We were up at 4:45 am on Independence Day in India to answer the door for our poor room service guy, who set up a big continental breakfast for us before we left on our day trip to Agra. We weren’t really so hungry, but four hours car ride is a long time, and I didn’t imagine there would be too many drive-thru’s on the way. At 6:00 am we met our driver in the lobby of the hotel, and we got in the back of a very comfortable and very normal air conditioned sedan. And then we were on our way.
There are a lot of ways to get to Agra from Delhi, but it seemed the most cost-effective to hire a car and driver for the day. I hired him through uniqueindiatour.com before we even got to India, and they did a great job. The price also included a guide at the Taj Mahal, which proved to be quite valuable later on. We were a little ambivalent about taking the train, and the bus seemed like it might be a little uncomfortable – we were happy with the car. The driver was also very quiet, so we could sleep or chat with each other along the way and didn’t have to worry about keeping a conversation going with the driver for four hours.
When we left Delhi it was pouring rain, and even a couple hours outside of the city it continued coming down hard. There wasn’t much we could do about the weather, however, so we took comfort in the fact that Agra was still far, far away and perhaps they had different weather conditions there.
The scenery along the way was interesting – plenty of empty fields, half-built buildings and occasionally a small town built up around an intersection. Our driver was very good and managed to make pretty good time. He used the horn about half as much as other drivers, but that still turned out to be quite often.
We pulled into Agra around 10 a.m., and the drive through town on the way to the Taj Mahal was pretty eventful. There were crowds of people on the street celebrating Independence Day, monkey infested buildings, and cows and water buffaloes crossing helter skelter through the roads and intersections. Just like the rest of India, there were often crowds of people standing around, doing nothing in particular. Some slept in the streets, others washed clothes in the rain water puddles, and kids played with each other just like any other country.
Luckily for us, when we arrived at the Taj Mahal the rain had stopped, and there were just light gray clouds remaining. We picked up our tour guide near the front gate, and he counseled us on how to buy tickets, how to avoid the rip offs of the touts, and when and where we’d need money to get in. His advice was very useful – we got in the gate quickly and without incident.
We went through the main gate facing the Taj Mahal building, and the doorway made a beautiful frame for the building beyond. We were pretty excited to be there – it was one of the main reasons for visiting India, and I think I can safely say that it exceeded our expectations. We took a million pictures that upon further review were pretty much the same, but it is easy to get caught up on all the excitement of the crowds. Our guide was great – he shooed away people from the best points and took our pictures, all the while explaining the history and interesting points of the building. He also had a small flashlight that he shined through the marble and gemstones on the side of the Taj Mahal, showing how light passed through the rock and illuminated each colored stone.
We spent a couple of hours on the grounds, looking through the building itself, taking more pictures, and just sitting on a bench soaking it in. The weather held up for us, and not a drop of rain fell while we were there. Lucky, lucky.
After the Taj Mahal we begged off seeing the other attractions in Agra (on the grounds that they would be anti-climactic), but our tour guide did want to take us on one of the dreaded “shopping stops” that tour guides around the world love. We politely watched the process of making inlaid marble countertops, and then begged off for lunch. The driver took us to a touristy restaurant with English menus, and we were able to have some decent curry and naan, although it was not too exciting. We tipped the tour guide, and then got on the road back to Delhi.
The trip back proved to be pretty exciting. Rain came doing heavily once we left Agra, and the roads became a mess. There was flooding in some towns, and we had to drive through deep water a few times. At one point the traffic was so bad that our driver followed another guy driving the other side of the road with flashing headlights to keep the oncoming traffic from hitting us. We were white-knuckling it in the back seat for a couple of minutes until he pulled back onto the correct side of the road, but he certainly saved us a lot of time. The rest of the way we passed a rolled over truck, overloaded tuk-tuks, and plenty of other dangerous situations.
Finally we made it back to Delhi rather late, and so after cleaning up at our hotel we went to the hotel’s Indian restaurant that featured northern Indian cuisine. Since we were headed off to southern India the next day, we figured it was a good time to get our fill. The restaurant, called Daniell’s Tavern was really good. We were still talking about our dinner there after we returned to Japan. They served the usual fare (chicken tikka, garlic naan, lamb tandoori) but also some unique dishes like lotus root and ginger dumplings in curry, and some very unusual Indian ice cream. We had ordered the food extra spicy, but it wasn’t that spicy at all. I guess they were playing it safe. There was also some live traditional Indian music to enjoy while we ate. Great atmosphere. We ordered a lot and barely finished, and then went back to our room to drink some cold beer, as the restaurant was completely dry in honor of Independence Day.
