Once again an early start courtesy of our wake up call, 5.45am, typical the most comfortable bed of the trip is the one we spend least amount of time in.
Met VJ outside as planned at 6.30, he was on top form despite the early hour (think conversation immediately taking a turn to the Karma Sutra somehow) and we were whisked away in his tuk tuk, or helicopter as he calls it.
Arrived at Taj Mahal and joined a queue which was nowhere near as long as we had anticipated. The gates opened at 7.10 and after a bit of faffing about in our separate male/female lines we were in. To say this wonder of the world is beautiful would not do it justice, it was stunning, and was made even more so by the morning mist and the sun breaking through.
Had our photo taken on the Princess Diana bench, went into the Taj to see the tombs which were so intricately carved in marble, spent time enjoying the atmosphere and people watching. Couldn’t see the river due to the mist, but according to VJ the weather was good for this time of year. It was pretty chilly, about 6 degrees, but good practice for coming home in a few days.
Back to our hotel where kind chap Shabang who checked us in said we could have breakfast for half price…wont bore you with the details but it was epic…any breakfast item under the sun was available…and more.
Then met VJ again who took us out again (10.30am) to Agra Fort which again was an incredible place, and you had an amazing view of the Taj from it aswell. Phil somehow got mixed into Indian ladies selfie session with Rach just about being allowed on the end of the pic! Touts were a little more persistent than at the Taj but came away having only parted with 10p on top of our ticket fee after a chipmunk somehow came to be on our hands…not really sure what happened there.
Fascinating history for both places we visited today, had we known how much Agra had to offer we would have stayed another night.
Returned to our hotel to gather our belongings and reluctantly checked out…Shabang gave us another warm cookie for our journey. Did you know at this hotel, aka the best hotel ever, there is an actual thing called the ‘Comfort careline’ where you can direct dial for another warm cookie to be brought straight to your room!!
VJ took us back to the station and kept us entertained with his banter, we sadly said our farewells and promised that if we knew of friends or family heading to Agra we would point them in his direction.
Normal scenes of chaos at the station, normal smattering of delayed or cancelled trains on the board but luckily none of them was ours, our was only an hour late, which is practically early! Snailed about for a bit, we realised if you sit down at Agra station you basically never need to move again as anything you might ever need somehow miraculously appears infront of you, thinks zips, shoeshine service, keyrings, padlocks, trays of chaat…you name it.
Phil went off in search of getting a few snacks for the journey (as strange as it may seem there is no snuggle pack / warm cookie care line / plaza lounge on the train) a group of youth were eyeing him up and approached him… Uh oh…
Phil was humbled by the next bit as the group of young men bought phil a tea and pack of biscuits from the stall!! … Phil showed kindness back and bought them a whole cake… For 40 rupee…
In the meantime Rach had somehow befriended a rather nice looking family to sit next to and as Phil returned she was having an interesting conversation about visa application and the man writing down his details on our notebook… Fortunately when it came to our turn Rach only went as far as to draw a map of england and point at the county…. (Wouldnt be suprised if a foreign visa application arrives in the post though)… Phil had a gift of a small sweet nut type thing to enjoy with his tea from the man Rach had got chatting to… Apparently he makes this pilgrimage yearly to agra and buys 200 of them so we were honoured to swallow them almost whole washed down with tea praying we wouldnt get ill and that they were made by an indian mama type in a clean environment enjoy them. He was also kind enough to offer us a banana for the journey…this whole railway experience was probably the sweetest experience we had had in a long time.
Kindness from the young gentlemen didnt stop there as they came back over to us and handed us 2 packs of crisps this time, selfies included of course…
Finally the train arrived, on the wrong platform of course and our newly found friends showed us to our carriage.. Embarrassingly A1… Got 4 beds to our room this time..a sort of a snuggle pack also arrived .. Men with homemade chaat etc pace the carriage …played with the curtain and our top bunk, decided we were pleased that we were not on a 20hr journey like the family we had met were. Saw a dead cow on the line, not something you see everyday.
Was a fairly uneventful but 5 hr instead of 3hr journey back to NZB station, a few km away from our hotel. This is when things began to take a slight downward turn…the second we were off the train touts mobbed us in a vulture like fashion trying to entice us into their autorickshaws (having been inches away from the wheels of many a bus/lorry on this trip so far we fancied a vehicle slightly more sturdy) so made our way to the taxi stand, still being followed by tuk tuk driver who then tried to listen to where we were going/ hustle us out if the queue.
We were a little stuck at this stage. Trying to get rid of taxi men requires skill and determination, and play their game!… After a 5hr train journey arriving in the dark to an unknown crowded station , this is a little harder. The game is also up after you are seen headed for the taxi stand… Luckily another kind young local helped us out. As it turns out at the taxi stand you can only book with an indian mobile, so he offered to request on on his mobile and he even banished the crowd of (now angry) tuktuk drivers away from us… Soon our car arrived and we got in (obviously the car reversing whilst having its hazards on and alarm going off) and we thought all was clear until he needed a code from the mobile.. Our indian saint man had left and we very nearly had to get out of the cab back into the chaos.. Luckily taxi guy called the man and got the code and we were off… Soon we got to the hotel and were glad we had’nt got a tuktuk as the street was even crazier.. We were glad to arrive in the comfort of the Lalit, New Delhi. It was a bit busier than the Hilton and we didn’t get a warm cookie but it is as amazing also with every conceivable service / shop you can imagine (including nightclub / 24hr pastry shop etc). Our bathroom even has a glass wall into our room.. Tired from our travelling day we opted for a light room service dinner before bed.
