If I am not mistaken, this is called the Persian Gate, built for all the Persian architects and craftsmen that designed and provided the materials for the buildings.
I really like this entrance to Humayun's Tomb
Really looked like Taj Mahal's sis, eh?
From the top of Humayun's Tomb, looking at the surrounding garden leading to the entrance
I liked this last pic taken. Humayun's Tomb is also called The Garden Tomb. There were really a lot of tombs built for the family members inside, outside and in the basement of the monument as well.
We started our journey to Taj Mahal the day after. After much checkings and negotiations for the car, we settled for 3800rp for a Tata Indiga car. We managed to get one tour agent to quote us 3000rp for the same car but due to some miscommunication we settled for the second tour agent that quoted 3800rp. The costs for sedan car like Suzuki Esteem, Ford, Suzuki Honda City go up accordingly. It can reach till 8000rp for a car. The small Indiga was comfortable enough for 3 persons, excluding the driver. On top of that we also need to pay about 560rp for the toll and car road tax - yes, we have to pay 2-times taxes on the way to Agra! It was about 175rp and 275rp respectively. There were also 2 tolls to pay, 53rp each.
After an early breakfast in the hotel (I stuffed myself to the fullest), I already expected a harsh, dangerous and 'mou ngai tai' journey after hearing all the experience of the earlier batch of colleagues who went the week before. I sat next to the driver. My 2 other colleagues could sleep peacefully at the back of the car but I stayed ALERT most of the times!
We took this car, Tata Indiga. There were some cili padis and green lemon tied together in a string and another separate string of black furry balls in front of the car, for 'safety' reasons and I think they worked!!
First few KMs when leaving Gurgoan to Agra. Barren land - This pic is quite dark but it really looked like I was in South Africa haha...
Very simple petrol station. Petrol cost about 34rp per litre and diesel about 40+rp per litre if I remembered correctly. Now I know why Malaysia kept on saying that the cost of petrol here is the cheapest...
Jam, jam at the toll
We were so lucky to experience 'tayar pancit' on the way. Our driver changed the tyre first along the road and then drove to this shop to get it fixed. That boy in the pic was the hero.
Our driver stopped by this place while he went out to pay the car road tax. There was this bunch of monkey performers around. This pic was taken from inside the car and that guy demanded us to pay him for the photos taken!!! I used my small handphone to capture it and my colleague used his huge Nikon camera. I tried to say that I didn't snap any pic by showing to him that it's only a handphone but clearly the guy was updated with the technology as he used hand language to indicate he knew it was possible!
Lots of home tents like this in Gurgoan, Delhi and on the way to Agra. These look good already, some don't look like tents at all...
This photo was taken when I was already out of Taj Mahal, it was already past 6pm and the queue was still this long! It was also this long when we arrived. Luckily we managed to cut the queue by pretending to queue at the shorter ladies' queue. There were 2 separate queues, for ladies and men. My colleagues pretended to know nothing and queued with me and later were asked by the guards to cut into the the men's queue. Luckily we were taught to do like this before, else I think we would be queueing till the entrance was closed at 7pm.
I was informed that the journey should be around 4-5 hours only but ours was longer due to the flat tyre and jam in Agra town. My anticipation and mood at that time has been eaten by the tiring 7-hour journey. But we were entering one of the 7 wonders of the world! There were 4 entrance gates and this was the main gateway.
My first sight of Taj Mahal. I didn't feel the "WOW" factor when I first saw it - most probably due to tiredness from the journey. But coming back, looking at the pics again, I really felt amazed and glad I've been there. Somehow, to me, it looked grander in the pics though.
Big garden with water feature
The whole monument is made of white marble. It felt cool touching the stones.
Foreign visitors were provided with shoe covers. We were not supposed to step on the Taj with shoes. Local visitors went up bare-footed, some with socks. It was full of people and the smell...
We had to jostle with hundreds of people to get into the Taj to see the tombs (and the smell...). There were only one opened entrance and there were like 6 queues going into the small door and don't know how many queues coming out through the same door!!! And the guard was smart enough to decide to stand in between, posing as the entrance and exit separator!!!
It was a big effort getting in, worst than the sardine-packed experience we get in our LRTs during peak hours. Inside the Taj, there were 2 tombs. I didn't manage to snap any pictures because it was dark and there were just too many people. One tomb is Shah Jahan's wife's and one is for the king himself.
A mosque on the left with nearby pond for people to take the "air sembahyang"
I thought this is the second mosque but after checking out in the Internet, it is only used as Guest House and never used for prayers.
River Jamuna behind the Taj. From the net I read that Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Though numerous attempts have been made to clean it, the efforts have proven to be futile. Water remained stagnant for 9 months aggravated the situation. The Govt of India continues to take measures to clean it up.
We left Taj Mahal at around 6:15pm and wanted to visit Agra Fort immediately as the entrance ticket to Taj Mahal cost 675rp and it included tickets to a few more places. By the time we reached the fort, it was already closed. Too bad. We only managed to snap a few pics outside.
And it took another 5 hours of journey back to Gurgoan. We managed to stop at a restaurant called Maharaja at about 10pm to have dinner. I ordered the Mutton Briyani and my colleague ordered this chicken minced meat wrapped over mutton balls. It came in the form of a fire sword presentation, too bad I forgot to take a pic but the meatballs looked like the one above. My mutton briyani tasted DELICIOUS unlike the briyani we have here at all hehe... Big pieces of mutton are buried inside the rice. The fragrant and taste...just yummy!
I also tried for the first time the drinks apart from those in the hotel and from McD (we had 4-5 times McD meals throughout the week), masala tea! The first masala tea I tried was from D'Tandoor in Subang Jaya and I went to the toilet the next morning. Masala tea is well-known to help with digestion. But the masala tea from this Maharaja Restaurant was fine, and it's with local milk as well!
On our last day, we went shopping around Gurgoan. We didn't go to the shopping complexes but ventured to shop lots along the streets where Esprit, Nike, Adidas, Levi's were having big sale up to 70% discount. As usual, I don't sapu that much haha...
Then at night we decided to have dinner at the hotel before leaving for airport. I had the mutton curry with chapati and my colleague had this Chicken Tikka Masala with rice which tasted very delicious again.
I think the hotel food price was quite reasonable. Mine cost 325rp and the one below was 375rp, excluding another 12% taxes.
And that's all I have experienced about India. No vomitting, no diarhorrea, no shock - just experience that's very different from our normal lives here. And I'll never forget the ultimate driving adventure! I have a feeling that I may have to go back there again and let's see what to do there next besides work! :P
Let's see if there'll be any part 3 as I could get some copies of "artistic" pics from my colleague's real camera. As you may have noticed, there's no pic of me at all so far haha..
5 comments:
nice! isit just me or theyre all driving the same car (at the toll) XD
haha ya, in India, small cars are more than big cars. Those common ones are Tata Indiga, Suzuki Maruti WagonR and Hyundai's (I forgot the model name!). None of those cars can be found in Malaysia.
oo... they look abit like perodua hehe. keep the posts coming! :)
lucky u to have all the good food in clean environment, i heard some pretty scary stories about the cleanliness and the smell in india but i always wish to visit the country on my own :p hopefully u can be my guide? hahahaha
enjoyed ur post!
hehe..nvr want to go to Taj Mahal or those places for the second time..the price is not really worth it. Things are really expensive in India. Unless it's fully paid :P
Cleanliness and smell yes, you have to be wary. Can only try proper restaurants. Smells are everywhere, just have to bear with it :)
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