Day 23: Agra aka home of the Taj Mahal

I'm writing this while looking at the Taj Mahal. I wanted to be wowed here. I'm not. What I'm learning on this trip is that expectation and anticipation lead to let downs. So far I've seen three "do-it-before-you-die" man-made wonders: the Colosseum, the Parthenon, and the Taj. The Colosseum was an amazing sight when I saw it immediately upon exiting the metro. Unfortunately, the inside was underwhelming. The Parthenon is a very cool structure to have as a city backdrop, especially at night. Up close, however, it's covered in scaffolding and took me less than five minutes to take in. The pluses for the Taj: it's one of the cleanest places I've been in India and it's well maintained. It's also got scaffolding and, well, it's just not doing it for me.

My favorite experiences on this trip so far have been randomly bumping into the Pantheon in Rome, seeing the monasteries in Meteora, and touring the Lakshmi Narayan Temple in New Delhi. I try to lower my expectations for places like the Taj before I go but fail. The only thing that really has surprised me is that far fewer people tried to sell me things on the way to the Taj than I expected.

A quick run-down of the other sites I saw in Agra...

• Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb aka the Baby Taj: I liked this better than the actual Taj. Beautiful with far fewer tourists and my first major sighting of monkeys!


• Sikandra aka Akbar's Tomb: I was the only non-Indian tourist at Akbar's Tomb so I got my first taste of my celebrity. One family took pictures of me with different permutations of brothers, children, and aunts. Even more monkeys here! I really liked the Tomb and was happy I had my driver take me a ways outside of Agra to see it.


• Agra Fort: My driver said the fort was pretty lame so I was pleasantly surprised when I liked it. I didn't see much as I was there in the evening right before it closed. Still, I met three nice girls from the CAs (Canada and California) and got to see the Taj change color. That made me appreciate the Taj a bit more.

The kindness of strangers
I went to Agra alone and I arrived at the train station 30 minutes before the 8:30 pm departure to Delhi. I recognized four thirty-something foreigners who had been on the train to Agra with me in the morning and asked if I could stand with them. They agreed and I was introduced to four South Africans, two of whom have been living in Delhi for a year. Shortly thereafter, their guide came onto the platform to inform them that the train was two hours late... would they like to go to a nearby hotel for a drink to relax? For a second there I panicked, thinking of staying on that platform for two hours alone. Thankfully, they took me under their wing and let me tag along before and after the train, which didn't leave Agra until 11 pm.

Delhi can be scary
When I arrived in Delhi at 1 am, I was supposed to find a prepaid taxi to take to Supriya's house. Well, as it turns out, there are only prepaid rickshaws from the train station. Ack! After several conversations with Supriya and more panic, I ended up in a cab that took me safely home. The whole way I prayed that I was going to the right place. I got home at 2 am. God, I hate taking taxis at night in India!