following morning we got up to go to "the most romantic building on earth".
My arse is it romantic. Stupid white men must pay IRp 750 to get in. That's almost GBP 10, which makes it the most expensive place in India to go to. This would not have been so bad, but apart from the monument there is nothing else to see. The gardens that we all recognise are well kept though you cannot walk on the grass. To be honest I felt cheated. If you want to visit the small museum on the site, you must pay a further 5 rupees (which is nothing, I know, but be reasonable; I've already paid more than the average weekly wage to get in...). Most Indians know and think that the foreigner pricing is excessive, but what are we going to do about it?
My advice would be to take a day trip to the Taj from Delhi or somewhere else close by. Go by road too as the trains are painfully slow around this area.
I thought that Agra represented all that is bad about India, concentrated in one place. Rampant commercialism, hawkers, pollution, etc. all leave you feeling that you've wasted time. It was not all bad though. I had some good conversations with one of the hoteliers on one morning and even had a civilised conversation with a chap at the train station as I was about to leave. He lives in Agra though studies in Delhi. He also did not try to sell me anything and I liked him as he was sincere and had a kind face.
It's amazing how in this place you can go from one extreme to another so quickly. I was glad to leave.
Before Matt went back to merrie England we wanted to see the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is just a big empty building made from white marble that sits atop a tomb of one of the queens whom the king doted upon. Such was his grief at her death at the birth of her 14th child (she must have been like some baby machine gun) he created the Taj to commemorate her. In fact he would have built a second Taj in black marble had his heir, not wishing to see all his inheritance squandered, thrown him in jail. The Taj is in Agra; a town about 200 km from Delhi.
Agra is a bit of a toilet to be honest. It is polluted and has been scarred by the tourist industry. Beggars, hawkers, and nasty children pester all white people. I ended up at one point hitting a boy who was pestering Matt on one of our stops. He came up and asked for money, even though he was well dressed. We did the usual ignoring and he got the hump and shouted his request in Matt's ear. Not liking "cute" kids anyway I stood and shoved him away rather hard. He fell over and I chased him for a bit. I then threw his shoe at him that had fallen off. I'm glad I did it as hopefully he'll think twice before being a little bastard again. I never hurt him though, but I bet he's not had that reaction before.
We were lucky that the hotel we were in was a decent one and not expensive, being off season. I cannot imagine how bad this place will be in peak time. Anyway, we got there late at night after our train was delayed for 5 hours (!) and the following morning we got up to go to "the most romantic building on earth".
My arse is it romantic. Stupid white men must pay IRp 750 to get in. That's almost GBP 10, which makes it the most expensive place in India to go to. This would not have been so bad, but apart from the monument there is nothing else to see. The gardens that we all recognise are well kept though you cannot walk on the grass. To be honest I felt cheated. If you want to visit the small museum on the site, you must pay a further 5 rupees (which is nothing, I know, but be reasonable; I've already paid more than the average weekly wage to get in...). Most Indians know and think that the foreigner pricing is excessive, but what are we going to do about it?
My advice would be to take a day trip to the Taj from Delhi or somewhere else close by. Go by road too as the trains are painfully slow around this area.
I thought that Agra represented all that is bad about India, concentrated in one place. Rampant commercialism, hawkers, pollution, etc. all leave you feeling that you've wasted time. It was not all bad though. I had some good conversations with one of the hoteliers on one morning and even had a civilised conversation with a chap at the train station as I was about to leave. He lives in Agra though studies in Delhi. He also did not try to sell me anything and I liked him as he was sincere and had a kind face.
It's amazing how in this place you can go from one extreme to another so quickly. I was glad to leave.