After leaving Delhi we set off on a 4 hour drive to Agra on a toll road that was only built in the last few years. With no traffic at all and Hindi tunes blasting through the radio we were soon entering the madness that was Agra, home to the Red Fort and of course one of the 7 wonders of the world: The Taj Mahal.
Agra was mental, if we thought Delhi was crazy this (in my opinion) was much worse. Holes/crevices in the road, people everywhere, cows laying down in the most awkward and random of places, busses with people hanging onto the side and sitting on the roof, goats, camels, horses, pigs, monkeys, vultures, tuk tuks crammed full of people and all kinds of stuff, people, more people, selling just about anything and everything you can imagine and this was all just on the main road! We weaved our way through the “roads” to our hostel a few kilometres from the Taj Mahal.
We stayed at the Zostel Agra, one night for a grand total of £8 each, bargain. We booked a private room which was really basic but we weren’t planning on spending much time in it. Having passed a McDonalds on the way in, we fancied checking the menu out so after dropping off our bags, our driver took us to those magical Golden Arches. McDonalds is different in every country as we know but India was something else entirely. As there is no beef, everything on the menu is either chicken, aloo, paneer or fish (amazing) but the most shocking thing of all was how little the price was. My jaw literally dropped. In London a main meal is the equivalent of 420 rupees (so I hear?!) In India? A meal was 150 rupees, around a third of the price. I had a Chicken Maharaja Mac (Big Mac equivalent) and an Aloo wrap (potato wrap of the day) and Chantelle had a McChicken Indian style sandwich meal. Absolutely stuffed for under £2 each it was defs worth the serious investigative work we had undertaken, and it didn’t taste too bad either 😉 No more western food for us, our guilty pleasure had been more than satisfied on this occasion alone. With bellies full we headed to Amber Fort, the palace of Shah Jahan who later went on to build the Taj Mahal.
The fort was incredible, magnificent in size and grandeur, our guide took us through the story of Shah Jahan, his two wives and his 14 children. Again, definitely recommend a guide at these places. The signage and information provided at the monuments is few and far between, so without a guide I’d anticipate that sightseeing could become pretty boring and monotonous. There are some fantastic views of the Taj from the top of the fort, worth it for these alone, if not the story about Shah Jahan dressing up as a woman in a Burka back in the day to check out the ladies in the ladies-only market and then finding his soon to be ‘senior’ wife, who he built the Taj for when she died.
The local Indian tourists were also braver in Agra, asking me for outright selfies and taking full on videos of me, fascinated by the white skin, blonde (albeit dirty) hair and blue eyes. I don’t mind the women as I can understand their curiosity, I’m just as curious about their looks and their clothing, however with the men it can get a bit much at times, God knows what I look like in some of their photos, double chin and all.
From the Fort our guide took us to a marble factory to show us how they make such fantastic marble pieces and intricately/painstakingly place coloured gem stones in the marble, great prep for our visit to Taj the following day. Unfortunately the demo ended in a ‘please buy some of my things’ hard sell, to which we politely declined – but it was interesting all the same.
Still keen to buy some Ali Baba pants, we hit the road in search of a shop to make some much needed purchases. We were taken to an Aladdin’s cave of wonders, harem and Ali Baba galore – also the kind of shopping we like, no pressure, no hard sell and completely our choice to purchase. With 10 items chosen we successfully negotiated a good price (we were still probably ripped off) but didn’t mind so much as the people were nice. With our amazing, colourful goods in tow we headed back to the hostel where we hung out listening to dub step with some backpackers, swapping India stories for a few hours. Sheer Bliss.
Feeling hungry we arranged for the driver to take us to Pinch of Spice restaurant which was the busiest place in town by far, after a 20 minute wait and 2 ‘Cooney Island’ cocktails each we tucked into Egg Curry, Fish Tikka Masala, Garlic Naan, Raita and rice and the food was delicious. Good enough to beat absolutely anywhere in London, we paid a fraction of the price for the feast, the most expensive thing being the drinks. Swinging by the off license on the way back, we sank a couple of Kingfishers at the hostel with new friends before hitting the hay, ready for our 5am wake up call for the Taj Mahal at sunrise.
The Taj Mahal, one of the 7 man made wonders of the world, and it’s no wonder why. Utterly breathtaking it’s totally worth the 750 rupees entrance fee and again, have a guide with you to explain the story, the history and the architecture. Unfortunately there was the mother of all storms the night before so sunrise wasn’t visable but it was fantastic to be there under a moody and rainy sky, every individual tone of the white marble shone brightly against the grumbling grey clouds. Amazing how one mans love for his wife spawned such an incredible building that has always been a tourist attraction since the 1600s and always will be… We spent much more time here than we had originally anticipated, only leaving when the crowds really started entering the site around 8.30am – it was difficult to take your eyes off the building the entire time. I thoroughly encourage anyone to take the trip to the Taj, truly a once in a lifetime experience. And of course there was much papping of English white blonde girl along the way ☺️
After a quick pit stop at the hostel to collect our stuff and have brekky/Chai in a Taj-inspired Indian restaurant (they love their omelettes) we set off 50km out of the city to Fathepur Sikri, a fort and palace built by Shah Jahan’s grandfather. Our guide was a short, robotic kinda man who only spoke to Chantelle (not me) and who’s personal catchphrase soon became ‘Actually Ma’am’ which he started every other sentence with (directed to Chantelle). Going to the Fort meant a 10 rupee bus ride up a steep hill climb for which there weren’t enough seats and people crammed in like sardines in a tin (in true India style). An hour or so at the Fort and Palace was plenty of time to appreciate the history and architecture in the blazing sunshine, turns out that particular Mughal had 400 wives at the same time! What a crazy man. He made sure to dine alone though to stop any arguments between the women and built his bed 7 feet off the floor so he couldn’t be murdered in his sleep. Pah. We bumped into some people from the hostel randomly which was nice and starred in some Indian family photos, but knackered from the long day and the early start we took the crazy bus ride back to the car for the next leg of the journey to Ranthambore for a safari though the Indian jungle. Agra has been both amazing and eye opening, sheer opulence juxtaposed against utter poverty and chaos. I really love India, somehow I’m gaining weight – not losing it! The food is just too good not to take full advantage of, so let’s see what Rajasthan has to offer us next!
Signing out until Ranthambore!
SJ xx
SJ Adventures 