India 5, Agra

Day 1

The next day we caught the train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, our hotel was Hotel Sheela (http://www.hotelsheelaagra.com/) and we had a nice little room with A/C for RS800 per night there. After resting up it was off to see the jewel of India, the Taj Mahal, we went lateish so as to be able to see the Taj by day as well as at dusk. The Taj Mahal is the one building I saw that really does live up to, and exceed the hype surrounding it. It is truly an awe inspiring structure, the white marble shining brightly in the afternoon sun. As you get closer to it the level of detail becomes apparent, every square inch of it is hand carved with intricate designs. Above the arches, massive Arabic letters are inlaid into the walls in contrasting black marble. We spent the evening wandering around it and sitting there relaxing until they kicked us out just as darkness fell.

Day 2

Next morning we awoke early to get down to Agra fort, I decided to hire a guide for this one, he spoke the fastest most unintelligible English I've ever heard. I still manage to pick up a few facts about the place most notably, he pointed out the room where Shaha Jhan was imprisoned by his son, only able to gaze upon his creation the Taj Mahal through the window. Next on the agenda was a trip out to Fatehpur Sikri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatehpur_Sikri) about 1.5 hours out from Agra, which meant first heading to the state bus stand. By now we were quite good at figuring out and catching busses, between us we could even almost read the destinations printed in Hindi. After a bit of searching and using an obscenely dirty open toilet, we found the bus, boarded and got tickets. The dusk masks we had with us had taken a severe battering in our bags and were now a health hazard in themselves. To put them on would be to inhale several days worth of dusk and several species of mutated bacteria, thankfully we decided to retire the masks from active service.

The most apparent thing upon arrival was the heat, that day was blistering hot and there wasn't much shade around. This combined with us being tired from the trip out there and having already seen so many building type structures through Delhi and Agra put us in a less than enthusiastic mode. The touts at Fethpur Sikri were relentless too, prodding and poking at us to buy things from the moment we set foot on the ground. Our first move was to retreat to a little restaurant and grab lunch. After lunch we ventured into Fathpur Sikri, the free area starting at the Mosque, immediately we were grabbed by an official looking helper who had a name tag stating he was a 'Bolunteer Guide' (Volunteer) and so no money would be required. Despite our attempts to shake him off, he stuck to us like glue, after assuring us he wasn't going to ask for any money we reluctantly agreed to let him show us around. He seemed nice enough taking us around the courtyard pointing out interesting features, we began to believe he might actually be a volunteer. We stopped at the first vendor, he was selling a few stone carvings and trinkets, after politely declining, our guide became insistent on us buying something. It was now clear, he was running the commission scam. This was probably the only time I lost my cool, I was almost yelling at him for lying to us about being a volunteer and trying to scam us into buying things by pretending to be friendly then using that friendship to pressure us. He backed off and continued the tour, the next stop was at a flower vendor where our guide insisted we needed to buy flowers and offer them to proceed around the mosque. It was clear he was just trying to make a commission off a sale so I told him to leave us alone and after a bit of arguing he finally left. To get an idea of the kind of commission he was getting we wandered over to another vendor and asked the prices on a few items we had seen earlier, with the guide tailing us the vendors were asking in the range of Rs800-1200, without him they were asking Rs100-150, obviously a bit of bargaining is possible in both cases but most of that difference would go to the guide. I don't mind paying a guide for guide services, but the dodgy way they try to take advantage of tourists isn't cool. The funny thing was, the guide saw us speaking to vendors and came running back to us yelling 'I saw you buy something from him but you didn't buy when I show you!!', we actually didn't buy anything but the guide thought we did and he was MAD. A small victory for the stupid tourists(us).

After the whole guide episode we weren’t in the best mood so the rest of Fathpur Sikri was done in a rush, hurrying around checking out structures and trying to stay out of the sun. On the way out we saw a man was waiting offering camel and cart rides, that's like a horse and cart, but with a camel. A spirited round of bargaining had us agree on a RS30 fare to take us all the way down to the bus stand. Riding in a camel cart is great fun, the cart bobs up and down with every step and the camel looks happy to be doing a bit of walking. The camel cart guy seemed nice so we gave him a generous tip, I think it was around RS100 or so, he was happy with that, in return he let us take a few pictures with the camel.

That evening while having dinner a majestic wedding party strode past the restaurant. Weddings in India are a town affair, a marching band is hired along with a mobile speaker and amplifier system that is then pulled(often by a donkey) through the streets blaring the loudest Indian music you've ever heard. As the band/wedding party travels down the street locals jump in and join in the frenetic dancing. Noise pollution laws are non-existent and conveniently no special permission is needed to block off entire streets for hours at a time. To get closer to the action we quickly paid our bill and went down to join the party, it's great to lose yourself in the celebrations, no one cares you don't know the bride or groom. We grooved some way down the street with them after which they entered an invite only function hall. My girlfriend then went to check her emails at a local internet cafe and I headed back to the hotel to catch some winks.