Taj, Taj, Taji

I woke up nice and early with great anticipation to go and see the Taj. I packed up my stuff and headed downstairs to check out of our hotel. We didn’t have time for breakfast as our guide had arranged to meet us early. We get to the
gates and our driver announces that he cannot drive us any further but to meet the tour guide outside. We get out and the guide tells us to get on this small auto rickshaw and pay him 1050 rupees which would cover our entrance to the Taj and the Agra fort. We don’t know why but we think it’s going to be a long ride. Nope, we could have walked. Nothing is really mentioned to us except move here and go there and we’re all getting a bit irritated. We get to the admission gates and the guide is splitting us all up. Telling the women to go in one lane, Chris has to go into another, and Immam another line. We were in the foreigner line and got the front instantly. They check our bags and do a body pat down. Chrissy, Chris, and I get through but there’s some hold up with Immam and we see a small verbal altercation. Safia goes with Immam and so does the guide. We decided to wait right there for them. Chris and Chrissy notice someone in the local line up, an Indian man secretly taking pictures of them. They announced to him that it’s ok, and that he could take a picture of us (well them) together, ha ha. He takes his snap and is quite pleased with it. Immam and Safia finally reach us and it was a disagreement about fees, and that even though they are from a SAARC country, they have to pay more then an Indian local which isn’t true. Safia works for the embassy as a diplomat type and they asked the Indian official for his name which he refused to give. Not a good display of how SAARC should work between the countries. Anyways, we continue onto the front gates of the Taj to see that we are with another group. No one mentioned this to us but that’s fine. The guide however I can barely understand. He sounds like he’s got marbles in his mouth, his pronunciation is terrible, and the worst thing is, I can’t catch on to the history of what is going on. I quickly realized that it wasn’t just me, the rest of the group couldn’t understand him. Ah we think, another crappy tour guide. We get into the Taj Mahal and instantly we’re all taking pictures and the guides shouting to us to stay together. He mentions a few incoherent sentences about the Taj Mahal and gives us 1 hour to take pics, explore the place and to meet back up in the front. Like children we run off to take pics of each other, all of us as a group and to go and explore. This was Immam’s 3^rd time and Safia’s first time so they knew what was going on a lot more then we did. I was a bit unimpressed. I thought inside of the Taj we would be able to see some of the labyrinths and rooms set up but you only get to see one room which is the fake burial tomb of the King’s wife. It was interesting to know how the King was Muslim in faith and how Hindus and Muslims co-existed at that time. How could all these people get along hundreds of years ago and now everything is at war? We knew we had run out of time but decided we needed to take a quick walk around the Taj’s museum. We were about 15 minutes later to meet the tour group but the guide didn’t seem to mind. We left the front gates and were BOMBARDED with children and men selling things. It was super annoying. Safia and I were trying to have a conversation and people are shoving souvenirs in our faces as we walk and ignore them. You can really loose your patience quickly because these people obviously don’t respect your personal space. We were all fed up of days and days of this happening, every where we went. I know this is a part of India but it’s not a pleasant experience.

We took another tuk tuk to our next stop the Agra Fort. Immam mentioned he had paid 50 rupees to the driver and I didn’t understand why because all these “fees” should have been included in our original tour fees. We approach the ticket office of the fort and Chrissy and Chris realize the prices were a bit off and inquired with our tour guide. I mean, we know all these guys are running scams and getting paid off on the side and it’s gotten to the point that we were all fed up. I love these Brits. Infront of the entire tour group mixed with local Indians they start shouting about the difference in fees and demand money back. The tour guide kept ignoring them but finally gave them 100 rupees. The locals mentioned to us that yes it does seem like they are ripping us off. We begin the tour of the Agra fort and again, none of understand what this guy is saying. All he can talk about is the lotus flower being a Hindu symbol, elephant engravings, how muslims made arches with their architecture, and then hit repeat. He seemed to know nothing about any of these place and making things up. Chris would ask him questions and he wouldn’t answer them properly mentioning we needed to move on. What a garbage tour. These guys are all scam artists. Better to watch BBC clips on these monuments and come prepared knowing the real stories yourselves. We pretty much ignored our tour guide and would stand next to other tour groups to hear what their guides had to say. We left the fort a bit disgruntled and looked for our driver Beiju. He took us to where we were going to eat lunch. We walked in and negotiating a deal for a fresh buffet lunch to be prepared for us. Instead of 400 some odd rupees we got it for 350 including 2 meat dishes, a few veggie dishes, tea and coffee. We were quite proud of our negotiating abilities by then. We ate a lovely buffet of paneer, chicken curry, tandoori chicken, mint chutney, dhaal, rice, garlic naan, and veg sabzi. After lunch we headed back into the van and Beiju drove us back to Delhi. He drove like an old man. The highway’s speed limit was 100 km/hr and he decided 70 km/hr was good enough for him. When we questioned him on what he was doing and why he was going so slow. He said well it’s a big highway and animals can cross at any time. What?! Animals can cross at anytime on any road but he didn’t have a problem with that before. Then I noticed him closing his eyes and had to hit him to wake up. We got to a rest stop to have a break. Chris ordered some chai for 20 rupees, I think it came to 23 rupees with tax. Instead of giving him his change back, the cashier gave him a mini chocolate bar. I didn’t realize what was happening until I saw Chris and Chrissy arguing with him ha ha. Beiju the driver told me to get his change back. I went to the cashier and in Hindi told him to give him his 5 rupee change back, he doesn’t want the chocolate bar. The cashier immediately gave it back to him. I feel bad because it’s so stupid how Indians keep short changing people, not giving them what they asked for, and then you need someone who speaks the language to help out. A bit ridiculous. We get into Delhi and traffic is madness but now Beiju is trying to drive 80km/hr, WHAT?! We all look at each other and I said to him, what are you doing? Now you’re doing fast but before when the road was clear and open you weren’t? He said cause Delhi is his city that he can drive that fast in between traffic. There were a few close calls with us almost crashing but he’s a pretty good driver and knows exactly how big his car is. I’m assuming it’s pretty easy to get a driver’s license in India since it pretty much is everything goes. Just don’t hit a cow and you’re good. Chris, Chrissy and I decided to stay in the same hotel that night out of convenience of keeping together. Immam and Safia we said good bye to at the tourist office and headed on our way. We stopped into the Hop on Hop off bus tour company only to find out that Mondays no buses run cause the monuments are closed. We decided to walk to the hotel. Oh my my. Carrying about 55lbs of weight for what felt like an hour is a difficult task, especially on your shoulders, haha. We checked in, browsed the internet a bit, and headed out to look for some dinner. We found a hole in wall restaurant that had the cheapest prices I had ever seen. 10 rupees for chai, 20 rupees for lime soda, 45 rupees for veg biryani. My meal came up to $1.00 exactly. We had to sit through women across the street screaming from the top of their lungs some satsung songs. They both asked me what it was so I explained what was going on in the best of my ability but I’ll be honest, it wasn’t such a pleasant melody. We left the restaurant and decided to seek out a bar to have a drink. We searched and found some bars but decided let’s grab a beer and have it on the roof top of our hotel. When we reached to the liquor store is was swarming with drunk men ordering alcohol. It was like a fire or going out of business sale. It seemed like we were at the horse races and people were feverishly bidding on a horse, ha ha. But, wow, Indian men I guess do love their drink ha ha. They were pulling their gin out of the boxes, dumping the boxes on the street and drinking straight out of the bottle. Chris ordered and paid for the beers and carried them so it didn’t look like the “girls were involved”. Super cheap for a 750 mL bottle of King Fisher beer was 90 rupees. We headed back, shared some convo, finished our beverages and then headed to bed.

GALLERY PICS OF TAJ MAHAL