Agra

Arriving from Jaipur and not attempting to be at least minimally original, we got out of the train on the Idgah Junction station, boarded a riksha, and got ourselves transported straight to the Taj Mahal without delays.

It is not free to visit this one of the most famous places on Earth. The rules here are such that foreigners pay a much bigger ticket price than locals do: if I remember correctly, we the foreigners had to pay 700 rupees each, while indians had to pay only 20. Sounded uncool at first glance, however, this rule came with a significant — shameful even — bonus of not having to wait through the whole queue of about 200 people. The heat made that queue not a pleasant experience, plus we only had a portion of one day to see some stuff in Agra, poor us. There was a manual bag check paired with a metal detector in the end of that discriminative queue.

Before the entrance — as well as after — we have been met with lots of humans wanting to sell something. They've offered us wikipedia-like info on Taj for 900 rupees, or, if that was too much (it was), then the price was cut down to 200 (still a lot).

The white marble of Taj is getting yellowish as the time goes past us. This is said to be due to the air pollution. Some counter-measures are attempted, and cleaning efforts exist, too. One of such counter-measures is making visitors wear shoe covers. These were given at entry, and were to be put on right before the white marble surface.

The queue into the heart ot the Taj Mahal — into the place where lieth the one whose mausoleum this place is. May she rest in peace.

One can see how people tended to stay inside shadows.

For some unimportant reason, I didn't expect the Yamuna river to be so close. It flows right near the mausoleum, the fact which I welcomed.

One more quick pic of Yamuna. This is north, if anyone cares. There is a park on the opposite bank, which is said to be a nice viewpoint of the Taj. Our fast visit style did not allow for such long (and expensive) demarches. Seeing Taj Mahal both in the sunset and in the sunrise would be cool, but we avoided this coolness because reasons.

After some short time at Taj, we headed for the Agra Fort. Where else could we?

A very eager bicycle riksha caught us and talked into becoming his clients. It was a pity to watch his physical efforts in that heat; good thing that the route was flat except for a ramp at some junction. He had a big desire to transport us for the whole day, suggesting the two-way trip to the other riverbank. Had to say no: we didn't want to watch someone suffering for us, and it was — sorry, man — too slow. And I was not rich.

It was noticeably hot, if this needs to be stated at all. Birds (mynas, parrots, among others) and humans of various cultures were visibly tending towards a tiny water fountain, painfully situated in a very sunny place. I have not many photos of Agra and India in general in part due to this heat. Palm squirrels — nice little animals — could often be seen trying to cool off by planking in the relative cold of the gallery along the fort's wall. They were periodically descending from the trees and crossing the yard just for that. Very often.

I tried to look behind some passage. There was another yard there, looking like it was under maintenance. A guard (female) came out, and asked to see my passport. Upon receiving it, she acted as if she was reading it, and very soon did she ask for my point-and-shoot camera. Upon receiving it, she made a few totally random shots without trying to hold the camera even, and all that just to ask for money after a shortest timespan of 5 seconds! Damn it, India! I became very angry. There was no spiritual air anywhere. Everyone, everywhere had thoughts only about money and had no force to hide this desire for at least one minute.

Here are some of the photos made by her. If they look straight enough to you, that is because they've been straightened to resemble straight photos.

So, did I pay? Yes.

Went back in the Taj direction. It was only two kilometers and we were tired of paying, so we chose to walk. There was nobody else walking. Indians seemed to strongly prefer motorized transport at least on this very route.

There is an area called Taj Ganj right at the southern wall of the Taj Mahal. The «ganj» word means that slum-like area that you are imagining as you read this. Many buildings with flat roofs, stuffed where they could have been stuffed into. We've read somewhere that a building called Kamal Hotel had nice food, which turned out to be not true. They've had dirty plates, haven't washed their vegetables, their plastic chairs have been burned a little bit, the burnt areas lazily covered with some white matter. Lots of flies competed with us for our food. Every roof in the ganj has the view of the Taj, and it is widely accepted that this ganj is the place to see the sunset-lit Taj Mahal from. We've been unlucky — heavy clouds have been obstructing the sunlight that evening. We walked for some short time, entered another eatery, ate something simple, and summoned a riksha via phone in order to execute our planned exodus from the Agra Cantonment station towards Delhi.

This is basically all that I have to say about our visit. I am not proud of it. I would love to say «I'll do better sometimes» but India is so far away that it is better not to shout promises. Better to just say «we'll see».