After yet another eventful train journey (turns out we'd bought the wrong tickets this time !) we arrived in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal and set about trying to find Shabu, Matt's guide from 5 years ago, which miraculously we managed to do and though he was pleased to see us he was confused to note that "Christine" had grown about half a foot and picked up a few pounds (just kidding !!!). We then headed off to find our hostel before going to a rooftop bar to watch sunset over the Taj....in true English style
Then it was back to the guest house to get an early night as we had arranged to be picked up at 5:30 in the flipping morning so that we could go and watch sunrise over the Taj Mahal from the Red Fort as this was supposed to be truly amazing. However it turns out that 5:30 in the morning is a little too early for us, so when we were roused at 6:00 by our guest house manager banging on the door and telling us that "your driver has been waiting outside for 40 minutes !" we decided to sack off the Red Fort and head straight to the main event. This was a stroke of luck on our part as it meant that we got to the Taj Mahal before the tens of thousands of Indians and other tourists who descend upon it daily meaning we had the place practically to ourselves
It also meant that Matt got the chance to take some pictures that might not otherwise have been allowed!
And even got Charlotte in on the act !
After a couple of hours of walking around and checking it out the place started to fill up and we became at least as big an attraction to the hordes of Indians as the Taj itself....
...so we decided to leave and see what the city of Agra was all about.
Errm...
Yeah....
And here's one you definitely won't see in the guide books
Basically it's the same as every other Indian city, hot, crowded & smelly ! Not really what you expect from the city surrounding the jewel in India's tourist crown but hey T.I.I !!
Time to get some more culture, so off we went to the Baby Taj, this is another white marble building with similar carving work as the real Taj but on a smaller scale
It was here that we took a picture which we feel kind of sums up India
This was great but soon enough we were back in the rickshaw riding through the now for some reason even smellier streets of Agra....
...it was at this point that we had our first epiphany - We'd had enough of India ! Sod waiting around for the monsoon to finish so we could go to Goa we wanted out of here. With this in mind we dived into the nearest internet shop fending off beggars, street children and carpet salesmen as we did so and changed our flights and our plans so that we would soon be flying to Indonesia.
We now had less than 2 weeks remaining in India ! To celebrate this fact we went and had a few drinks with Matt's friend Shabu.
Our next mission was to use our 2 weeks to get down to Mumbai, where we were flying out from, upon checking the train connections we realised the easiest & cheapest way was to train it to Jaipur and from there on to Mumbai. So Jaipur it was....the town they call the jewel of Rajasthan *cough*BULLSHIT*cough*
There's not really a lot to say about Jaipur so here are a few pictures....which somehow make it look like a lovely city, really worth visiting - trust us it's not !
The Floating (flooded) Palace
One of the gates to the "pink city" - which by the way is dirty not pink (cowshit mixed with pollution does not make pink !)
The Palace of the Winds
The Raj Mandir - India's largest Bollywood cinema
Jaipur was also where we had our second epiphany- We (well Matt mainly) had had enough of vegetarian Indian food. So when we saw a K.F.C Charlotte was amazed to find that Matt had developed the ability to move at a speed faster than light and had ordered half the menu before she had even got through the door.
And consumed most of it before she could sit down
Next up was our final train journey in India, the overnight train to Mumbai.....this one was actually fairly uneventful although Charlotte did wake up to find that the nice, well educated, old Indian lady she had been talking too had stolen all our water before quietly slipping out of the carriage. Honestly you can't trust anyone in this country.
After going through the usual tasks of finding a guesthouse and having a shower we spent the day wandering around Mumbai and we were pleasantly surprised, instead of the usual narrow, crowded, filthy streets we found ourselves walking along wide tree lined (relatively) clean streets with buildings that didn't look like they were about to collapse
This was more like it.
That night Charlotte made Matt go and watch the Chelsea vs Man Utd game in a local bar which, much to Matt's consternation, was full of Indian Man Utd fans but it was all good natured fun and Matt took the defeat in his usual non-sulky way. On the way back to the guest house Matt purchased a couple of beers and opened one to drown his sorrows, this proved to be a bad idea as while Charlotte was in a shop a policeman pulled up next to Matt and demanded that he get on the back of his bike (apparently drinking on the street is illegal in Mumbai !). Matt refused to get on the bike and the policeman demanded a 1000 rupee fine, Matt then refused to pay this by which time Charlotte had reappeared, at this point the fine suddenly changed to 500 rupees, again Mat refused to pay, then when a bunch of Indian kids walked by we asked them to help and the fine became 200 rupees....hang on a second, I'm pretty sure you don't barter for fines...the kids explained that the police are all corrupt and upon hearing this the policeman suddenly accelerated away cursing Matt in Hindi. We then legged it back to the guesthouse in case he'd gone to get his gun.
The next day, with our spirits raised by the cleanliness of the streets we thought we'd go and check out Mumbai's beach because hey who knows maybe it's a pristine stretch of white sand with blue water and some palm trees......
Oh no hold on we're in India.
To get over the disappointment of this we headed to a 5 star hotel for our first proper drink (i.e. not made with Indian booze) in over 3 months and sat and reflected on the amazing adventures we'd had and all the brilliant people we'd met - India we love you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The next morning we packed our bags and prepared to say goodbye to the craziest country on the planet but before we left Mumbai decided to show us that it too was a real Indian city and give us one last reminder of what we were leaving behind
We hope you've enjoyed reading about our Indian exploits as much as we've enjoyed enduring them. Next up South East Asia !!!!
Then it was back to the guest house to get an early night as we had arranged to be picked up at 5:30 in the flipping morning so that we could go and watch sunrise over the Taj Mahal from the Red Fort as this was supposed to be truly amazing. However it turns out that 5:30 in the morning is a little too early for us, so when we were roused at 6:00 by our guest house manager banging on the door and telling us that "your driver has been waiting outside for 40 minutes !" we decided to sack off the Red Fort and head straight to the main event. This was a stroke of luck on our part as it meant that we got to the Taj Mahal before the tens of thousands of Indians and other tourists who descend upon it daily meaning we had the place practically to ourselves
It also meant that Matt got the chance to take some pictures that might not otherwise have been allowed!
And even got Charlotte in on the act !
After a couple of hours of walking around and checking it out the place started to fill up and we became at least as big an attraction to the hordes of Indians as the Taj itself....
...so we decided to leave and see what the city of Agra was all about.
Errm...
Yeah....
And here's one you definitely won't see in the guide books
Basically it's the same as every other Indian city, hot, crowded & smelly ! Not really what you expect from the city surrounding the jewel in India's tourist crown but hey T.I.I !!
Time to get some more culture, so off we went to the Baby Taj, this is another white marble building with similar carving work as the real Taj but on a smaller scale
Then it was time to head to the backside of the Taj and watch the sun go down from the opposite bank of the river
It was here that we took a picture which we feel kind of sums up India
This was great but soon enough we were back in the rickshaw riding through the now for some reason even smellier streets of Agra....
...it was at this point that we had our first epiphany - We'd had enough of India ! Sod waiting around for the monsoon to finish so we could go to Goa we wanted out of here. With this in mind we dived into the nearest internet shop fending off beggars, street children and carpet salesmen as we did so and changed our flights and our plans so that we would soon be flying to Indonesia.
We now had less than 2 weeks remaining in India ! To celebrate this fact we went and had a few drinks with Matt's friend Shabu.
Our next mission was to use our 2 weeks to get down to Mumbai, where we were flying out from, upon checking the train connections we realised the easiest & cheapest way was to train it to Jaipur and from there on to Mumbai. So Jaipur it was....the town they call the jewel of Rajasthan *cough*BULLSHIT*cough*
There's not really a lot to say about Jaipur so here are a few pictures....which somehow make it look like a lovely city, really worth visiting - trust us it's not !
The Floating (flooded) Palace
One of the gates to the "pink city" - which by the way is dirty not pink (cowshit mixed with pollution does not make pink !)
The Palace of the Winds
The Raj Mandir - India's largest Bollywood cinema
And a camel that made us laugh because it was holding up traffic
Jaipur was also where we had our second epiphany- We (well Matt mainly) had had enough of vegetarian Indian food. So when we saw a K.F.C Charlotte was amazed to find that Matt had developed the ability to move at a speed faster than light and had ordered half the menu before she had even got through the door.
And consumed most of it before she could sit down
Next up was our final train journey in India, the overnight train to Mumbai.....this one was actually fairly uneventful although Charlotte did wake up to find that the nice, well educated, old Indian lady she had been talking too had stolen all our water before quietly slipping out of the carriage. Honestly you can't trust anyone in this country.
After going through the usual tasks of finding a guesthouse and having a shower we spent the day wandering around Mumbai and we were pleasantly surprised, instead of the usual narrow, crowded, filthy streets we found ourselves walking along wide tree lined (relatively) clean streets with buildings that didn't look like they were about to collapse
This was more like it.
That night Charlotte made Matt go and watch the Chelsea vs Man Utd game in a local bar which, much to Matt's consternation, was full of Indian Man Utd fans but it was all good natured fun and Matt took the defeat in his usual non-sulky way. On the way back to the guest house Matt purchased a couple of beers and opened one to drown his sorrows, this proved to be a bad idea as while Charlotte was in a shop a policeman pulled up next to Matt and demanded that he get on the back of his bike (apparently drinking on the street is illegal in Mumbai !). Matt refused to get on the bike and the policeman demanded a 1000 rupee fine, Matt then refused to pay this by which time Charlotte had reappeared, at this point the fine suddenly changed to 500 rupees, again Mat refused to pay, then when a bunch of Indian kids walked by we asked them to help and the fine became 200 rupees....hang on a second, I'm pretty sure you don't barter for fines...the kids explained that the police are all corrupt and upon hearing this the policeman suddenly accelerated away cursing Matt in Hindi. We then legged it back to the guesthouse in case he'd gone to get his gun.
The next day, with our spirits raised by the cleanliness of the streets we thought we'd go and check out Mumbai's beach because hey who knows maybe it's a pristine stretch of white sand with blue water and some palm trees......
Oh no hold on we're in India.
To get over the disappointment of this we headed to a 5 star hotel for our first proper drink (i.e. not made with Indian booze) in over 3 months and sat and reflected on the amazing adventures we'd had and all the brilliant people we'd met - India we love you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The next morning we packed our bags and prepared to say goodbye to the craziest country on the planet but before we left Mumbai decided to show us that it too was a real Indian city and give us one last reminder of what we were leaving behind
We hope you've enjoyed reading about our Indian exploits as much as we've enjoyed enduring them. Next up South East Asia !!!!
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