No Agro in Agra - home of the Taj Mahal

Probably my favourite view of the Taj away from the crowds - shame it was getting cleaned at the time

I arrived in Agra tired, but still elated from the previous evenings England win in the cricket. I had to change planes in Delhi, but the connecting plane did not make the short hop to Agra direct, it flew 100s of km East to Varanasi, landed, most of the passengers got off and a new set boarded, before heading back in the opposite direction to Agra.

I got talking to a French lady who was staying on the plane until the 3rd drop. She was telling me that she gets invited to Khajuraho each year for her birthday (she will be 88 this year). Around 20 years back she visited India alone and a young Indian lad of about 17 years drove her around and helped her with her bags for a week. She paid the young boy $250 for his help. This was a fantastic amount of money back then and the young boy invested it wisely in land and now has a hotel which he named after her, Hotel Isabella. He also named his only daughter Isabelle. That lady got so much pleasure in telling me the story, and while it may seem an extraordinary amount of money to give, in terms of pleasure it has given her, it must have been an incredible investment.

Agra airport is a military airport and transfer options were limited. I meet up with a very pleasant girl from Taiwan and after some strong negotiation managed to get the 900 rupee fare down to 500 which we split.

I was staying in a homestay away from the mass of tourists, and the people were extremely friendly. They had four rooms which they let out cheaply and was a great option to stay in Agra.

This evening was the eagerly awaited big cricket match between India and Pakistan, often a fiercely competitive contest. I went to a local bar packed with Indians cheering their team on. My homestay requested me not to be too late home so I watched the second innings back in my room. I promptly fell asleep but was awoken to the sound of firecrackers indicating India had defeated their rivals.

I had a couple more days to see the Taj and other sights and as it was Sunday I was advised to go the following day to avoid the weekend crowds. The hosts informed me of a place called Fatepur Sikri located some 45km away. They told me how much a taxi would be 1,200 (a little over £12) for the day but also told me how to get there by local bus. I took the bus option which was great, just 40 rupees (~41p) each way and was an ideal opportunity to mix with the locals.

Local bus to Fatepur Sikri

Fatepur Sikri was a fort and temple complex and was very impressive. It was nice to just stroll around take a few pictures and relax. I never found the ticket booth (I confess I didn't look too hard) so my day out cost me 80p or a £1 if you include the bottle of water I bought.

Fatepur Sikri main gate

Artistic view through a tiny star in the wall

Inside Fatepur Sikri

Side gate

Panoramic view of Fatepur Sikri

Back in Agra I went to the Taj Ganj area by the southern gate to the Taj Mahal. I remembered from a previous visit you can get great views of the Taj from many rooftop restaurants where I had a cold beer whilst watching monkeys run amock across the rooftops.

Roof-top bar with the Taj in the distance

Zoomed in for a better view

Getting back to my homestay they told me that a new guest a young American blonde girl had just arrived and wondered if I wanted to do a Taj and Agra sightseeing day with her. This had 2 benefits, firstly she was a young American blonde and secondly it would half the cost of my day trip sharing transport.

Well it turned out that it was just a prank by the chap at the homestay. She was indeed American and blonde, but was getting on a bit (a lot). She was fairly clueless and at times she was hard work. Also she refused to do the tour by tuk tuk as they are too dangerous and said we had to do it by taxi which was twice the price. So all in I could have done it on my own by tuk tuk for the same price. I was too polite and too English to back out of the agreement.

The owners wife cooked me a gorgeous meal in homestay. It was a simple vegetarian curry served with a selection of breads but it was very tasty and inexpensive.

So my sightseeing day to the Taj Mahal came. My previous visit here had been way too rushed and too crowded to enjoy it. This time I had plenty of time and got an early start at 6am to avoid the crowds. The Taj Mahal is one of the worlds great sights, this time I could really enjoy the beauty of the place - although I had to take hundreds of photographs for my new American friend.

First view of the Taj from inside the complex

This is the best shot the American lady managed all day

Even though I was in before the crowds - there were still plenty of people about

I spent around 2 hours visiting the Taj Mahal, trying to replicate some of the iconic photographs. Going inside to see the tomb was a horrendous crush, where everyone it seemed was so impatient, and as the guard opened the gate to let each batch in a crowd surge followed making it more unpleasant than it should have been. For one of the worlds major sights I felt entry was reasonably priced at 750 rupees (about £8) but was significantly higher than the locals price of 20 rupees.

It was a shame that 3 of the 4 minarets were covered in scaffolding. They were cleaning them, the remaining minaret had obviously been cleaned as the white marble was glistening in the sun. 

Close up view of the Taj

Taj main entrance

On the way back from the Taj, I called into the railway station to sort a ticket to Delhi the following day. Despite the trains been fully booked weeks back, Indian Railways hold some back for next day travel, they are called Taktal meaning immediate or urgent in Hindi. I wasn't able to get on any of the day trains but managed to get the 21:15 which was scheduled to arrive in Delhi at 23:35. This meant I had an extra day in Agra to fill my time in. I had already probably stayed too long, so this news wasn't good.

Back on with the tourist day, the next stop was the Red Fort in Agra. A very impressive looking Fort from the outside. As often I find the case, some of these attractions are better before you have to pay inside. Using my Taj ticket I gained entry at a reduced fee, something which my American friend hadn't read up about as she had deposited hers in the nearest bin.

Inside it was really nice, but the pace we took it at was too slow for my liking. She purchased an audio guide and never had a clue which number she was at to tap into the headset, which caused a lot of waiting around for me.

Red Fort, Agra

Inside the Red Fort

Red Fort courtyard

Next up was the Baby Taj. As the name suggests this is a smaller version of the Taj Mahal, not maintained in quite as good condition as the real thing. I only managed one photo before my battery died on my phone - it had been over-heating all day. Again those of us that had kept our Taj Mahal ticket (me) received discount entry.

Baby Taj

We cut short our day tour by omitting the Taj view from the other side of the river from the gardens of Mehtab Bagh. She was tired and I was happy to save that for the following day.

That night I went out alone early so I could grab a meal and a beer and reflect on the day I had had. Going from Trip Advisors reviews I went into a place that served overpriced beer and food. I negotiated the price of the beer down to an acceptable, but still high price. I asked for a vegetarian curry that didn't contain cheese or paneer, the waiter in perfect English suggested a dish that did not have cheese. When it arrived loaded with chunks of paneer he said that is not cheese sir, it is a kind of cheese. I was clearly not happy but battled my way through it, I was even less happy when he asked me for a tip at the end of the meal.

At breakfast on my last morning I asked the owner of the homestay for suggestions of places to go. He suggested a couple of places both in the same direction around 18km from Agra. A local bus wasn't an option so I hired a tuk-tuk and driver for 3-4 hours at the price of little over £5.

The first place I visited was the Sikandra tomb. It was set in greenlands with deer surrounding it. It was quite pleasant and it was nice to get away from the tourists and be able to spend some time on my own. Ticket price was 100 rupees for foreigners and 5 for Indian nationals. Obviously I tried to get in on a 5 rupee ticket but didn't get away with it.

Sikandra, just outside Agra

On the way back we called into the huge Hindu Temple that is Guru Ka Tal. An impressive building from the outside set in nice gardens. The temple offers free meals to anyone (mainly aimed at the poor I presume). I was invited in to eat but turned it down as I wanted the food to go to the people who really needed it, I hope by declining I didn't appear ungrateful. Everyone was very kind and helpful to me around the temple. The people were sat down in lines with a banana leaf in front of them and the volunteers came around with buckets and vats of curry and rice and spooned them onto the banana leafs.

Guru Ka Tal Hindu Temple

Guru Ka Tal gardens

Still having around 7 hours before the train I wandered around the streets of Agra, passing time as much as anything. I went for a wet shave, which had become a ritual every 3 or 4 days. I called into a real fancy place for a meal. The restaurant A Pinch of Spice was very nice but had prices matching the quality of the surroundings. I ordered an egg curry and when it came was sufficient to feed a small family, not liking to leave food, I batted down as much as I could but hadn't broken the back of it.

The remaining thing for me to do in Agra was go to the Mehtab Bagh, a park over the other side of the river which offered splendid views of the Taj. Having had the sole use of a tuk tuk all morning for 500 rupees I got a little angry and frustrated when tuk tuk drivers were wanting 800 to take me to the other side and back (with a 30 minute wait). Having spoken (and argued) with a dozen or so drivers I finally got one to come up with a reasonable price of 250 rupees, still too high but acceptable. The view was worth the hassle.

My last view of the Taj from over the riverbank

I spent the last few hours back at the homestay having a beer and discussing life with the owner and his 23 year old son. Sadly my train to Delhi was delayed making it a very late check-in at my hotel in the touristy district of Paraganj. I did get a cracking meal included in my (£5.75) train fare.