![[Steve & Megan's Travelog]](../images/banner.jpg){kind=small}
Just as that plucky little lander Philae headed towards Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, we began our Indian adventure by heading for Delhi. Whilst our journey may not be 85 squillion miles, it is still quite a cultural distance and we're not exactly sure what to expect. Many of you have warned us about the poverty and the endless hassle from people trying to either sell you things or con you, but we are hoping that our previous travel experiences might have prepared us in some small way. On departing from Heathrow, we observed that most of the staff there appear to be Indian. It would be amusing if the staff at Indira Gandhi International were all Caucasian! Anyway, on with the show...
Our taxi driver from Delhi airport was called Ramen. During the journey, he was very keen that we demonstrate an appreciation for the craziness of Indian driving. Whilst it is true that there is a lot of horn blowing, veering and swerving, in general few people seem to get hit and we didn't witness any deaths en route to our hotel. The average speed is pretty low too, although that's probably more down to the quality of the vehicles than any particular restraint on the part of the drivers. Our gas-powered taxi could only manage 40km/h and it took about 300m to achieve that (which is the approximate distance between speed bumps). Upon arrival at the hotel, Ramen's closing words to us were "Indian driving, crazy huh?". Actually, there is a kind of passivity to the driving style and not once did we witness road-rage or any kind of raised stress level. Ramen would be shocked at the craziness of UK driving!
Our hotel is in the Paharganj area of Delhi which put us immediately in the thick of the hawking of tat and the hassle of touts. It's a mad area rammed with market traders, small independent shops, incense burners, stray dogs and the obligatory cows. The cacophony of car and rickshaw horns is monumental! Certainly a rapid introduction to the hustle and bustle of the sub-continent! The view from the hotel balcony tells it all. This area is also a major backpacker haunt which does mean it's quite easy to exist here as a foreigner - i.e. they speak the lingo and make banana pancakes. We had intended a gentle acclimatisation, but on the first afternoon ended up in a little street restaurant sampling the local food (not the gringo pancakes). Megan immediately opted for a thali; which is an injection moulded plastic tray with dents in it rather akin to the ones used in those UK schools that fancy themselves as prisons. Each dent contains a curry-related substance. All the items differ markedly in colour, somewhat in texture and not at all in their biblical ferocity. Bring on the Delhi belly!
Suitably inured by Paharganj, next morning we took a trip up to Chandni Chowk in the Old Delhi area to see the Red Fort. The fort was commissioned in 1638 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and it was 10 years in construction before the Shah moved in. The design is modelled on the fort at Agra (which we hope to visit later). From some angles it is reminiscent of the Kremlin, although this could just be the red colour and the domes. Nowadays, the Red Fort is a world heritage site. In common with many such places around the World, it is now a derelict shadow of its former self. We did wander around trying to imagine what a glorious place this would have been in its day. Depending on the quality of your imagination, the Red Fort could be really impressive.
Somehow we managed to make the visit on a Saturday, so the throngs were even more... throngy. As foreigners, we have to pay 25 times what the locals pay, but the upside is that they have to queue to buy their tickets and also to get in and we don't. We (well Megan really) had to pose for numerous photos with Indian families. Steve hit on the genius idea of charging 10 Rupees per photo, but this business proposition failed to get off the ground and the locals certainly failed to appreciate the irony! The Chandni Chowk area rivals Paharganj for hassle and aggravation, but the addition of indigenous tourists makes the whole thing a bit of a pain. Since everyone has a phone now and everyone wants to take your picture, it makes getting around that much harder. We viewed the shabbiness that is the Red Fort before beating a hasty retreat to the colonial civility of Connought Place and the local Tata-Starbucks for a Tata-coffee!
Other than the Red Fort, there is a bunch of mosques that can be visited, but that's not generally our thing so we spent the rest of our time in Delhi just soaking up the atmosphere which could be described as vibrant (or perhaps pungent). On that note, it is worth saying there will be a round up of our impressions at the end of the trip.
This entry was originally intended to be Delhi only but, since it has turned out there is not a huge amount to see here, we will press on to Agra.
The "gentleman" at the entrance to New Delhi railway station informed us that our train was cancelled. Apparently, this is a common scam to part you with money for an alternative ticket, so we barged past him. Sure enough, the train was showing as on-time. Actually, it departed half an hour late and the 3½ hour journey took about five hours in the end. We ended up seated separately with Megan sharing with about a dozen locals and Steve having a top bunk (to himself). A top bunk is warm for five hours in 30°C heat. Despite all that, it is hard to complain for £1.50 each for the 200km journey!
We have reserved five nights in Agra which surprised the hotel reception and gave us some hefty bargaining power. Most people stay one night or possibly two. No prizes for guessing what is top of the agenda on a visit here! We wanted to see some of the other sights on offer in Agra and also are deliberately not trying to press on too quickly as that can be hard work and stressful. In addition to cows in the street, we now have monkeys too.
We visited the Agra fort which is massive, very red and very impressive. It exceeds the so-called Red Fort in Delhi in all respects. This fort is actually a walled city and there has been something on the site for at least a thousand years. Most of what is visible today has been around for at least 500 years. The ramparts are huge and are the aforementioned red as are a number of the inner buildings. Others are white and quite a few are marble. All are ornately decorated with carvings. Again we paid many times what the locals paid but, rather disappointingly, there was not much of a queue for us to skip! Whilst parts of the Agra fort are off-limits due to archaeological work (and occupation by the Indian Army), the entire site is not derelict like the one in Delhi. We spent a good few hours marvelling over the scale and quality of the buildings (and posing for a fair few photos for the locals). In our book, this rivals the Forbidden City in Beijing and is one of the most impressive structures we have ever seen.
One interesting aspect of the Agra fort is that it has some spectacular views of that other Agra attraction and its close neighbour (you've probably heard of it). Due to the amount of dust and haze in the atmosphere, the view was not as spectacular as it could be, but it does provide us with a first glimpse of that fairly well known attraction. We have put off our visit to that place for another day in a delayed gratification sort of a way. We'll not be waiting long though as the local papers are reporting fog on the way!
The next day... Turns out there is this thing called the Taj Mahal that we should visit whilst we are here, so we thought we had better check it out. It is galling to find out that we have to pay 37 times what the locals pay to get in. On the other hand, that does only work out at £7.50. On the other hand, that is equivalent to a night's accommodation. On the other hand (eh?) it is billed as the most beautiful building in the world.
It is generally quite difficult to impress this jaded old Northerner, but it has to be said that the Taj is rather awesome. Most stock photos show that standard scene that is known so well and minus the people, but this does mean that there is no sense of scale and, for those who have not had the chance to visit (ha!), it is hard to grasp how large the thing is. Plus, as you would expect, there is more to the site than just the one view. In fact there are numerous buildings in addition to the one mausoleum that gets all the press. There are also extensive gardens that surround the buildings and provide a glorious setting. As ever, rather than go for the standard guide book money shot, we have tried to bring you a few alternative views. Plus we didn't get up for sunrise as it is rather hazy at this time of year (honest).
As for the facts behind the mausoleum complex, our old friend Shah Jahan built it for his favourite wife who died giving birth for the fourteenth time (well, she was 38). He was pretty keen on this woman as you can probably guess and he nearly bankrupt the entire country paying for the materials and 20 years of effort it took to build the place. Apparently, the Shah was usurped by his son who imprisoned him in the Agra fort for the last years of his life - a particularly cruel punishment since he could of course see the Taj Mahal from there (when it wasn't hazy).
Nowadays, the Taj Mahal is thronging with people of course, but its majesty is not diminished mainly due to the scale of the place, which dwarfs even the largest crowd. We took a walk around the outside of the complex down to the river but, behind the scenes, it is all scaffolding and wiring; rather like a large stage set. Outside the complex, the narrow streets are populated by traders hawking their wares rather like in the heydays of the Shah. Unlike then, you can now buy a miniature Taj snow-globe...which is nice.
Since we have a bit of time here and have seen the major attractions, it was time to head off to see some of the lesser visited sites. As well as being eclipsed by the Taj Mahal, some of these places are less popular because they are slightly harder to get to. So, we hired a local guy and his tuk-tuk (motor rickshaw) to drive us around for the day (in the end we only broke down once so it was a pretty successful venture). We visited Akbar's Mausoleum which involved a hair raising ride 10km across Agra during which we witnessed any amount of road-based craziness. Akbar was the most distinguished Mughal ruler, but he came before Shah Jahan which is presumably why his construction is much smaller than the Taj - well, he had nothing to aim for. The tomb follows a pattern we are already beginning to recognise with a large red sandstone gateway leading to a quadrant of gardens with the tomb in the middle. After this we went to the so-called Baby-Taj (it's smaller). In terms of decorative quality, this one surpasses any of the others with colourful frescos covering the walls and ceilings. Again there are gardens divided up by water courses.
Having completed our day out, our driver "kindly" took us to a local shop to view their wares. This was part of our agreement since he admitted that they would pay him to deliver us to their door and this part-subsidised our fare for the day. We said we would just look and Megan was adamant she wouldn't buy anything...
We also took in the Jama Masjid which is the Friday mosque. Some dude who claimed to be the caretaker quoted a bit from the quran and then showed us a list detailing the massive donations that foreign tourists had made for the upkeep of the mosque! Some impoverished backpackers can be enormously generous it seems. Surrounding the mosque, the Kinari bazaar is a ramshackled collection of shops and stalls reminiscent of Chandi Chowk in Delhi. Megan observed that it is hard to browse around such areas when trying to avoid stepping in anything.
Steve got talking to a local who claimed to have never met any foreign tourist who had spent five days in Agra, bemoaning that they only came to see the Taj and then moved on. Apparently, there is so much more to see in Agra. Be that as it may, five days is plenty and we will be moving on now. The plan is to take the train to Bharatpur to visit the Kaleodeo National Park and Fatehpur Sikri deserted city. From there it's on to Sawai Madhopur to try our hands at tiger spotting in Ranthambhore National Park.
We've only been here a week so it would be presumptuous to claim to have figured the place out, but here are a few initial impressions...
So far, everything has gone pretty well. Neither of us has been ill and we have enjoyed what we have done so far. The key seems to be not to try and achieve too much in a single day as it is always a relief to get back to the relative tranquillity of the hotel room with its constant hammering.
In case you were wondering, the staff at Indira Gandhi International are most definitely not all Caucasian.
![[home]](../images/home.gif)
