Nick’s world tour

About 2 months later than I intended, I was on a bus (having completely given up on Indian Railways) heading down to Agra in Uttar Pradesh. It turned out that this was a tour, and in fact we got taken to a load of sights as part of the price (not including entry of course!) This meant I didn’t have to stay in Agra, which by all accounts could do with bulldozing.

Agra Fort is a little older than it’s counterpart in Delhi, but is as impressive. One of the facts that stuck in my mind was the maharaja had 700 wives, but only 2 bathrooms….he must have been late for work!

The Taj Mahal is as impressive as it looks in the pictures. Flanked by two mosques, it’s supposedly the greatest testament to love. Whatever, it’s a magnificent sight, and is deservedly the symbol of India. It’s a shame how big the gap in the dual pricing scheme is here. Everywhere you pay more than locals, maybe two or three times which is fair enough. Here locals pay Rs20, and we paid Rs750 (though the free socks to spare you having to remove your shoes, and the half litre of water, are supposed to go towards closing the gap!). Still it was worth it.

All the major sights seen, I ended up with a Mexican and an American couple heading to the bus station in the evening: in a horse and cart. Well it had to be done… crazy country.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 7:37 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.