It’s an early start this morning to catch the < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>
6.15 am train to Jaipur. At this time in the morning Delhi is largely traffic free and, unusually quiet. People are sleeping on the pavements; some on the floor, others on simple cots. One large traffic island is completely crowded with sleeping bodies. There is a cow alongside the central reservation, completely unperturbed by the traffic. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
The station is busy and chaotic when we arrive and we have had to pay the driver before we get to the station because he isn’t an official taxi and should apparently not be dropping off fare paying passengers. A porter is immediately on our case as soon as we get out of the car and unbelievably carries both our rucksacks, weighing around 30 kilos, on his head!
India has a very efficient on-line booking system for train tickets and once registered it is possible to book 10 rails journeys per month via the internet. It’s quite straightforward, if a little long-winded and it seems to work. There are some 5or 6 categories of seat from 1st class air conditioned sleepers to second class chairs. The latter being the cheapest class and the one used by most Indians. Sleepers and first and second class air con chairs have to be reserved in advance and it’s not possible to buy tickets for same day travel. Some of the routes, particularly the long-distance ones get booked up weeks in advance and the rail network is so busy that there is at tiered waiting list system for cancelled tickets. We had originally intended to go from Delhi to Varanasi overnight, but it was fully booked and would have meant spending another week in Delhi. So instead we have decided to go to Agra and then on to Rajasthan and perhaps we may get to Varanasi later.
The 2nd class air conditioned carriage is quite orderly and comfortable and amazingly given the price, ticket includes a reasonable breakfast served at your seat like an airline meal. It’s just over two hours to Agra and we arrive at 8.30am. We have to fend off numerous rickshaw drivers whilst we wait for the hotel pick up to arrive, which he does after a few minutes and once we have negotiated the heavy traffic around the station the route to the hotel is along wide, reasonably tidy and quiet streets. But by the time we reach our hotel the character of the place has changed. There are few cars in Agra but the streets are congested with other types of transport – pedal and auto-rickshaws, horse drawn carts and carriages, hand carts, donkeys, cows, camel carts, mopeds and bicycles – and it’s noisy, very noisy. Like Delhi those that have a horn like to use it … frequently.
The Maya Hotel and Restaurant isn’t geared up for early arrivals and we have to wait until 10.30 before we can register and get into our room. Registration is an interesting example of Indian bureaucracy – a register has to be completed with all manner of information about our passports, visas, how long we are staying in India, where we’ve travelled from and where we are going to, address, etc, etc. Then the same information has to be transferred onto a three-part duplicated form. Eventually formalities completed we can get into our room. The hotel doesn’t quite live up to the puff on it’s website – it could hardly be described as ‘magical’, but it does have a huge marble bed, a television (always a mixed blessing), a shower with hot and cold water (although it’s difficult to tell which is which from the temperature of the water) and a rather scruffy balcony.
Stepping out of the hotel onto the street invites unwelcome attention from several hawkers, beggars and rickshaw drivers all eager to part you from your money. We are swiftly adopted by a rickshaw driver who 20 rupees will take us to a restaurant we have identified in Lonely Planet . He is still waiting for us when we emerge about an hour later and before we know it we have Hero for the rest of the day and as it turns out, for the rest of our stay in Agra. Somewhere between Agra Fort and the Baby Taj, his friend, Salim, is co-opted to help out and we have two drivers – for the same price, naturally. But Hero is a wily old bird, he’s letting us decide how much we want to pay him, knowing full well we suspect, that we will pay him well over the going rate (which is so low as to be embarrassing). Also as the day progresses it becomes apparent that he will supplement any income he gets from us, with commission he picks up along the way from restaurants and shops we visit.
Agra Fort is probably more impressive than the Red Fort in Delhi in terms of overall size and the extent of the palace complex. Situated on the bank of the Yamuna River with a splendid view of the Taj Mahal in the distance, it was begun by Emperor Akbar, the first of the Moghul emperors, 8in 1565 and further added to , particularly by his grandson, Shah Jahan, who transformed it into a beautifully ornamented palace, in which he was later to be imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb. The fort is enclosed by colossal walls 20 metres high and 2.5km in circumference. It contains a labyrinth of interlinked buildings many built in marble intricately inlaid with semi-precious stones – all in remarkably good condition – a central garden and water features. Apparently there is a massive underground complex as well, which is not open to the public.
Across the Yamuna is Itimad-Ud-Daulah – also known as the Baby Taj – the tomb of Persian nobleman Mizra Ghiyas Beg. It was the first Mughal building to be constructed entirely of marble. It is extensively decorated with delicate pietra dura – inlayed semi-precious stones. A forerunner of the Taj Mahal but on a smaller scale, it is a stunningly beautiful building , remarkably preserved to say that it was built between 1622 and 1628.
Our final destination is to a spot on the east bank of the Yamuna River for a view of the back of the Taj Mahal. This is supposed to be a good vantage point at sunset, but we arrive here far too early and in any case there is far too much cloud. Unfortunately a razor wire fence recently been erected protected by an armed guard prevents visitors from walking along the river bank to get a square on view of the Taj in all its symmetrical glory. A blatantly commercial decision designed to encourage tourists to cough up the entrance fee to the gardens directly opposite the Taj and one that must make life difficult for local villagers who earn a living along the river.