Leh - Delhi - Agra and Agra Fort

This morning, we got up even earlier than yesterday. My mobile phone woke us at 4am... We had a light breakfast half an hour later and the hotel staff got some Austrian sweets from me. Poor them had to be awake this early as well. We then gave our drivers their tips and sweets and a postcard. They were really thankful and happy although they didn’t even open the envelopes. Our guide was nearly moved to tears when he got his yesterday. It is really sad to say goodbye to the three of them, we all like them very much!

So off we went at 5am. One last time driving through Leh. At the airport parking lot we had the very final farewell. Then the checks started. We had to show our passports and tickets to even enter the airport! Then our luggage was x-ray examined, we were checked through too. Then we met our guide’s sister who had been in Nubra when we visited his family. She helped us through the check-in and the rest of the security stuff. Then she even organized some tea for us when we waited for the boarding. Unfortunately, we then didn’t see her again and couldn’t really say goodbye.

At twenty past six, we could start the boarding and at seven we left the Ladakhi ground. There was not much to see during the flight because the weather was all cloudy and you couldn’t see a single snow-capped mountain.

In Delhi, it was cloudy too and had “just” 27°C, which was quite a shock for us after the 18°C that we had in Leh this morning. We met the guide that had welcomed us in Delhi on our first arrival and he led us to our bus. It is a tourist bus which has eleven seats, nine for us and two for the driver and his assistant. We haven’t found out what the assistant is there for yet...

We left the airport at nine. It soon started to rain and we drove through streets that were rather lakes or rivers. I felt very sorry for those bicycle drivers who got all wet and muddy. I was very busy watching the people passing by while we slowly rolled through Delhi. This city is not only the capital of India but also one of the biggest cities in the world. More than twice the population of Austria lives here!

Motor rickshas, buses, trucks, bikes, motorcycles, pedestrians, cows, dogs,... I watched everything I could see from my window. I took some pictures too. Although I had expected this to be completely different to Ladakh, I was astonished by what I saw. For example, the cows were much taller than the ones I was used to by now. And they had humps on their backs!

I noticed that in Delhi there were lots of plants, trees and bushes. 20% of the city are green and it is planned to raise this number to 30%! What I didn’t like was all the trash that was lying around. It was really much more than in Leh.

I saw women in beautiful saris and orange vests cleaning the streets. For the first time in more than two weeks I saw traffic lights. There were children in neat school uniforms and kids that wore torn shirts. Motor rickshas with at least fifteen people in them, some standing, some kids sitting on the lap of their parents. Motorcycle drivers sometimes wore helmets but the women in saris that sat behind the driver (except for one always a man) never had one. Sometimes they had kids inbetween them.

It were too many impressions at a time, I can’t even remember half of the things I saw...

It took us two hours to get out of Delhi. At 2pm we finally stopped to had lunch. I expected it to be some tourist-restaurant. But I didn’t expect it to be some tables in between souvenir shops and with a menu that only had prices written in it that were up to four times higher than in the expensive restaurants in Leh. And tax was not included. Most of us had a tomato soup. I didn’t finish mine because it was too spicy. Like I said, I can’t eat that spicy stuff, I wonder why.

Seven hours after we left the Indira Ghandi airport, we arrived at our hotel in Agra. It is a beautiful building inside and the rooms are very clean. But they charge for everything. In our room there are two bottles of mineral water. If we take it, we have to pay 300 rupees per liter. Plus tax. Guess what a liter of water costs in Ladakh. 20 rupees, tax included...

We immediately met again to see the Agra Fort. Our new guide is not from WeltWeitWandern but from the ministry of tourism and culture. He is nice too but to me it seems that he kind of tells us his text by heart with all numbers and facts that we will never remember.

The Fort was more impressive than we expected it to be. It is the former residence of the Mogul kings. We saw all the defense gadgets that were similar to those you can find with European castles. Then we went further in and had a look at all the rooms that were made with stone inlay, gold and precious stones. It is a pity that most of it was destroyed. Our guide told us that it were the British but our guide book says that most of the stones, gold and silver was robbed by invadors. One could feel that our guide wasn’t best friends with the British. He always stressed that it was the British’ fault that he couldn’t show us how beautiful the Frot once was and we had to imagine the shining gold and stones.

From some points we also had a great view on the Taj Mahal. It is strange to be so close to my original destination. Tomorrow morning I’m gonna be there! We had bad luck because the sky was still all cloudy and we couldn’t see the Taj in the evening sun. But we were rewarded for that when we saw two rainbows before we left.

To get from the bus to the Fort and back, we had to pass through a real mass of street merchants. Our guide gave us a good advice before we left the bus: don’t hear, don’t see, don’t speak. Just ignore those guys. As soon as you say “no”, you are already responding to them and they will run after you. If you completely ignore them, they’ll most likely let you be. And this really worked so far!

Back at the hotel, we had a shower and then six of us met again to go out for dinner. Eating at the hotel would have been even more expensive than in the restaurant we were driven to. It was simple and looked sterile. I ordered some “very mild please” vegetable plate. Guess what. It was hot after all. Not too hot but it tasted a bit strange too. Annetraud and I changed plates and I had some of her fruit rice but I didn’t like that too much either. I’m looking forward to some really mild pasta or any dish in Austria! But here at least the bread was good.