When I previously left you, we had just arrived at the Agra train station, haggled for a cab, and set off on the day's adventure. We were now barreling down the road in our SUV, hindi music blasting, excitement level at a high. I was in traffic seventh-heaven. Delhi had nothing on the outskirts of Agra for interesting out-the-window traffic watching.
Which reminds me. I must digress here just a moment to reflect on the multitude of traffic options available to one here. It's not limited to planes, trains and automobiles. Let me just give you the run-down of modes of transportation I took in about a 36-hour period:
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, my favorite topic: India traffic. It definitely wasn't quite as jam-packed as in Delhi, but oh the sights to see. Fruit peddlers of every sort, rickshaws everywhere, naked children running around, monkeys climbing up the sides of buildings, men being given a shave in a chair by the roadside...so much eye candy! I even saw about a hundred cows out for an early-morning swim in a small lake.
Banana Peddler:
Clean Cows
With all of that to look at, the trip seemed very fast, and before I knew it, we were at our first destination: an ancient fort called Fatehpur Sikri. We'd be heading to the Taj Mahal later--we thought it might be better to avoid going in the hottest part of the day.
Fatehpur Sikri is this big huge palace from the 1500s built by Emperor Akbar. He was the king of the Mughal Empire--before the British came to stir things up; India had been divided into several principalities. Much like Italy. The story goes that the palace was built to celebrate the birth of Akbar's long-awaited son. If I remember well, it was his 3rd wife who finally gave him the son (the other 2 were still hanging around), and so he prized her with the most beautiful building on the complex.
Anyway, it is an incredibly beautiful and well-preserved palace, all done in a red sandstone, so it has a dark pink color...really impressive. We had a guide for the morning, so we really got to learn some fun things! Example: the king had a bed that sat on a very high platform made of stone. In the cold winters, they'd build a fire beneath it to keep him warm. In the hot summers, they'd actually flood the room with water, and that would keep him cool!
Here I am at Fatehpur Sikri:
We spent the entire morning at the palace, and then set off to do two things: first, meet up with my friend Bryant, who was cabbing himself to Agra, and second, find a place to eat.
Both proved troublesome.
Since I hadn't known Bryant was going to be in India, and they had already booked out train tickets weeks ago, he had to find separate transportation to come to Agra. He was having an adventure and a half in a horrible traffic jam of the sort where people abandon their cars and just start walking...so it was some time before we could meet up with him.
On the lunch front, our cab driver was driving us crazy by insisting again and again that we eat at his friend's restaurant--a place called Indiana. He was very persistent. We asked him to take us one place, he'd circle around and return to Indiana. We'd ask him to go someplace else--we'd end up at Indiana.
"Take us to Trident Hotel!" No. Indiana. "Take us to the Oberoi!" Ummmm....Indiana. This went on for actually a very long time. He was quite irritated with us and vice-versa. Most of this went on in Hindi, so I didn't follow extremely well, but eventually, we got him to take us where we wanted to go. Mostly because we were trying to meet up with Bryant, and as long as we were not going to eat lunch at the meeting-place, he finally complied.
We nailed down a hotel where we could meet up with Bryant, and exited the car. And guess what?
We stayed for lunch.
Which reminds me. I must digress here just a moment to reflect on the multitude of traffic options available to one here. It's not limited to planes, trains and automobiles. Let me just give you the run-down of modes of transportation I took in about a 36-hour period:
- cab
- train
- rickshaw
- camel carriage
- elephant
- airplane
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, my favorite topic: India traffic. It definitely wasn't quite as jam-packed as in Delhi, but oh the sights to see. Fruit peddlers of every sort, rickshaws everywhere, naked children running around, monkeys climbing up the sides of buildings, men being given a shave in a chair by the roadside...so much eye candy! I even saw about a hundred cows out for an early-morning swim in a small lake.
Banana Peddler:
What do you think is on top of this car??
Clean Cows
With all of that to look at, the trip seemed very fast, and before I knew it, we were at our first destination: an ancient fort called Fatehpur Sikri. We'd be heading to the Taj Mahal later--we thought it might be better to avoid going in the hottest part of the day.
Fatehpur Sikri is this big huge palace from the 1500s built by Emperor Akbar. He was the king of the Mughal Empire--before the British came to stir things up; India had been divided into several principalities. Much like Italy. The story goes that the palace was built to celebrate the birth of Akbar's long-awaited son. If I remember well, it was his 3rd wife who finally gave him the son (the other 2 were still hanging around), and so he prized her with the most beautiful building on the complex.
Anyway, it is an incredibly beautiful and well-preserved palace, all done in a red sandstone, so it has a dark pink color...really impressive. We had a guide for the morning, so we really got to learn some fun things! Example: the king had a bed that sat on a very high platform made of stone. In the cold winters, they'd build a fire beneath it to keep him warm. In the hot summers, they'd actually flood the room with water, and that would keep him cool!
Here I am at Fatehpur Sikri:
We spent the entire morning at the palace, and then set off to do two things: first, meet up with my friend Bryant, who was cabbing himself to Agra, and second, find a place to eat.
Both proved troublesome.
Since I hadn't known Bryant was going to be in India, and they had already booked out train tickets weeks ago, he had to find separate transportation to come to Agra. He was having an adventure and a half in a horrible traffic jam of the sort where people abandon their cars and just start walking...so it was some time before we could meet up with him.
On the lunch front, our cab driver was driving us crazy by insisting again and again that we eat at his friend's restaurant--a place called Indiana. He was very persistent. We asked him to take us one place, he'd circle around and return to Indiana. We'd ask him to go someplace else--we'd end up at Indiana.
"Take us to Trident Hotel!" No. Indiana. "Take us to the Oberoi!" Ummmm....Indiana. This went on for actually a very long time. He was quite irritated with us and vice-versa. Most of this went on in Hindi, so I didn't follow extremely well, but eventually, we got him to take us where we wanted to go. Mostly because we were trying to meet up with Bryant, and as long as we were not going to eat lunch at the meeting-place, he finally complied.
We nailed down a hotel where we could meet up with Bryant, and exited the car. And guess what?
We stayed for lunch.
1 comment:
Enjoying your blog, Ang! How much longer do you have in India?
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