A Very Long Day and Goodbye India

My penultimate day in India starts with an annoyingly early wake up. The group has been told to be at reception for a 4:30am leave time, so we can get to the Taj Mahal early to avoid crowds and see the sunrise. The group gets to the entry and waits, while Anuj goes and gets our tickets. When we first get there we are only the second group in the queue which is no surprise as the place is yet to open. When opening time rolls around the queue is massive with many people pushing and arguing.

Although security is stricter than some of the airports I’ve been through, getting us there early allows the group to see the grounds almost completely empty. Anuj suggests we go into the monument first rather than taking pictures from the outside like most people as it gets absolutely chocker-block inside. I have to be honest, I am of the belief that the Taj Mahal is better from a distance, for example from the Moonlight Garden we visited yesterday. My reasoning for this is that I personally felt that to fully understand and appreciate the majesty of this amazing cultural, religious and possibly biggest display of romance in the world, one has to be able to stand back and view it in all its glory – understanding its grandeur on a scale that you can’t do when up close.

I am not suggesting if you find yourself in Agra to not go to the Taj. There are many intricate details that you miss from afar and can appreciate up close. Whether this be the inscriptions in the marble, the use of different coloured stones inside that react to light, or the complete symmetrical nature of the monument – bar the second grave that is off centre, due to the Shah Jahan demanding to be laid to rest next to the centred grave of his second wife, who the monument was built to house. However, I would definitely suggest doing yourself a favour and taking the time to appreciate the monument as a whole from a distance, the moonlight gardens being a great place to do so from. It is also less busy and I find an absence of people always appreciated when trying to comprehend something breathtaking.

After the Taj the group is back to the hotel for our final breakfast together as a group. Although not a breakfast person usually, having woken up at around 4, I find myself hungry by the time we are eating. Then we are on the bus heading to the train station, luckily this is a different to the one we arrived at to Agra yesterday, as that was incredibly busy and had a rather aggressive and pushy air to it. On the other hand after being brought to a nice air conditioned lounge waiting room Anuj informs the group that the train is delayed for a minimum of three hours, maybe the other station wasn’t so bad after all! This is the group’s first real interaction with IST, Indian Standard Time/Indian Stretchable Time. So we all sit down and get ready for a wait. I start writing a blog to pass the time. Before I am able to get to the second paragraph Stu and Anuj have worked their magic and have secured a private bus to take us back to Delhi instead of the train.

A glimpse of paradise
(click on the top right hand icon)

It is a pleasant journey. After originally loading back onto the bus we had been on throughout our time in Agra, we swap into an even more comfortable bus for the trip but nevertheless keeping our driver – poor man, he only signed up to drive us to the train station this morning. The drive is quite long but comfortable and we get to Delhi in good time, arriving at about the same time the train would have arrived. The group has some down time waiting for Nikhil, who had skipped Agra and come straight to Delhi as he was preparing to pick up some people for his next tour; his first one as a solo guide! He is planning on taking us on a food tour so we can taste some delicacies as well as learning more about the food culture and history of Delhi.

So at 4pm the group eagerly get back on the bus to head into Delhi and then we hit traffic. Lots and lots of traffic. After about an hour and a half bellies are rumbling having not had a chance for lunch, and spirits are lowering. We eventually decide to walk, and discover a road has been closed causing the stand still traffic and don’t know when it will re-open. We pass the police barriers and start walking along the road. I ask Nik what is going on, I assume it is a protest of sorts due to it seemingly being a surprise to everyone, Nik says probably, this area of Delhi has lots of universities so student protests aren’t that uncommon. As the group hurriedly makes its way further down the road the groups of people are getting bigger and bigger and things are getting equally exciting and scary. Once the group is passed by a regiment of police armed with batons and gas cylinder firing guns, Stu and the guides decide to call it quits on the food tour. They suggest we head back to Hooters restaurant, where we had our welcome meal, for a final goodbye dinner. Something the group, who are increasingly hungry and worried, quickly agree to. Turns out that it wasn’t a protest but a celebration by a sect of local Muslims, Anuj tells us once we are clear of the crowds.

To be honest as excited to go on a food tour as I was, Hooters is easily in the top 3 places we have eaten in India, so I am more than happy to be back here – the trip has come full circle! Stu and I sit opposite each other and as well as the buffet ordered, we add a couple things for ourselves. Once the others start handing their dishes down to be finished, we end up with a gigantic amount of food in front of us – in other words I’m in heaven! After the meal Holly and I have to take a de-tour as, unlike the others, we were unable to find a working ATM before dinner. It was not the most pleasant of experiences. First the tuk-tuk driver stops across a main road from the ATM meaning we have to cross a busy road, not an easy thing to do in Delhi. After he pulls up two blocks away from our hotel and refuses to take us to it. When I get out a 500 rupees note (all the ATMs ever seem to give) he claims to have no change, insisting upon this even after pulling out a fat wad of smaller notes as if this is some how proof of a lack of change. In order to break up my 500 I try the hotel across the road, that isn’t where we are staying, who will only help if I am willing to book a room. They do direct me to a shop around the corner who go out of their way to ignore me, insisting on serving everyone who comes up to the store first, before handing me any change. Finally I get back to the tuk-tuk and a relieved Holly, who from her perspective, has just seen me dip around a corner into a back alley on the instruction of a stranger and then not come back for 5 minutes. I hand over a 100 rupee note, the amount Anuj agreed in front of both me and Holly that we would pay this driver, but it is met with a shake of the head and an insistence that we owe him 150 even if he is dropping us of two blocks away from the right hotel. After trying to argue I finally give up realising it is the equivalent of 50p but still a piss take!

Finally we get back to the hotel to find Anuj waiting for us out front. After getting confirmation I was right about it only being 100 rupees that was agreed upon, even if only for my own validation at this point. We head up to the restaurant at the top of the hotel to meet the others. We have got together to say our goodbyes to Anuj as he's heading off for a flight, and to play our final game of Chase the Ace. After a relatively quick game and another batch of goodbyes to Holly, whose flight is early in the morning before any of the rest of us will be up, we all head to bed. Stu and I are in the same room we were in on the day the tour started.

My final morning in India starts with me joining Tia in Rachel and Wills room before being joined by Esra and heading upstairs for breakfast. Stu joins us in time to say goodbye to Will and Rachel who need to get in their Uber to the airport. The rest of us check out later at 11am. Stu heads straight for the airport so he can get some work done before his flight. My flight isn’t until 11pm so I cheekily jump in the car with Tia and Esra. Tia has booked another night in a different hotel and Esra is planning on booking a room as well, so I’ve asked if I could drop my bags there and join them on the day trip Nik has kindly offered to take them on. Once the bags are dropped Nik takes us to the National Museum in Delhi. It is massive and full of great stuff. We see an exhibition on the growth of Buddhism throughout India’s history, femininity and the representation of women in art through India’s history, a naval exhibit as well as an exhibit on early civilisations in the area, and much more. We walk and wander until we are all hungry and Nik takes us for what will be my final curry in India for this trip. While we eat I notice a local book vendor selling on the street below and Nik suggests I get the book ‘The White Tiger’ and I do!

Afterwards we say goodbye to Nik and head back to the women’s hotel, they kindly keep me company as I have about an hour or two before my car arrives to pick me up for the airport. In the hour running up to my pick up I panic a bit when the assigned driver is changed about 10 times in the space of 5 minutes so I cancel and arrange for a car through the hotel. When I finally get to the airport, check in and security are very busy, not helped by the fact that that the woman checking me in seems dumbfounded by a British passport. I have a suspicion she has never seen one before. I am then annoyed even more when I find out that a cuppa in the airport costs 255 rupees and, you guessed it, I only have 250 on me in left over cash. But even with these minor annoyances I have still had an amazing experience in India – a country with an amazing history and culture not to mention my favourite food of all time. I would recommend to anyone thinking about it to go, but if you are a woman, I wouldn’t suggest travelling alone. Although I am sure many mean well, it is intimidating when Indian men, sometimes quite aggressively, insist on talking to, photographing or filming you.

Anyway onto my next adventure – Hong Kong and China here I come.

P.S. I am going to do my best to keep posting while in mainland China for a month but may come into issues due to the great firewall so please be patient. Much love!