Who’s heard of Agra?
No-one really but everyone knows whats there, the sole reason tourists visit the city and probably part of the reason most of us visit India; The Taj Mahal.
Again one of those things your not so sure why its famous and more well known than other equally as interesting things, but it just is. So my day started early at a bus stop deciding what to do. A guy from the bus stop is standing about half a meter away from me, staring. ‘Can I help you?’ I said to him,
“No, you are a guest in our country’
“riiiiight…thanks…”
“Where are you going”
“look I don’t know I just want to figure it out, I don’t need your help”
“You are a guest, we respect our visitors”
“Yes thank you but I don’t need anything”
and so on and so on. I even just sat down and starting eating and he still waited trying to…well I’m not so sure what he wanted. Eventually I escaped as at 5.30am after that bus ride I was in no mode to be nice to annoying randoms. So I headed off towards the Taj Mahal to get a hotel room for the day. According to everything and everyone Agra is a bit of a dump and not much to do there so I overnighted out as well. After a quick shower and breakfast I headed off to see the worlds most famous tomb. Built by a king for his dead wife, he was eventually imprisoned by his son who overthrew him and put in a fort that over looked the Taj. And I think they cut off the hands of all the workers so they couldn’t build anything like it again, much like the clock in Prague…very pleasant.
So the Taj Mahal is the image of India and it is pretty nice. I wouldn’t say the greatest thing about India as I think the country is better experienced through people and general crazy-ness not monuments, but as far as monuments go I was impressed. Not impressed by the entrance fee which was more than I’d spend in 2 days on food and accommodation but that’s how it is when people are willing to pay anything. Arriving at 6am like my guidebook said was the best time as “you’ll have the whole place to yourself other than a few likeminded backpackers” it seems everyone else has the same idea, so I shared dawn with bus loads of camera toting tourists (myself included). After the necessary pictures and a walk around I sat and people watched for awhile as its one of my favorite things to do at famous monuments. It is a nice place with all the gardens surrounding it and you can get nice pictures with the reflection. It was smaller than I thought, and nothing much inside (other than the bodies) but I guess it is a tomb and that’s its purpose, I think I always thought it was a palace or something.
So Taj Mahal, been there done that. The rest of the day I spent hiding from rickshaw drivers and people trying to sell me miniature T.M’s and slept and read in my hotel room. Couldn’t really be bothered seeing the few other sights in Agra, as I’d seen enough forts the moment. But all in all a good day and good to catch up on sleep.
Tags: India, Travel
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[…] Arnika writes about her trip to Taj Mahal So the Taj Mahal is the image of India and it is pretty nice. I wouldn’t say the greatest thing about India as I think the country is better experienced through people and general crazy-ness not monuments, but as far as monuments go I was impressed. Posted by Krish […]