Incredible India: Monument of Love

We woke up on the first of January and set off to the Nizamudin railway station to take the 7 O'Clock Train to Agra. We had to take a connecting bus from the Delhi railway station to the Nizamudin station, we got into the bus. Since we were not sure of the point to get down, JK slowly started a conversation with a fellow passenger.

Views from the Train

As usual we were introduced as the university students and then it turns out that they guy we are speaking to is a anchor in NDTV. He was really helpful and was willing to give his number and wanted JK to give his number return. JK was in a dilemma since what he had was a Singapore roaming number and not a Sri Lankan number, although he introduced himself as a Sri Lankan. Somehow he blamed it on the handset and escapes.

Illusive Target destination named Taj Mahal

We reached the station on time, but we were told that train is delayed by 3 hours, so we didnt have an option but to buy news papers and sit on the ground and read up the paper from end to end. Anyway it was good to do a bit of catching up on current affairs after being totally disconnected with the rest of the world for 8 days.

Finally the train reaches the station and the scene unleashed, was something that could easily make into a classic Maniratnam movie, J re-unites with his lost love and his kid. It was sentimental, beautiful and touching. He was shy and not allowing us to take pictures.

Then the supposedly 3 hour train journey, takes more than 4 hours and guys wanted a way to kill time and the flirting sessions commence. I think I shouldn't write it here. FULL STOP.

We arrive at Agra and then the three wheeler drivers start dictating terms, it was annoying, we didn't know how long it would take from the station to Taj Mahal and after the first day experience we were suspicious whenever they approached us and tried to advice. Then we found that a three wheel was needed to reach there, so took one of them and arrived at the gate,to find that the queues were really long and it was already almost 3 PM and they do not allow people to get in after 5 PM. The black market tickets was a thriving business, since the ticket selling point was far away. We got 3 tickets, but then it was local tickets, yours truly was really worried about having local tickets and last thing we want to face was to be thrown out for not having foreigner ticket. I think my worrying got to the others and we decided to get the foreigner tickets, so the plan was for JK to get the tickets and come and for us to be in the queue till he comes.

Taj Mahal - Will it be the image we would miss?

It turns out to be an utter disaster, JK takes more than 20 mins to return (not his fault because the ticket counter has been a few kilo meters away), the non moving queue upto that point starts to move fast, we get almost close to the gate, we try to tell the people and wait till JK comes to get in, but then no one is in the mood to listen to us and we are eventually pushed out of the queue, I tried to explain to the policeman what happened, but it fell in deaf years. It was frustrating, we had gone all through this from morning and seemed as we would miss even a glimpse of seeing this monument.

Then we decide to try our last possible option, we walked upto the officer in-charge and explained to him, he was a nice man, asked us to meet him as soon as JK gets there with the tickets. Then by the time JK comes there, the officer is not longer there, so we got to the sides of the line, squeeze our self at the entry point, telling the shouting policemen that we got permission from the officer, before he could do much we already mixed in to the queue and sneaked into Taj Mahal!

Taj Mahal was even more majestic than what I expected it to be. We were there right at the sunset. It was beautiful, gigantic, memorable, BUT I wouldn't want to visit it again, unless I am forced to.

The pose

We come out of Taj Mahal and make it to the railway station and we are told that the train is delayed by 3 hours, we decide to wait, but then slowly we see the delay time starting to increase. We had our return flight in the morning, so had to go to Delhi somehow. So we decide to get a taxi, it costed atleast 50 times the train ticket price. But no option but we had to take a taxi. So once we got into the taxi we breathed a sigh of relief, we now got the belief that we would reach Delhi in time for the flight. But then hopes in India are short lived, as we have met another classic taxi driver again, every 15 mins he decided to take 15 mins naps. Now we started to edgy, we couldn't force a sleepy man to drive and in the same time we had to catch a flight. So we tried to pursue him to drive. Now every now and then he tried to find a reason to get parts of the final amount promised to him. Already we were suspicious of him and this got really annoying, since the agreement at the start was to pay the full amount on arrival. His English was very poor and tries to ask for 500 RS from us and ends up asking for 50,000 RS. We had to tell him to fly a kite, and then at one point we had to explain that we are not giving anything more till we get to the hotel. Finally we reach the hotel in time and get to the airport also on time. All of this being said the experience in India was unbelievable, looking back its so memorable!

Taj Mahal

The lesson learnt, if trying to see the monument of love is so painful, how painful will be/is love! :P

So finally we touch down and the next day I make it to office, where I am asked to take a vaccination and goto Africa within the next 4 days! Life is a journey!

Incredible India!(?)

After a memorable stay in Nepal,we set off to New Delhi. We arrived without a hotel booking, without a plan and without any idea on what to expect in India. The heading on the arrival form read as !ncredible India, so we picked up that clause on arrival and continue to use it till date ;) I think we will use it for the rest of the life time.

We had luckily written down a hotel phone number from the lonely planet site, so we called and checked whether if they have rooms, answer was positive, we were told that we can get there in 30 mins. We walked out of the air port and there we found a prepaid taxi booth, so we paid the amount and got into the taxi. Taxi pulled out of the air port and within 500 meters the driver stops it for fueling. While being in the queue of the fueling station, he opts to take an ablutions break in public, then returns to find vehicles stranded behind in the line and turns to them and abuses them. We were made to wonder which guy should be at the receiving end.

India Gate

After a 20 minute wait we re-start on the journey and we breathed a sigh of relief. The vehicle progressed for another 10 minutes very smoothly.Then there was a bit of traffic and he had to stop the vehicle. When the green light came on the vehicles started to move, but our taxi was left stranded. Driver got out and pretended as if he was trying to fix it, taxi was in the middle of the road and blocking all traffic, so all of us got down from the vehicle and pushed it to the side of the road. He continued to meddle with all the parts of the old vehicle while we were looking on helplessly kicking our heals in the middle of the road for the next hour, finally some luck dawned on us and the engine started. So we made progress and then all of a sudden he wanted to kick us out without finding the exact place. We made up our minds to stay in the vehicle till he drops us off at the exact address. I think it took a while for him to realize that we are their neighbors and we are good as them, when it comes to handling these gimmicks.

Birla Temple

Finally we reached the hotel. We checked in left the bags and took a walk to the nearby Delhi railway station, we wanted to book a ticket to Taj Mahal trip, the tourist ticket booking center was very helpful we got tickets booked to Agra for the 1st of January.

We went into a punjabi vegetarian eating place right opposite the station and had our dinner. It was different and we enjoyed it. Next we when to the hotel and spoke to them and got a day trip around Delhi organized. We got a much better taxi and a much better driver this time around. The plan was to go around and see the places of interest in Delhi.

Lotus Temple

Our trip included visits to Birla Temple, Lotus temple, India Gate ( The place where ppl usually stand infront of and take a pic to say I have been to Delhi :D) , Rashtrapathi bavan, and A drive upto the gate of the museum and then opted to skip it, since it was too expensive and we would only get to spend max one hour.

Anyway, two places in delhi will always be remembered for two different reasons, one is the Indra Gandhi's museum, her house has been converted into a museum. Whether you like her not, what we cannot deny is that she was indeed a strong character and this visit gave us a chance to get a peak in to her life.

Secondly the red fort, we never went into it, but blog is too public a place to publish the episode "What Happened at Red Fort?" :D

On the next episode it will be "!incredible India: Almost loosing the Symbol of eternal love"