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Other entries in Agra

Faith Restored

Once Noah and I reached Agra after 19 hours of buses, about 8 hours of sleep for three days, and having eaten our most recent meal over 20 hours before (this is a huge deal for our fat bellies), we were immediately assaulted by eager rickshaw drivers and other touts (basically it means sleazy guys who are going to sell yuo something). I was really not in the mood for this and when an especially shady looking, skinny guy wearing women's sun glasses convinced me to come in his rikshaw I was trying my best to let him know that we werent interested in buying any more than a ride. As it turns out, he didnt take us to the hotel we asked him to, but we still got a good room and then he offered to arrange our travel to Delhi for us. Now I didnt want to do it, but Noah for some reason had kind of a repoire with this guy, his name was Mohin, and he encouraged me to trust Mohin with enough money for him to arrange a ticket. I reluctantly gave him my 150 rupees and hoped that noah was correct, because if Noah was correct, then Mohin would save us loads of time that we needed in order to visit Agra (we had to be in Delhi by 2 pm the next day because Noah absolutely had to buy a eurail pass).

So with our now free time, we visited the fort in Agra. It was enourmous and beautiful. Lots of red marble, fountains, gardens, nice views, and huge spaces. By the time we had made it back to our hotel, Mohin had arrived and informed us that there were no spaces left on the train but that he could purchase us tickets on the ac bus for only 85 more rupees each. Noah gave him the money and I cringed with fear, he would meet us at 9 o clock with the tickets. We were assured by some other travelers staying at the hotel that we'd been had.

After a dinner of typical south indian fare, called Thali, some sauces with bread and rice, we met mohin again and lo and behold he didnt have the tickets. Instead, he told us that he would meet us in the morning at 8 am to pick us up from our hotel and that our tickets would be waiting for us at the bus station. I cringed even harder becuase we might have trouble getting back to Delhi the next day if Mohin was cheating us, yet we had to trust the man because he had came back twice already. So we went to sleep and woke up at 5:20 am to be the first to see the Taj Mahal.

we defintely werent the first to see the Taj Mahal, in fact we were among hundreds of others already lined up before the gates opened at 6 am. The Taj, much like India kinda sucks and is really incredible all at the same time. It sucks because it costs over 30 dollars just to walk in the gates and see it up close (no audio tour, no guides, nothing but the monument itself), also it sucks because its in the dustiest town on earth, and finally it sucks because even if you show up at an ungodly hour you will still have to share the monument with hundreds of other people. ITs incredible though, because the sunlight bathes the taj in a pale orange light and taj is absolutely incredible. I really cant describe it but I have to say that its a must see in India. Just to think that such an enourmous complex is dedicated to ONE tomb is awe inspiring.

after the taj, we waited at our hotel for our man mohin. 7:50, no mohin, 8 no mohin. 8:05 no mohin, 8;10 no mohin. Strange that the man had shown up early for all our other meetings, yet was already 10 minutes late... minutes passed and we soon started to despair. Yet at around 8:20 mohin showed up looking very concerned and apologizing for being late. He rushed us into a rikshaw (which he paid for at teh end) and basically just tossed us on the bus because he was so worried about us being late for its departure. Not before we had time to thank him profusely and hand him a measly 100 rupees for his trouble. Its sad that we doubted the man so readily, considering the amount of help that he gave us, but at least we could have that experience in India. People told us not to trust anyone, that everyone is trying to rip you off, and many of our experiences accorded with that advice. BUt Mohin, thank god for Mohin, reminded us that stereotypes are wrong, that judging on appearance is not really apropriate, and that trust in other human beings can be rewarded.

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