India – Agra

by Amy ~ June 24, 2007

Because of the riots in Rajastan, we had to change our itinerary.  We decided to go to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, following Chennai.

We flew through Delhi and had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the Delhi airport. We had brought our cell phones with us and purchased minutes for a very low price. These phones came in very handy as it allowed us to communicate with our drivers (and call home!)

Unfortunately, the driver in Delhi was one of the worst we had experienced!!  The trip to Agra was about 4 ½ hours and our driver was so bad we thought we might die. Our previous two drivers were awesome.  They could navigate the cows, dogs, people, rickshaws, cars etc. and make it seem easy.  This guy scared us and the bald tires on our vehicle made us even more concerned!  To top it off, our driver was constantly pulling over and trying to get another “tour guide/ translator” guy into the car because he couldn’t understand us. While he said it was free we knew it was a scam and were very frustrated.

We found an Italian restaurant at a western hotel and enjoyed pizza… I love Indian food but after 3 meals a day of curry, I was excited to have something familiar!

It was very very hot in Agra. It kind of feels like you crawled into the oven! We visited the Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal.  We left our hotel at 6:30 AM to beat the heat but it was still over 90 degrees.

We hired a guide who was able to give us a lot of background on the history. The Taj Mahal is beautiful and it was amazing to see such beautiful work which had all been done by hand. After visiting the sites we returned to our hotel and relaxed by the pool and playing ping pong. The Hilton hotels in were great – very clean and reasonably priced.

View Agra Photos