February 13

I awoke for final time at 0645. The guy in the top bunk was loud and turned on the light. He was getting off the train, but that is a rude awakening!! Anyway, Jeff was up and came in my compartment. Only one of the other guys remained, so Jeff stayed with me after he brought his stuff, and we set up the chair. We ate an omelette sandwich and each had a chai, and watched out the window.

We arrived at our Agra train station stop, being only three minutes late. (It is ten am). Jeff actually stepped off before the train had completely stopped, and had to take a couple of steps to get our last bag from me. We were close to the first out and were already hit up for a tuk-tuk or taxi. Anyway, we were on platform #4, so we had to take the ramp up and over the other train rail lines. Jeff bartered with a guy and we loaded up into a tuk-tuk. The morning is crisp cool, and the wind chill in the tuk-tuk… well, we got out our jackets!! Our weather app said it was 64 F, but definitely felt cooler.

We made it to our place in one piece, traffic seems more intense here, for whatever reason. (There was way more piercing horn blowing.) Anyway, we are at Big Brother Hostel. No one was at the main desk, and it was open so we went on up to the rooftop… because a view of… “ba-dum-dum-tss” …

The TAJ MAHAL!!!!!

Wow! It was amazing! The one thing in India everyone recognizes and knows around the world! And we are seeing it for the first time from the rooftop of where we are staying for three nights. Incredible! We just absorbed it for a few minutes. It was surreal. The visibility, as with practically everywhere in India – it is very “hazy” (smoggy!) But it is still stunning. We ordered a second breakfast or lunch. While we waited for our food, we called Jeff's sister and her husband and shared our view with them. We spoke until our breakfast was ready. We had Upma, Honey Toast, coffee, and masala tea.

Now we went out, exploring where we can get great pictures of the Taj Mahal at sunrise, at sunset, and every minute in between there! (Jeff bought tickets for us to go there tomorrow.) We are walking and I think every tuk-tuk wanted to give us a ride. The reactions to our answer of – “No thanks. We are just walking,” ranged from disbelief, to one laughing, to utter amazement. Obviously, no foreigners do this. We do feel bad sometimes, because we are depriving the drivers of a fare. But we know we need the exercise. Anyway…

We saw the Taj (this is how it is shortened in talking), but views are limited on purpose. Right up at the complex, the ticket entrance, you still don't have a view! There are high walls/trees all around it also. And the complex is huge!! The tickets for a Indian resident is 50 Rupees (60 cents). For foreigners it is 22 times more expensive, 1100 Rupees ($13.20). I can not wait until tomorrow – morning, at dawn.

Then we walked by the massive Agra Fort. We will be going here tomorrow as well. The sun was starting to do it's golden glow, and made the fort pop. It is brilliantly lit in reddish hues. We walked and walked to go around the huge layout of the fort. Looking forward to see the inside of this as well. Unfortunately, there are homeless all about this fort as well. We now walk across the river on a bridge.

Then we meandered toward a sunset spot that actually showcases the Taj, the Mehtab Bagh, which is garden area. We had to pay to get to the view, of course. We see the Taj also lit up some from the sun setting. This view overlooks a river in the foreground with the Taj being the “backdrop”.. what a backdrop! It is still just unreal, that I am looking at this. And we realize we will be going to visit on Valentine's Day! Kind of fitting, if you think about it. It was built as a display of love – a husband for a wife (I think this is right, I'll find out tomorrow).

We finally got into a tuk-tuk that had been following us since the bridge (he was actually driving on the wrong side of the road to give us a ride). He was persistent I will give him that! At one point he found us again and gave us some papaya! The driver was Lucky, and his tuk-tuk is different than normal tuk-tuks. We have seen quite a few of this type here in our walkabout today. Is this a North India thing, or an Agra thing?? Questions. Anyway, he got us to our hostel, in one piece. One thing I will say, this kind of tuk-tuk is not as comfortable.

When we arrived in our hostel, the manager met us and said we had been given the wrong room. So we loaded up our stuff and moved down on the main level. (We were not too impressed with this mix up. Actually when we checked in there seemed to be a bit of “keystone cops” routine going on.) We got all rearranged in our new smaller room and went up to the rooftop to get supper. The Taj is not lit up at night! Bummer! This surprised both of us. The manager said it is never lit up. Now I digress, because I have to mention the monkeys. They are everywhere in this city, and they are a different kind. They have a red face and red rump. The manager turned on the lights of the rooftop restaurant after we were done looking at the Taj, and the monkeys came out in force! They were screeching and bounding all over the tin roof. It was quite noisy for a bit, but the monkeys did finally calm down. The manager also said the monkeys were not in the town like this before COVID, they have only been this bad after COVID.

Anyway, the cook, Matthew came and took our order: Butter Chicken; Aloo Gobi Curry; Fennel Rice; and Garlic Naan. The food was excellent and we enjoyed every bite! Jeff had a Kingfisher and I had a Sprite. Finished we went back to our room and completed this blog, then bed!