I spent the day touring Agra.
It has been another interesting day. I arrived in Agra yesterday evening, without a hotel reservation. I shared a taxi with a British lady to the hotel where she was staying, and got a room there. It was lovely. They had no vacancies for the next day, but the owner booked a room for me at the Sai Palace Hotel. Tracey had a room at the Radisson.
We went to the Taj Mahal for the sunrise. Another disappointing sunrise, jus like Varanasi, and Tikal in Guatemala. Getting into the Taj was also fun. The entry fee for Indian citizens is 40 cents, for foreign tourist 15 dollars. To add insult to injury there are 4 separate lines, One for Indian ladies, one for foreign ladies, the same for men. The lines for natives was much shorter. The security was tight, empty all the pockets, metal detectors.
The Taj Mahal is said to be the most beautiful building in the world, and if you count the exterior only I agree. The marble and inlaid precious stones are fantastic. The interior is small, filled with too many tourits, and not well lit. The Alhambra is much more beautiful on the inside.
The next job was to check into our hotels. Sai Palace only makes sense if Sai means "not a". It appeared like a dump from the outside, and in this case it fulfilled its promise. It was a dump inside. I would have looked for another place, but Tracey and the cabbie were waiting, so I thought I could handle it for one night
After Tracey checked into the Radisson, an entirely different experience, we visited the Agra Fort, which is outstanding. The largest fort I have seen before this was the one in Carcassone. This one is about 6 times larger, massive stone walls, surrounded by a moat, which used to contain crocodiles, to discourage swimming. Aftwr the fort was built local nobles built about a dozen palaces inside. One of the problems that the Indian government has is that it can't afford to restore these buildings, so all that remains are the walls and main structures. The marble is wonderful, but I wonder what it looked like when is was filled with carpets and furniture.Must have been something else.
After lunch we went to see the "Baby Taj", another mausoleum. I loved it. The stone work wasn't any less impressive than the Taj, but there was hardly anyone there. It was very peaceful, and lovely.
One thing I have to say the tourist sites are clean, no garbage, no animals. That is fairly standard.
Our cabbie then dropped me off at my "Palace". The water taps on the sink did not work at all, they didn't even pretend there was hot water, nothing came out. I was pleasantly surprised that the toilet flushed. The matresses were quite thin, so I stacked them from both beds, and actually slept well.
The next morning I took a bus to Jaipur. It was a "Deluxe" bus, and, ny In dian standards it probably is. To be honest it wasn't that bad. After about 3 hours the bus stopped at the side of the road, and I noticed some people getting off. I went to check and it was a bathroom stop. Everyone, men and women alike, just squatted or peed in a line. I think a lot of Canadian women couldn't do that.
I arived in Jaipur by 4, and went to find my hotel. One of the frustrating things is that there are no street signs anywhere, at least not in English, so I ended up taking a bicycle taxi. There is no way I would have found the hotel on my own.
It has been another interesting day. I arrived in Agra yesterday evening, without a hotel reservation. I shared a taxi with a British lady to the hotel where she was staying, and got a room there. It was lovely. They had no vacancies for the next day, but the owner booked a room for me at the Sai Palace Hotel. Tracey had a room at the Radisson.
We went to the Taj Mahal for the sunrise. Another disappointing sunrise, jus like Varanasi, and Tikal in Guatemala. Getting into the Taj was also fun. The entry fee for Indian citizens is 40 cents, for foreign tourist 15 dollars. To add insult to injury there are 4 separate lines, One for Indian ladies, one for foreign ladies, the same for men. The lines for natives was much shorter. The security was tight, empty all the pockets, metal detectors.
The Taj Mahal is said to be the most beautiful building in the world, and if you count the exterior only I agree. The marble and inlaid precious stones are fantastic. The interior is small, filled with too many tourits, and not well lit. The Alhambra is much more beautiful on the inside.
The next job was to check into our hotels. Sai Palace only makes sense if Sai means "not a". It appeared like a dump from the outside, and in this case it fulfilled its promise. It was a dump inside. I would have looked for another place, but Tracey and the cabbie were waiting, so I thought I could handle it for one night
After Tracey checked into the Radisson, an entirely different experience, we visited the Agra Fort, which is outstanding. The largest fort I have seen before this was the one in Carcassone. This one is about 6 times larger, massive stone walls, surrounded by a moat, which used to contain crocodiles, to discourage swimming. Aftwr the fort was built local nobles built about a dozen palaces inside. One of the problems that the Indian government has is that it can't afford to restore these buildings, so all that remains are the walls and main structures. The marble is wonderful, but I wonder what it looked like when is was filled with carpets and furniture.Must have been something else.
After lunch we went to see the "Baby Taj", another mausoleum. I loved it. The stone work wasn't any less impressive than the Taj, but there was hardly anyone there. It was very peaceful, and lovely.
One thing I have to say the tourist sites are clean, no garbage, no animals. That is fairly standard.
Our cabbie then dropped me off at my "Palace". The water taps on the sink did not work at all, they didn't even pretend there was hot water, nothing came out. I was pleasantly surprised that the toilet flushed. The matresses were quite thin, so I stacked them from both beds, and actually slept well.
The next morning I took a bus to Jaipur. It was a "Deluxe" bus, and, ny In dian standards it probably is. To be honest it wasn't that bad. After about 3 hours the bus stopped at the side of the road, and I noticed some people getting off. I went to check and it was a bathroom stop. Everyone, men and women alike, just squatted or peed in a line. I think a lot of Canadian women couldn't do that.
I arived in Jaipur by 4, and went to find my hotel. One of the frustrating things is that there are no street signs anywhere, at least not in English, so I ended up taking a bicycle taxi. There is no way I would have found the hotel on my own.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment