Day 3 - On the way to the Taj

The train ride in to Agra was a fun experience.  The seats in half of the cabin faced the front of the train and the other half faced the rear, makinng one row in the middle where you sat across a table from three other passengers.  I was in this middle row.  Across from me were 3 members of a 7 member family from Afghanistan.  The seat next to me also included one person from this Afghan family. 

I didn’t catch the names of my table-mates, but I did find out that the father can speak five five languages and used to work for the Department for International Development (the British version of USAID).  The two young boys who were at the table were really freaking adorable.  One was 13 and the other 9. 

The 9 year old ended up sitting next to me. He acted so much like London would in that situation.  He didn’t make eye contact and pretty much pretended that I didn’t exist. It was bad enough that he had to sit next to a stranger, but next to a foreign GIRL?!?  That's just scarey!  It probably didn't help that his mom kept trying to convince him to practice his english with me.

Part way though the trip the 9 year old sat next to his mom and she took out a small, square, red velvet book with a brass medallion on both covers. She handed the small book to her youngest son and leaned over him singing the passages that were written.  He would correct her if she got any of the wording incorrect. The moment was so precious.  I was aching to take a photo of them, but knew that it would completely ruin the moment.

On the train they served us a tea break and breakfast.  I was very impressed.

When I first walked into the bathroom I thought there wasn’t any toilet paper but was happy to discover that the toilet paper was tucked under the counter, the perfect height for a squatter. You think using a squat pot is difficult? Try using a squat pot on a moving train! As long as you don’t end up with pee in your shoe you can consider the experience a success J. 

After we got off the train it was clear that Agra was quite a bit colder than Delhi The morning was chilley and Gene kept looking at me saying, ‘It’s really cold, don’t you think it’s cold?’.  After leaving the station we headed to the ticketing office to purchase Gene’s return ticket for later the same day.  In line we started a conversation with some other people behind us.  This is how we met our new friends, Omar from Mexico and Varonique from South Africa.

Once the tickets were purchased, and I was done taking pictures of wandering cows and stray dogs, we were off to the Taj Mahal! To the moto!!

The motos are small three wheel motorcycles that can seat 3 passengers...or 4...or 5...or 6... The moto that we got zipped through traffic with every turn seeming like  a close call. Each moto is decorated a little different on the inside.  The one that Gene and I took had pink and purple flowers sown into the covers and ceiling.  After about 10 minutes of weavin through traffic we swung around a round-about and parked in front of a touristy park entrance. After paying the driver 100 INR (about 3 US dollars) we headed down the path.

Parked on the path were a few camels pulling buggies, I felt bad for their poor caloused knees.  We also saw some monkeys on our walk to the Taj entrance.