WARNING: This is an extremely long blog entry!! There was a lot that happened during this weekend and I didn't want to cut the story short as every little bit adds to the drama. Feel free to skip ahead if you get bored.
This weekend I traveled to Delhi and Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. While seeing the Taj was great, the process of getting there and back was extremely painful! We were scheduled to fly to Delhi on Friday night, take an express train from Delhi to Agra on Saturday morning, take an express train back to Delhi on Sunday morning, and then fly to Hyderabad on Sunday night.
This weekend I traveled to Delhi and Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. While seeing the Taj was great, the process of getting there and back was extremely painful! We were scheduled to fly to Delhi on Friday night, take an express train from Delhi to Agra on Saturday morning, take an express train back to Delhi on Sunday morning, and then fly to Hyderabad on Sunday night.
The travel challenges started on Friday morning, when we (my co-worker Conny and I) found out that our return flight on Sunday night had been cancelled. I was in meetings all day Friday so Conny had to unfortunately do all of the work in finding us a return flight. Thankfully, she managed to pull it off before we left the office at 3:30 pm on Friday. We did not have a chance to confirm our hotel request before we left, but it didn't seem like that was going to be an issue since Conny had spoken to someone at the hotel and they said they had rooms available on Sunday night. So, we headed off to the airport, excited to start the weekend. As flights are always delayed in India, it was no surprise that we arrived in Delhi about 1-1.5 hours later than planned. We had dinner at the Intercontinental and then turned in afterwards, as we had an early start the next day.
The next morning we headed out for our 6:50 am train to Agra. When we arrived at the train station, someone standing in front of the entrance informed us that our e-tickets were not valid. He told us that we had to go across the street to the International Tourist Office and get paper tickets. Although we were skeptical about this, we followed him across the street (while weaving between both parked and moving vehicles) to the tourist office. Upon speaking with the tourist office, we were able to confirm that our e-tickets were valid. So, we then trekked back across the street (rolling our luggage behind us through the cars) to the train station. Fortunately, our train was only 30 minutes late. We boarded the train and arrived in Agra without further incident.
Little did we know what was ahead of us. A few weeks before our trip, another co-worker visited Agra. He recommended a car service that he had used during his trip. When this co-worker heard that Conny and I were going to Agra, he offered to help arrange our car service and tour guide. We were appreciative of this and quickly told him "yes." When we arrived in Agra, our driver was waiting at the exit with our names on a sign (I love this!). We identified ourselves and then followed him to the car. Our first look at the car was a shock - not only was our "A/C luxury car" a dump on the outside, we quickly found that it was a dump on the inside as well. Every time we got in and out of the car, the seats released dust into the air. In addition to that, the floor was covered with this ratty rug that smelled funny and looked like it was a germ fest. To top it off, we soon realized that the A/C didn't work and one of the doors didn't open from the inside. Driving around without A/C when it was over 100 degrees outside was not pleasant!!
The next morning we headed out for our 6:50 am train to Agra. When we arrived at the train station, someone standing in front of the entrance informed us that our e-tickets were not valid. He told us that we had to go across the street to the International Tourist Office and get paper tickets. Although we were skeptical about this, we followed him across the street (while weaving between both parked and moving vehicles) to the tourist office. Upon speaking with the tourist office, we were able to confirm that our e-tickets were valid. So, we then trekked back across the street (rolling our luggage behind us through the cars) to the train station. Fortunately, our train was only 30 minutes late. We boarded the train and arrived in Agra without further incident.
Little did we know what was ahead of us. A few weeks before our trip, another co-worker visited Agra. He recommended a car service that he had used during his trip. When this co-worker heard that Conny and I were going to Agra, he offered to help arrange our car service and tour guide. We were appreciative of this and quickly told him "yes." When we arrived in Agra, our driver was waiting at the exit with our names on a sign (I love this!). We identified ourselves and then followed him to the car. Our first look at the car was a shock - not only was our "A/C luxury car" a dump on the outside, we quickly found that it was a dump on the inside as well. Every time we got in and out of the car, the seats released dust into the air. In addition to that, the floor was covered with this ratty rug that smelled funny and looked like it was a germ fest. To top it off, we soon realized that the A/C didn't work and one of the doors didn't open from the inside. Driving around without A/C when it was over 100 degrees outside was not pleasant!!
OK, fine. The car was not what we would have liked. I quickly moved past that as we left the train station for the Taj Mahal. When we arrived at the Taj, I managed to get in with a local Indian ticket (only 20 rupees, or approximately 50 cents). I pulled this off only because I separated from Conny, was dressed in traditional Indian attire, and didn't say a word to anyone. As I am such a goody two-shoes (well, most of the time =P), I was very nervous when handing over my ticket at the entrance. They gave me a few questioning looks but I avoided making eye contact and continued to keep my mouth shut, so I managed to make it through. I stayed a few paces behind Conny and our tour guide as we approached the Taj, since the tour guide informed me that I could be asked to show my Foreign Tourist/Non-Resident Indian (NRI) ticket at any point. Being seen with a non-Indian or a tour guide is generally a dead giveaway to security. As the NRI ticket was 750 rupees or about $17.50 (which is what Conny paid), I listened to what he said. I would have gladly paid $20 or even $50 to see the Taj, but it was more about the principle at that point (I am Indian, so why should I pay the non-Indian price?).
When Conny and I got our first glimpse of the Taj, we went a little crazy with the camera. Both of us were obsessed with getting as few people as possible in our photos, so we often had to wait for a great shot. After about 15 minutes, we finished taking pictures at the entrance and were ready to start walking towards the Taj. Unfortunately, we could not find our tour guide anywhere. We looked for about 5 minutes and then figured that he was probably waiting ahead for us, since we had taken so long with the photos. We walked towards the Taj at a leisurely pace, taking a million more photos along the way (I managed to take 50 photos of the Taj that day - many that look exactly the same now that I look at them but somehow they all seemed different in the moment).
When we arrived at the foot of the Taj, it finally sunk in that we were on our own. Our guide had not appeared and it was pretty obvious that he was not going to. We left our shoes at the check-in area and then walked up the small set of stairs to the platform level of the Taj. Surprisingly, I remembered certain parts of the Taj in great detail from my last visit (back in 1986).
We managed to spend about 1.5 hours walking around the Taj, taking photos, and visiting the small museum that contained architectural sketches of the Taj. When we finished and were exiting the Taj, our tour guide magically showed up. When we asked him where he went, he explained that security had not allowed him to enter the Taj area as he had forgotten his tour guide papers. He had his tour guide ID on him though, so this seemed really suspicious. He also mentioned that he left the required papers in the car. Conny and I couldn't figure out why he hadn't gone back to get his papers and come back to find us. As he didn't pay any entrance fee due to his tour guide card, it seemed mighty convenient that he wasn't able to give us a tour of the Taj Mahal.
When we got back into the car it was like a sauna. It's pretty sad when it is hotter inside of your car than outside! We asked the driver to turn on the A/C but all we got was extremely warm air, so he ended up turning it off and opening the windows.
Fortunately, our next destination (the Agra Fort) was not far away. When we arrived, our tour guide said that he was not going to come in with us as there wasn't much to see inside the fort. Since our tour guide wasn't with us, I decided to try to buy the local ticket again. I sent Conny ahead and tried to hang back with the crowds (to try and blend in). Again, I managed to get in successfully as I didn't say a word. When we entered the fort, we noticed that most other tourists had guides. As we wandered around, we quickly realized why - it was impossible to tell what each building was without a guide. We did the best we could but didn't last long, partially due to the fact that we didn't know what we were seeing and partially because it was unbearably hot at this point. After about an hour, we trekked back to the car. We decided to go to the hotel to check in (and cool off) before hitting the road again.
After checking in and eating lunch at the Sheraton (very nice!), we informed the driver that we wanted to go to Fatephur Sikri, the short-lived capital of the Mughal empire. It was around 2:30 pm at this point and Fatephur Sikri was about 40 kilometers away. The driver told us that it was too late in the day to go all the way out there, as it generally takes about 1.5 hours to get there, 1.5 hours to see it, and 1.5 hours to get back. We definitely wanted to see the Taj at sunset, so we didn't protest. The driver then informed us that he could take us to this great place where we could see how they made rugs in the old days. We arrived, only to find that it was one of those demonstration places that also (conveniently) sells finished products. The salesman kept trying to hit on me in Hindi (even though I informed him that I didn't speak Hindi), so the visit seemed to take forever. We finally managed to escape and headed to a couple of smaller, less-popular monuments. During the rest of the afternoon, our driver managed to take us to 2-3 more places like the rug place (one place demonstrated how marble inlay is made and the other sold some kind of precious stones used in the Taj inlay).
Our final stop before seeing the Taj at sunset was a visit to Itimad-Ud-Daulah, which has been nicknamed "Baby Taj" as it has many of the design elements that were further developed in the Taj Mahal. For those of you who've read "The Twentieth Wife," this is the tomb Nur Jahan built for her father, Mizra Ghiyas Beg. As I had managed to get away with a local ticket at both the Taj and the Agra Fort, I decided to try again at this monument. Unfortunately, there was no crowd here and the ticket collectors (they had about 5-7 men standing around at the entrance doing nothing) didn't buy my act. They asked me where I was from and I gave them the answer my mom told me to give. One guy was convinced but the rest weren't, so I was forced to go back and buy the NRI ticket (110 rupees vs. 10 rupees for the local visitor). As I walked back to the ticket counter, my tour guide informed me that these men, who probably couldn't read and write Hindi, were somehow very good at picking out the NRIs.
Our final stop before seeing the Taj at sunset was a visit to Itimad-Ud-Daulah, which has been nicknamed "Baby Taj" as it has many of the design elements that were further developed in the Taj Mahal. For those of you who've read "The Twentieth Wife," this is the tomb Nur Jahan built for her father, Mizra Ghiyas Beg. As I had managed to get away with a local ticket at both the Taj and the Agra Fort, I decided to try again at this monument. Unfortunately, there was no crowd here and the ticket collectors (they had about 5-7 men standing around at the entrance doing nothing) didn't buy my act. They asked me where I was from and I gave them the answer my mom told me to give. One guy was convinced but the rest weren't, so I was forced to go back and buy the NRI ticket (110 rupees vs. 10 rupees for the local visitor). As I walked back to the ticket counter, my tour guide informed me that these men, who probably couldn't read and write Hindi, were somehow very good at picking out the NRIs.
After stopping at one or two more places, we headed back to the Taj to see it at sunset. Our tour guide managed to redeem himself a tiny bit by taking us to a great park across the Taj (on the other side of the river). From there, we were able to get a view of the Taj, including a full reflection of the Taj in the river. Unfortunately, my camera died when visiting Baby Taj. As a result, I had to ask Conny to take all of my pictures for me. Although we thought we took some great photos by the river, we found out later that most of them were not clear =(.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, as we made one or two more stops and then headed back to the hotel for dinner, a shower, and sleep. We gave both our tour guide and driver a poor tip due to the crappy car and crappy service (well, I thought it was a bad tip but Conny said that we over-tipped - afterwards I realized that she was right).
So that wass the end of day one. Sadly, there was still more drama to come. On Sunday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our return train back to Delhi. We checked out and got to the train station without mishap. We walked to the assigned platform to wait for our train. Our train time came and went, with no train in sight. Conny decided to go ask about our train while I waited with the luggage. She was gone for quite a long time. While I waited, I was attacked by swarms of flies on the platform (I kept my mouth tightly shut the entire time!). While fending off the flies, I saw some interesting things - trains overflowing with people, people taking a shower in the water leaking from some pipes, etc.
When Conny returned, she informed me that our train had been delayed by 8 hours (!!). We decided to head back to the hotel to see what our options were. In the end, we decided to catch our train at the delayed time of 4 pm and use the day to go see Fatephur Sikri, which we did not have time to see on Saturday. We rented a car from the hotel this time (much better!) and headed out. We enjoyed our visit to Fatephur Sikri and then headed to Akbar's tomb, which we also hadn't had a chance to see the day before. On the way to the tomb, we unfortunately got a flat tire. While our driver changed the tire, Conny and I entertained ourselves by taking pictures of the countryside. 10 minutes later we were back on the road. We saw the tomb and got back to the hotel right on time. We picked up our bags and then left for the train station.
When we arrived at the train station, we found out that our train had been delayed by ANOTHER 5 hours. As it would cost us over $200 to drive back to Delhi, we decided to try buying a ticket on another train. Our driver came with us to the ticket counter at the train station. Although we wanted to buy an assigned seat in the A/C compartment (which is what we had coming to Agra), our driver assured us that we could buy a general ticket and then bribe the ticket taker on the train for an upgrade to the A/C compartment. Stupidly, we listened to him.
As we had over an hour before the next train to Delhi arrived, we decided to head back to the hotel again. We had a couple of drinks and laughed about all of the challenges we faced over the weekend. Just before we had to leave for the train station, Conny remembered that we should check on our room reservation for that night in Delhi. Since the reservation was supposed to be under my name, I went to check my e-mail. As there was no reservation confirmation in my inbox, I quickly started searching for available rooms at other hotels. Unfortunately, many hotels were sold out at the lower rates. As we didn't have time to research further, we kept a mental list of which hotels had rooms and at what rates.
Our train arrived about 45 minutes late. We managed to get on board but had some difficulty navigating the aisles as the train was extremely packed. I got our general boarding and the bribe out and ready. I had questioned our driver on the exact way to bribe the ticket taker so I was ready to go. Unfortunately, we had some trouble finding the ticket taker. Finally he showed up. I made my way over to him and did exactly as the driver said. Unfortunately, when I asked the ticket taker about giving us A/C seats, he said "no" and quickly moved on. I looked at Conny at that point, unsure about what to do. We figured we would wait for some of the traffic in the aisles to die down and then we would go look for seats. At this point, the train had already taken off (so we were stuck on this train, whether we liked it or not).
As we had over an hour before the next train to Delhi arrived, we decided to head back to the hotel again. We had a couple of drinks and laughed about all of the challenges we faced over the weekend. Just before we had to leave for the train station, Conny remembered that we should check on our room reservation for that night in Delhi. Since the reservation was supposed to be under my name, I went to check my e-mail. As there was no reservation confirmation in my inbox, I quickly started searching for available rooms at other hotels. Unfortunately, many hotels were sold out at the lower rates. As we didn't have time to research further, we kept a mental list of which hotels had rooms and at what rates.
Our train arrived about 45 minutes late. We managed to get on board but had some difficulty navigating the aisles as the train was extremely packed. I got our general boarding and the bribe out and ready. I had questioned our driver on the exact way to bribe the ticket taker so I was ready to go. Unfortunately, we had some trouble finding the ticket taker. Finally he showed up. I made my way over to him and did exactly as the driver said. Unfortunately, when I asked the ticket taker about giving us A/C seats, he said "no" and quickly moved on. I looked at Conny at that point, unsure about what to do. We figured we would wait for some of the traffic in the aisles to die down and then we would go look for seats. At this point, the train had already taken off (so we were stuck on this train, whether we liked it or not).
After further exploring the compartments on both sides of us, we realized that we were screwed. There were no seats anywhere, not even in the non-A/C compartments (by that time those compartments were ridiculously packed with people). So, in the end, we ended up having to stand in the aisle the ENTIRE train ride back to Delhi (for about 4 hours). Some of the other tourists in the A/C compartment were nice enough to let us lean on their chairs or sit on their armrests for a little while. Even though that was the case, it was a very long and painful 4 hours! The worst part about it was that a little girl sitting in the row next to where I was standing accidentally peed in her pants while playing in the aisle. We only noticed as a small puddle of pee suddenly appeared. The parents didn't put a newspaper or tissue over the pee to soak it up; instead, they just left it there and continued on as if nothing had happened. As I was paranoid about the pee entering my standing zone, I kept one eye on the pee for the entire last hour of the ride. The last 30 minutes were touch and go as the pee started rolling towards me. Fortunately, we arrived in Delhi when the pee was about 6 inches away from my foot. I was very thankful for this!
There were a few minor hiccups at the hotel, but nothing too serious. Conny and I ended up having to share a room since the only rooms they had left were going for $425 per night + tax (not something that we could individually expense and get away with). We slept like babies that night and managed to get back the next morning only 1-1.5 hours behind schedule. When we arrived at work around 11 am, we had lots of stories about the weekend to share with our co-workers!
There were a few minor hiccups at the hotel, but nothing too serious. Conny and I ended up having to share a room since the only rooms they had left were going for $425 per night + tax (not something that we could individually expense and get away with). We slept like babies that night and managed to get back the next morning only 1-1.5 hours behind schedule. When we arrived at work around 11 am, we had lots of stories about the weekend to share with our co-workers!
Our final stop was the cafeteria, which is located on the ground floor of my building (Block D). The cafeteria is always packed during lunchtime, as most people eat on-site every day. The food is of decent quality and amazingly cheap. The combo meal, which is the most expensive item on the menu as it includes a cup of soup, pasta, a side of veggies, and a piece of garlic bread, costs only 45 rupees (~$1)! 
