After two nights in Jaipur, it was time for the last destination of our trip before heading back to New Delhi. You may already know what Agra is famous for: the Taj Mahal! I have been wanting to go to the Taj Mahal for a long time, therefore, getting the chance to finally come here was like a dream coming true. However, as beautiful as I found Jaipur to be, Agra was rather ugly.
Train from Jaipur to Agra
From Jaipur, we decided to take the train to Agra. We could have actually taken the plane, which would have not really costed us much more, but we wanted take the train for the sake of the experience, and I thought I would see a lot of India through the window. Well, I was wrong, there was not really much to be seen through the window, but it was only like a 3-4 hour train ride, so it went by very fast. The only real downside with this train ride was the air conditioning! It was freezing cold inside of the wagon. Other than that, there was nothing wrong with the train, the wagon we sat in was better than many of the ones that I have taken in Europe. However, the air conditioned wagon is of much better quality than the other wagons are, and I am fully aware of the huge differences here. I was also advised to stay away from the lavatories.
Arriving in Agra
Once we arrived in Agra at the Agra Fort station, we were surprised about how chaotic this city was. It was definitely not the most beautiful city I have seen in India so far, as already mentioned, it was a rather ugly city. I wish I could explain how extremely chaotic it was, but I am afraid that my descriptions will not do justice.
We found a rickshaw that took us to our hotel. Again, we were almost getting scammed and I am not even going to write about it anymore. Most importantly, we arrived at our hotel, but it was a very long process. Apparently, our hotel changed its name after we booked it, and our confirmation from booking.com did not have the full address on it! After stopping and asking hundreds of people about where the hotel was, we finally found it. The hotel we booked, Kamla Palace, was not a luxurious hotel or anything, because the whole point with booking this hotel was to have a place to keep our luggage. I might have not already mentioned it, but we only came to Agra for one day, and we planned to leave in the evening back to New Delhi. We therefore chose a very cheap hotel, but compared to the hotels we stayed at in New Delhi and Port Blair, this hotel was actually very OK. There absolutely was nothing wrong with it, and it even had a little view of the Taj Mahal.
Before heading to the Taj Mahal, we decided to go for lunch at a restaurant called Pinch of Salt, a restaurant not to far from the hotel. It is a good restaurant that I recommend going to when visiting Agra.
Taj Mahal
Now to the most important part of Agra: the Taj Mahal. I always had this dream about having my photo taken in front of the Taj Mahal wearing a red sari. That dream, however, did not come true, but I had my pink sari on from Mauritius, which was not too bad either. I only had one concern when I planned it all: how will I put it on? Believe me, it is not an easy thing. My initial plan was to ask some girl working in the hotel to help me wrap my sari. That was a very bad plan. In fact, I did not see any women working in any of the hotels we stayed at during our India trip! Maybe if I’d stay in the Oberoi or another big 5 star resort, that could have been possible, but don’t count on anything like that if you plan on staying in a small local hotel. Luckily, my sari was now ready-made so I no longer needed the help I was anticipating.
We bought the entry tickets to Taj Mahal at the counter, and as non-Indian tourists, we could get inside through an express line (just like at all the other landmarks that we visited in New Delhi). Well in the end we did pay much more than Indian nationals. You will receive a token, which you will need to keep with you at all times, because you WILL need it when you leave, otherwise you won’t get out.
The first thing I noticed once we entered, was how extremely big the Taj Mahal is. Remember what I wrote about Humayun’s Tomb in New Delhi? I wrote that it looked a lot like Taj Mahal. Well, after seeing Taj Mahal with my own eyes, this was definitely not the case! Taj Mahal was much bigger, and much more beautiful. For instance, I had no idea that the Taj Mahal was all made of marble! After seeing it, I definitely agree that this must be one of the most beautiful buildings ever created. We were quite lucky with both the weather and the amount of people visiting. The smog was completely gone, so we could see everything clearly and the photos became great. Surprisingly, there were also not as many people as I imagined there to be, possibly due to the fact that it was not high season yet. When we got the the main building, we had to remove our shoes or put shoe covers on our shoes, which we were given for free. Because of this practice, it was very clean everywhere. Did I already say how beautiful the scenery was here? The building stands next to a river so from there you can see both the river, a beautiful garden and other beautiful buildings surrounding the main building. Again, a lot of people wanted selfies with me. This time, however, it almost became a bit exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, I still find it cute, but it became really difficult to walk from one point to the other, because the lines to take a photo with me became very long. It must have been because of the sari? A giant foreigner wearing a sari is probably not a common sight.
After visiting the beautiful Taj Mahal, it was time for a very quick dinner at the Salt Cafe. It was our last dinner in India, so we wanted to go somewhere special. According to our receptionist, the Salt Cafe is the best restaurant in Agra, so we thought it would be perfect. Indeed, it is another great restaurant that I highly recommend! Not only was the food great, but it really is a beautifully designed luxurious restaurant with professional staff.
After the dinner, we had to hurry to the train station from where we would head back to New Delhi by train. Despite the fact that we almost missed our train, it was a very busy but successful day.
Anyah Mroz 