As you may or may not know I went on holiday to Agra to go
and see the Taj Mahal and Varanasi for a week during Durga- puja (the Durga
festival). My holiday was what can only be described as a little ridiculous,
starting with a whole 28 hours in Agra.
So I arrive in Agra after a 24 ½ hour train ride from
Jasidih into Agra. Many of the guide books echo the same message… get in, see
the Taj, Baby Taj etc. and get out. Never a truer word was written. Agra is
HARD work, from the touts, pollution and in my case, a lack of sleep. I checked
into the hotel which I did previously check online and I was shown to my ‘air
conditioned’ room and quickly shown up to the roof top restaurant which had an
amazing view of the Taj Mahal, I could not deny that. 
I enjoyed the view and had a drink and went down to the
room. I had read about this hotel doing this to other tourists but I really had
not looked at the room before I had been whisked back out and sadly there was
no big white box blowing cold air out so I went downstairs and declared my air
conditioning had been ‘stolen’. They looked sheepish and refunded me the
difference for the room and I went back upstairs to get ready to go and get
some food. Sorry to say this, well I’m not actually, I went to Pizza Hut and
Costa coffee. When I later spoke to my mum and sister I think they were a
little concerned as I did sound like I could and probably would be, doing the
wall of death around my hotel room thanks to some junk food and proper coffee.
Oh yes, I actually sat in the back of an auto drinking a Costa iced latte, I
cringe now even thinking about it.
I was lying in bed at midnight and I could not get to sleep,
I felt very uncomfortable and itchy so I lay there watching television until
about 3 a.m. when I decided enough was enough and I flicked on the light to
discover I was not alone, sadly this time it wasn’t a gecko but bed bugs, a
whole colony of bed bugs. Nice! So I went downstairs to go and complain and
resisted the urge to kick the night guard awake and complained, they did offer
to change the sheets (like that would make a difference) but I just told them
not to bother as I was getting up at 5 a.m. anyway. I did leave with the
warning shot that I would see the manager later…
I watched the sunrise over the Taj Mahal and then went to
see it; it is stunning. Even after 20 hours of no sleep it is amazing to go and
see it. It was beautiful, breath taking in fact.
 |
Sunrise over the Taj Mahal |
I had spoken to a tourist the previous night who had said I
could walk between the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort so that is what I had decided to
do. Unfortunately I had managed to break a pair of sandals when walking around
so managed to find a nearby shoe shop (you have to love India) bought another
pair and went on my merry way.
Sadly on being spotted on the quietest road in India a
gentlemen decided to sexually relieve himself in front of me (for those in the
UK he was having a tommy tank!) I mean really is that kind of thing necessary –
it was 8:30 in the morning! He also did not think out his plan very well as I
just crossed the road when I realised what he was doing and he was pretty much
stuck where he was, I may have been tired but even I could foil that wily plan
(no not willy plan, wily!)
So I went to Agra Fort and found… a sceptical dog. I could
post many photos but this is one of my favourites.
My memories of the fort are a little sketchy, well my
thinking power was reduced to very little apart from ‘gosh this is big’, then ‘wow
this place really is massive’, followed by ‘will this place never end!’ After dragging
myself around Agra Fort I headed back to the hotel to go and shout at the
manager, which I did and managed to get a room for the afternoon and a refund.
Sadly it was not how I planned to spend my afternoon but at least I got some
rest before going to Varanasi, turns out I would need it…
No comments:
Post a Comment