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Agra, India
23° 55' N 77° 33' E
Nov 12, 2005 23:12
Distance 693km

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Other entries in Agra

The Not-So-Smooth-Road to Agra

Text written in: English

Okay if losing my camera is the worste thing that happens to me in India...the Night bus journey to Agra is the second worse thing to happen to me in India.

It all started one night in Rishikesh...we were slightly misinformed about the bus scheduals to Agra and had planned to go see the nightly puja at the Ganga, but instead had to leave Rishikesh promtly at 6pm to make to Haridwar to catch the overnight bus to Agra.  We figured that our first night bus was fine...how bad could it be?  The answer is really really bad! It all started off alright, after we had decided that taking the bus over night was actually abetter idea...we would get the traveling out of the way and be in Agra when we woke up and be able to see the Taj and get back to Delhi early-which would be great cause we both ahad soem business to attend to there.  So all that sorted, we hoped into a very comfy taxi, so comfy infact we decided to cough up the extra 100 rupees anf forgo the complicatiosn of catching a local bus from Dhera Dun to Haridwar, and took the taxi all the way to Haridwar-well worth it, indeed.  We even toyed with the idea of taking the taxi all the way to Agra...it was dream, but Andy was so taken with it that he said if it were 2000 rupees or less he would spot it, this dream ended when the taxi driver said it would be about 5000 rupees....ahhh well it would be a nice dream...

We left the taxi thinking that we would have to wait about and hour or so for a  local bus to Agra and were delighted instead to find one leaving in 20 minutes with nice seats, not the bench kink with no head rests, that we had though we were headed for.  This wouldbe the only fortunate event to take place for the next 15 hours.  We realized, after we had hauled all of our bags onto the bus, that we didn't have enough money between us to cover the tickets.  And apparently there was no ATM around or open and there was no other bus to Agra or so we were told.  It really isn't funny, more ironic, that we the 'wealthy' westerners aer begging the bus conductor to let us ride and let us find an ATM somewhere.  I think Andy had to beg and practically cry to get us our ride.  But he did and we were able to ride for free so to speak.  It was actually probably the nicest thing the conductor could have done...if it were anyone else I am sure he would hve said no way, tough luck!  So that was the begging.....its really a scary situation being in a forgien counrty, wher eyou know you can afford everything and have nothing, not even a cent to buy some water.  Thankfully I alwasy pack a snack! 

 So that was just getting on the bus....the ride was another story....let me just start by saying htat there are NO smooth roads to Agra.  Even when our driver was actually ON the road, and not the side of it,  he managed to find every single pothole in exisitence. Fortunatly about half way though Andy was able to get another seat and stretch out and I, in true yogic style managed to sleep on two seats, that is until these men started a fight onteh bus...somewhere around 1 am I awoke to the loud (louder than usual) voices of three men arguing on the bus about god knows what.  It was really scary actually, waking up on a strange bus in strange India and not really understanding what was going on... I almost started to cry.  but soon they got off and it was back to sleep for me!  I don't know how amny times the bus stopped, but Iam pretty sure that the time between stops began to decrease the closer we got to Agra...eventually till it was like every 32 min or something.  This,combind with the aproximate 30 police check points, made our arrival time in Agra 7:30 in the morning...a full 12 hours of bus fun!

The bus emptied and as I sat on our bags outside on the street inteh morning air of Agra, the bus conductor escorted Andy to the ATM and we settled up!  God it was so nice of them to let us ride.  We were so looking forward to checking into our hotel and taking naps and hot showers....but that would be too easy.  After our rickshaw driver asked every person a wake in Agra where our hotel was we arrived to find that we couldn't check in until 10 am....ok this was after we ate breakfast and they told us it would be an hour...3 hours later we finally got a room...but not he agreed upon priced room...but jesus christ I couldn't take it anymore, I said give it to us for 300 rupees(50 more than when we called and booked) and let us go to sleep!  It was a deal and I was fast asleep!  When I awoke I was able to appreciate the beautiful place we had managed to snag, i really felt this way after we walked through the hotel area outside of the Taj.  The Hotel Sheela is like a little sancuary in the mess that is Agra.  Ther eare beautiful gardens adn a lovely eating area outside and a beautiful german shepard dog to stand gaurd.  What an oasis!