India 3 - Delhi and the Taj Mahal

Delhi, India - 17^th - 21st Oct 2011

Sham Nath Homestay, Delhi

Flew down to Delhi from Srinagar – its so cheap, quick and comfortable! Staying in a brilliant homestay called Sham Nath Villas in the Civil Lines near the old city next to a large park where they are so helpful and the food is home cooked and fantastic.

We are going to Agra for the day tomorrow on the tourist train to see the Taj Mahal.

Detail of the Day: Went to the Post Office today at Kashmere Gate - just the same as 25 years ago! Find the counter selling stamps, buy the stamps, go the glue pot and glue them to the post cards, find the counter to hand them in and then insist that they stamp them in front of you so that they do not take the stamps and re-sell them. Then take your parcel and get a customs slip to fill in and then take your parcel outside and get the men outside to sew it up in linen and seal it with sealing wax they heat up over a candle. Then take it back in and queue up to get it sent. It only took about 1.5 hours - not bad. It was a parcel with Katie's birthday present so we had to get it done.

Taj Mahal, Agra, India

What is that?

Taj

And so to Agra on 18 October. We got the 6.30 train, booked for us by our lovely hostess Shalini at Sham Nath Villas. Very comfortable AC including breakfast and papers. Arriving in Agra is a bit on the racy side if you are not being met or already on a tour. Touts are everywhere, however, we sharpened our elbows and got tto he front of the scrum at the pre-paid taxi stand and got a taxi to the Taj Mahal – some strange old bloke got in with us to see if he could get us to pay him as our guide, but we managed to off load him at the gates. 

There is a lovely walk up to the Taj itself with monkeys and gardens. We arrived nice and early before the main crowds and it really is a magnificent site, shimmering in the early morning sun, more immense than you can imagine, and then when you get up close the detail of workmanship and artistry is incredible. Behind is the Yamuna river, slow, stately, vast, and of course very sacred.

Fatepur Sikri, near Agra

Our car then took us to Fatepur Sikri – a city built by one of the Moghul emperors in the 17^th century as his new capital. It was abandoned after only ten years because the water supply failed. As a result it is in remarkably good condition – a huge number of buildings that show you how the rich lived their lives, rather comfortably you can tell!

All this necessitated a visit to a 5 star hotel (Clark's Shiraz)for some air con and tea, beer and sandwiches until it was time to go back to the station and await our train back to Delhi.

White Rabbit?

Agra station has all of Indian life on each and every platform. The Chai sellers who all went to the same voice coach “Chai Wallai” they call incessantly. The snack sellers – everything fried and wrapped in little twists of newspaper. The business men with their laptops and phones. Families on long journeys eating their food they have brought with them. The children who live on the station, running nimbly between platforms across the tracks with total confidence. They range in age from around 4 to perhaps 10 or 11. There is a strict pecking order dependant on size and fleet of foot, coupled with how much bravado they have. They collect anything that can be recycled or sold. Disputes that cannot be settled between them are taken to one of the traders, who listen with great seriousness and then pronounce their decision and everyone is satisfied. In between the serious business of making enough to eat, the children play chase and tease each other, laughing all the time, as children do everywhere. It's just that these children are filthy and dressed in rags, however they are part of their community and have their place in life. 

Agra Monkeys

 Then there are the old ladies who carefully select a spot on the platform for the night, sweeping the area and laying down a piece of plastic or cloth to lie on, chatting away to each other, completely ignoring the whirl of activity around them. Then they lie down with a little piece of cloth over them and make sure that each other are comfortable before dozing off, lying close to one another. Then, of course, there are the dogs on the platform and rats on the tracks, the rubbish and the smells – some good, some not so good. Of course everywhere there is the colour of saris and lights that dazzle and silence your conversation – until later when one of us may say to the other “Did you see …..” answered with “Yes” which pretty much sums up the sensory overload that is the railway. As my brother Pat would say 'Fantastic!'.

Arrived back in Delhi to the sanctuary of our Homestay and clean sheets – we are very privileged people.

We are now off to the deserts of Rajahstan