Arrived safely in Agra

Fri 29th June

Got the 6:15am Shatbadi Express train which takes a little over two hours to make the journey from New Delhi Railway station to Agra. Upon arrival at the station to catch my train I discovered how I had been given the run around on Wednesday when trying to sort out my train tickets. There are two seperate entrances (with car parks, ticket counters etc) to the train station. The fecker who brought me there on Wed took me to the back entrance where there are no obvious signs directing you to the International ticket office. Anyway, time to let that go! :) The train journey was very pleasant in an a/c carriage where the 375 Rupee fare includes your morning newspaper, a 1L bottle of water, a cup of tea with some biscuits followed by a bit of breakfast which consisted of some Indian nibbles, some bread and jam and butter along with some juice. I think CIE could learn a thing or two from how they do things over here!

9am Have just arrived at my hotel and am in my room for the next few days. The Taj View hotel is definitely an altogether plusher affair than my budget accomodation with prices to match. The room rate is actually pretty reasonable at 65 US dollars per night, which includes breakfast, but is somewhere between 3 and 4 times the price of what I was paying in Delhi. Some stuff is a bit on the pricey side - bottle of beer Rupee equivalent of 7 euro, internet access 150 Rupees per half hour which is probably only marginally cheaper than what you'd pay at home in Dublin (was paying 20 Rs/hr in Delhi). I'm typing this entry from a little internet cafe down the road from my hotel and am paying a third of what it would have cost to stay in the comfort of the hotel. However I did get mobbed by cycle and auto-rickshaw drivers as soon as I stepped outside the grounds of the hotel. Ah well, I suppose you have to put up with these things if I want to stick to a reasonable budget!

Fell asleep on the bed when I sat down for a bit after having come back from a stroll down the road looking for an internet cafe. There are a collection of auto-rickshaw drivers waiting for the odd tourist to exist the hotel (that aren't interested in or by virtue of trying to stick to a budget, can't afford the luxury a/c cars available at the hotel). Having the rickshaw drivers there is handy but is a bit of a pain if you do actually just want to walk to somewhere nearby! FOund a couple of places within a short distance of the hotel for internet access, all around 50 Rs per hour, which is grand. Even though they all seem to use ancient computers and the speed of the connection is a little slow.

After a power nap decided to head over to Mehtab Bagh which is on the riverbank opposite the Taj Mahal and lets you see the back of the structure (which is a mirror image of the front). Everyone has seen photos of the Taj Mahal but I have to say that you can't beat seeing it with your own eyes. If you're coming to visit here I wouldn't bother with the garden that you pay into, there's a much better view if you walk right down to the riverbank, which you can get to for free. I had engaged the services of an auto-rickshaw driver to take me to see the back of the Taj, then on to the Shanti Lodge which is a guest house/budget hotel in the Taj Ganj area. This part of Agra resembles Old Delhi but is much quieter. It grew into a town that housed the 20000 workers during the construction of the Taj. Now unfortunately the parts of it closest to the Taj from what I saw tonight look fairly run down. The view of the Taj Mahal from the roof of the Shanti Lodge was the next best thing to seeing the Taj up close which I'll have to do tomorrow along with the Red Fort here in Agra.

Got chatting to an English girl and Austrian guy when having dinner on the roof of the Shanti Lodge. She had been travelling around NZ, Oz, and Asia for the last 10 and a half months (fair play to her). Although she's going back to the UK in about a months time. She was full of praise for New Zealand, where she started her travels, which is good to hear! :)