Days 3-5: tourists in a foreign land

In the few days since we last posted, we've spent around 15 hours in transit, on a variety of modes of transport including a train (from Delhi to Agra, where we wrote the last post), air conditioned minibuses, a local bus with no air conditioning to speak of - actually pretty cool thanks to the number of openable windows! - a tuk tuk and an air conditioned taxi. Georgia maintains that an in-depth review of each mode of transport would be dull; Jon remains optimistic.

Still left to try: bicycle rickshaw, moped, camel, and elephant

We've been trying to avoid seeing the sights during the hottest part of the day, which has meant 6am starts most days. Setting alarms was one thing we hoped to escape on this trip but given the temperatures we've come to terms with it. We then have the early afternoons in the hotels for a siesta, something Georgia (as quite an expert in the afternoon nap) is slowly training Jon how to do.

Agra
The train journey to Agra was an eye-opener. Our experience was very comfortable indeed: the train was clean and spacious, and we were quickly served a tea with biscuits, followed later by a (somewhat unidentifiable) cooked breakfast, and then finally a tray of sweets! But while Jon worked on our previous post, Georgia watched out the window. In between stretches of agricultural land lay collections of makeshift houses surrounded by piles of rubbish. From these villages came people to the train tracks for their morning ablutions, clearly not fazed by the passing eyes on the trains. And if they were, it seems they had little choice in where and how to do their business.

Our first stop in Agra was the Red Fort. Forts and palaces are technically different (forts being for war, and palaces being for royal families to live in), but it seems that you can't really have a palace without it looking quite a lot like a fort (as royal families seem often to be in the business of starting wars). The Red Fort was home to the Mughal emperors - and as such was well protected. It sports a wide moat - now dry, but previously filled with alligators - and is surrounded by layers of thick walls of red local stone. Inside the first layer starving wild animals were kept to see off any would-be attackers. If an army were able to breach that, next they faced a narrow ramp down which boulders could be pushed towards them. This protection was of course on top of all the soldiers in place for defence - and though the need for defence is long past, the fort is still a barracks for the Indian army.

This was the greenest place for miles around; a testament to the fort's luxury

From the Red Fort we had a good view of the quintessential Indian tourist attraction: the Taj Mahal. The emperor built the majestic building as an eternal monument to the love between him and his wife (at her request on her deathbed). We visited the Taj later in the afternoon so as the sun was starting to go down. It is a magical spot.



Apparently you can pay someone to fix the minaret under construction in Photoshop. We aren't sure why anyone would want that; it isn't what the place looked like when we were there.

The buildings sit in front of a beautiful garden of lawns and ponds which wildlife frolic around. Unlike other very famous monuments around the world we have visited, it was spaced out so the crowds all have space to enjoy it for themselves. Our delight there was sitting on a cool bench in the shade, looking up at the famous icon with baby monkeys playing in the bushes before us.

Madhogarth
After the Taj, it was time to get on a 3-hour local bus with no air conditioning towards our next stop - a 'heritage stay' in the village of Madhogarth. Unfortunately, Jon had succumbed to the dreaded, yet inevitable, Delhi belly and spent most of the journey perched gingerly at the front of the bus with an open window handy! Thankfully, the kind bus conductor recommended buttermilk as a remedy at the halfway stop - and that, combined with a can of Sprite, some rehydration powder and the concern of our fellow passengers, saw him bounce back very quickly indeed. So if you take away one thing from this blog, let it be that buttermilk is good for nausea!

Arriving at Madhogarth was an experience in itself. After a transfer onto an air conditioned minibus, we dove off the main freeway and headed upwards along dusty, uneven single tracks. Through the heat haze and the dust emerged a rocky pinnacle with a building perched atop it. Madhogarth fort - our home for the night.

The fort was, as far as we know, not used by the British, but was instead in the hands of a local lord who was subservient to the royal family of Jaipur. It was the site of a fairly famous battle between the Rajput and Maratha armies, in which the defenders were victorious despite their smaller numbers. Still in the hands of the family who owned it at that time, they've elected to turn it into a boutique hotel to prevent it from falling into decay. Upon arrival we had time to go and get freshened up (which Jon was much in need of after the morning's frivolities) before going for a walk around the village that surrounds the fort.

The village was an interesting experience. It's plain that the government has taken steps to support communities like this; we saw the local khadi factory (khadi is the cloth made famous by Ghandi and a government-subsidised industry), the water station for the local school, and the washrooms - both also provided by the state (which also plans to ensure that every household has a washroom in their house in the near future). We saw houses being freshly painted and made out of brick, instead of the traditional mix of mud and cow dung (though that is used still for its mosquito-repelling properties), funded by money funnelled into the town by sons and daughters working in Jaipur. And, of course, we saw lots of adorable children who seemed only to know one phrase in English: "one photo!"

These two guys also wanted a photo, because we're all still kids inside

That evening we ate dinner with the current owner of the property, a well-educated young man with an earnest desire to preserve the heritage of his ancestral home. We also tried on local dress - turbans for the boys, saris for the girls

What a lovely pair we make!

It was a wonderful evening - watching the sun go down from atop the fortress walls, and then watching the morning sun rise over breakfast the next morning, was breathtaking. But these last few days, it must be said, have built a bit of a wall between us and some parts of India. We've been shown round beautiful monuments, rich pieces of history and shown a small portion of what real life is like in India. But as both of us think back on the people on the tracks on our way out of Delhi, and as we see the people sat in the squalor of the streets we walk past, we're reminded - a little uncomfortably - that there's a very large portion of India right under our noses that we're not being shown. It doesn't necessarily invalidate what we're being shown - it's not like the village around Madhogarth was set up purely to entertain tourists with its folksy charm and cottage industry making bangles - but it's certainly not the whole story. That, we think, we'll have to find for ourselves.

J&g

LINKS TO REVIEWS:

1. Hotel Taj Villas (our hotel in Agra)
2. Agra Fort
3. Kalra's Cottage Industries (carpet making shop in Agra)
4. Maya Restaurant (where we ate after the Taj Mahal)
5. Fort Madhogarh