Trip to India - Day 2

Woke up really early to catch the early morning Shatabdi Express train from New Delhi to Agra. The hotel was kind enough to sent one of their employees to walk me to the train station as despite the hotel being only 100m away, one had to walk through an extremely dirty and busy street to get there. The employee walked me to the right platform and waited there until my train arrived. I had initially asked him to leave as I waited at the platform but he refused and said he would wait until the train arrived. I then tipped him generously for his kind efforts (or maybe that was why he was waiting?)

The train ride was quick, only 2 1/4 hours and the service was reasonable. Well, I did book first class Executive seats.

As usual, at the train station, I was constantly hassled by auto-rickshaw drivers. It can be quite intimidating, especially for a single woman travelling alone. I randomly picked a driver who did not look too dodgy and we agreed on a price (Rs60). On the way to the hotel, Hotel Sheela, which was located very conveniently near the east gate of the Taj Mahal, the driver tried to convince me to book a full day tour with him. He showed me two small notebooks which was full of reviews and comments from previous tourists, praising him in all languages (Japanese, French, German) of his good service. I was hesitant at first but then I thought, well, it would be much easier than constantly searching for an auto-rickshaw to bring me from one location to the next. So, we agreed on a price (Rs350).

The first stop was Mahtab Bagh, a park situated on the sandy bank of Yamuna River, just opposite the Taj Mahal. The main reason for visiting the park was because it was the ideal spot for taking picturesque view of the Taj Mahal.

A smog-polluted picture of the Taj Mahal from the park

Next stop was Itmad-ud-Daullah's tomb, which is fondly known as Baby Taj.

Mausoleum of Itmad-Ud-Daulah

The third stop was Agra Fort, a UNESCO world heritage site. Apparently, it is the most important fort in India where the great Mughals had lived and governed the country from here. It was often visited by foreign ambassadors and travellers during its time.

The Bengali Mahal

Inside the Musamman Burj, where Shah Jahan spent the last 7 years of his life under house arrest by his son

Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience)

After that, it was time for lunch where the driver took me to a so-called clean restaurant, which belonged to his cousin! As expected, all the customers in the restaurant were foreigners. =P

Later, the driver took me to a few emporiums (shawls, pashmina, marble etc) in the hope that I would purchase something and that he would get a commission. The prices they charged were really exorbitant, even for UK standards. These people would persuade you to buy, buy and buy and if you refuse, they would reduce the price accordingly up to the point that they asked, how much you want to pay for it. I blanketly refused to give a price as I really did not know what would be a suitable price and secondly, I didn't really want any of the things there.

I did succumb to purchasing 2 cushion covers (Rs100 each) and a lovely cream-coloured pashmina/wool shawl (Rs800). I think I overpaid for the shawl.

Finally, it was the main attraction itself. The Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal

The entrance fee was rather steep (Rs750) for foreigners and only Rs100 for Indian nationals. For the steep price, we were given a bottle of packaged drinking water and a pair of shoe covers. The Indian nationals didn't get anything.

As one approaches the Taj Mahal, we had to remove our shoes, but since we were given shoe covers, we didn't need to. The Indian nationals all had to remove their shoes and walk barefoot across the cold marble floor. I wouldn't have minded it that much but I would be really annoyed if someone ran off with my shoes. Maybe that's why they offer foreigners the luxury of shoe covers? Or is it just a scam to charge the steep entrance fee? Anyway, it was raining lightly when I was there and the floor was filthy with dirt and mud, making me glad of my precious shoe covers.

The Taj Mahal was indeed magnificent. There were beautiful marble carvings all along the walls on the outside of the building. On the inside, there were fake marble tombs of the Emperor Shah Jahan and his 3rd wife, Mumtaz, with the real ones underneath. It was difficult to see much inside as it was very dark, with very limited natural sunlight.

The marble carvings on the wall

I was tempted to hang around the area to take a picture of the Taj Mahal during sunset but I was extremely exhausted by then. There was an option to return later that night as during the night of full moon and 2 days prior and after that, the Taj Mahal is open for night-viewing. And the next night was a full moon.

As tempted as I was, I was too tired to wait around until sunset, which was another 1 1/2 hours to go. And I did not want to pay the entrance fee again for the night-viewing. You had to leave the area at sunset and pay again to enter. And I had to catch an early morning train again to Jaipur at 6am the next day. Thus, I went back to my hotel and slept.

My driver for the day offered to take me from my hotel to the train station the next day. We arranged a pick-up for 5.30am. As my hotel is located in the so-called Taj Trapezium Zone, which is supposedly a 100% pollution-free area, the entry of vehicles were prohibited from the checkpoints to safeguard the beauty of the Taj Mahal. The distance from the Eastern entrance checkpoint was about 500m to my hotel. I did not fancy walking alone at 5.15am across the 500m and asked the driver to walk to my hotel to pick me up, which he willingly agreed.

I asked how much he was charging for the trip, and I *stupidly* and *naively* believed him when he said, "Pay me whatever you like."