It's been 11 years since I was last in India and I'm not sure how I could've forgotten how absolutely noisy, smelly and chaotic it is. Dan once asked me if India would be as smelly as San Francisco (walking down market street or being on the number 9 bus) and I said no, but being back here I think San Francisco may have some competition here:) It is interesting that everything from horrendous traffic to cows roaming around are one thing that will probably never change in India since no where else will you find a billion people that can exist with constant chaos and still be happily unaware of it. After the initial shock it is also easy to realize that the big mess and apparent lack of order is one of the reasons that tourists flock here. In very few countries will you find a place where even the most travelled person will continue to be amazed and surprised by every day sights etc.
Delhi is not any travellers favorite place but it does serve a purpose of putting the rest of India in perspective. Everytime things seem tough we can always say that it's not as bad as Delhi:) Needless to say we didn't bother to spend much time in Delhi especially since we have to go back there when we fly out. In Delhi's defense they do have some great sights it's just hard to enjoy them since once you reach your destination you are completely exhausted.
Our next stop was Agra just a few hours away by train from Delhi. Trains are by far one of the best ways of getting around India. It's easy to use and there is logic to the system. Big plus there!! In Agra I was prepared to be crowded by touts and hassled by annoying rickshaw drivers, but to our surprise Agra was pretty relaxed. Either Dan and I seemed less likely as customers compared to the tour groups and we were not overly bothered by people trying to sell us stuff.
We visited Taj Mahal during the sunrise which was the only time we got pissed off. You get up and are half asleep (why does the sunrise have to be so bloody early ??) and then as soon as we got out on the street we had 5 people trying to convince us to have them take you to the ticket office and then Taj Mahal. We only lived about 500 metres away from the East gate of Taj but didn't know how far away the ticket office was. The first rickshaw driver wanted way too much and we got into a discussion with him and he kept changing the price which put us off. Apparently this ticket office was "very far away" so we got an autorickshaw and the decided price was 50 Rupees (about US$ 1.25) to go to the ticket office and then back to the gate as close as possible (Autorickshaws are prevented to drive within a certain distance from Taj Mahal to prevent pollution of the marble). We knew it was too much probably but just wanted to get going. In the end it turned out that this "very far away office" was only about 50m down the road. We were furious! We got our tickets and got back into the autorickshaw. At this point I was still willing to take my losses and pay the 50 rupees with a growl, but the straw that broke the camels back (or as they say in Sweden the drop that made the cup overflow) was when the autorickshaw driver only took us halfway back to where we expected to get dropped off. With some angry words we shoved 20 rupees into his hand and got out. He protested at first but must've seen that both Dan and I were not to be messed with at this stage. Soon all the morning's debacle was gone once we made it into Taj Mahal, although Dan managed to meet another "friend" who eagerly wanted to show prime spots for photos.....for a small donation of 500 Rupees (approx US$ 12.50). Haha not a chance! Luckily I only had about 40 rupees in my purse (1 dollar) so that's all he got after his most valuable assistance....Despite the pretty bad start to the day, Taj Mahal was amazing and truly deserving of being one of the wonders of the world.
Delhi is not any travellers favorite place but it does serve a purpose of putting the rest of India in perspective. Everytime things seem tough we can always say that it's not as bad as Delhi:) Needless to say we didn't bother to spend much time in Delhi especially since we have to go back there when we fly out. In Delhi's defense they do have some great sights it's just hard to enjoy them since once you reach your destination you are completely exhausted.
Our next stop was Agra just a few hours away by train from Delhi. Trains are by far one of the best ways of getting around India. It's easy to use and there is logic to the system. Big plus there!! In Agra I was prepared to be crowded by touts and hassled by annoying rickshaw drivers, but to our surprise Agra was pretty relaxed. Either Dan and I seemed less likely as customers compared to the tour groups and we were not overly bothered by people trying to sell us stuff.
We visited Taj Mahal during the sunrise which was the only time we got pissed off. You get up and are half asleep (why does the sunrise have to be so bloody early ??) and then as soon as we got out on the street we had 5 people trying to convince us to have them take you to the ticket office and then Taj Mahal. We only lived about 500 metres away from the East gate of Taj but didn't know how far away the ticket office was. The first rickshaw driver wanted way too much and we got into a discussion with him and he kept changing the price which put us off. Apparently this ticket office was "very far away" so we got an autorickshaw and the decided price was 50 Rupees (about US$ 1.25) to go to the ticket office and then back to the gate as close as possible (Autorickshaws are prevented to drive within a certain distance from Taj Mahal to prevent pollution of the marble). We knew it was too much probably but just wanted to get going. In the end it turned out that this "very far away office" was only about 50m down the road. We were furious! We got our tickets and got back into the autorickshaw. At this point I was still willing to take my losses and pay the 50 rupees with a growl, but the straw that broke the camels back (or as they say in Sweden the drop that made the cup overflow) was when the autorickshaw driver only took us halfway back to where we expected to get dropped off. With some angry words we shoved 20 rupees into his hand and got out. He protested at first but must've seen that both Dan and I were not to be messed with at this stage. Soon all the morning's debacle was gone once we made it into Taj Mahal, although Dan managed to meet another "friend" who eagerly wanted to show prime spots for photos.....for a small donation of 500 Rupees (approx US$ 12.50). Haha not a chance! Luckily I only had about 40 rupees in my purse (1 dollar) so that's all he got after his most valuable assistance....Despite the pretty bad start to the day, Taj Mahal was amazing and truly deserving of being one of the wonders of the world.
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