The Hut

Now I have seen everything I really needed to see here. The Taj Mahal. I haven't really had too many plans of seeing stuff, but Taj Mahal was a place everyone simply has to see if in India. Especially if you're up north as it was only 5-6 hours bus drive from Jaipur.

Well, it was nice. And better than in pictures, of course. Quite impressive! But when you go inside it there's very little to see - just a tomb. So you better stay outside and take pictures. Getting to the area costs 750 rupees which is a lot of money around here. Of course if you're local you pay just 20 rupees which seems to be the logic here. I guess it's ok though - tourists can afford lots more anyway. And if the price was 750 rupees for a local person aswell I doubt there would be more than 10 of those per day. Now there were plenty.

Approaching the palace.

Me and the Hut. The obligatory picture.

Nice one...

The city Agra around Taj Mahal is nothing special really. Basically it's a tourist trap built around the palace. We were warned of the many touts and people trying to cheat you but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Or maybe I'm getting used to just ignoring the touts.

We left to Agra on Saturday around 2pm. Took 5 hours, then we had some beers and went to bed. And got up early. Taj Mahal opens at 6am and everyone says it's best when the sun rises. So we tried to get up for that but eventually we managed to get there maybe around 8am. One of the reasons was that the ticket counter is 1km off from the actual palace. Which is really logical. After the visit we wandered around and left for Jaipur at half past four. With some crappy bus with no AC and it took 6 hours this time. Ohwell.

We had a habit of shooting stray cows. Or, well, the gun didn't really work but we might have! For some beef. Mom, please prepare some beef steak for me when I get home. Ok..?

A lot of similar people were walking somewhere. Something was happening somewhere. This happens a lot around India - there's always something somewhere but impossible to know what and where and why.

They sell everything in India.

Overall, I am now ready. I have seen Taj Mahal. I have seen Mumbai. I have seen some places nearby and will see one more on Wednesday (place called Lalsot). Oh, and Jaipur. Although I think I haven't seen any of the sights here yet. Maybe I should dedicate some day to go through those.. Not too interested though. Two weeks time.

The Taj Mahal night guards didn't appreciate our nightly shortcuts. Ohwell.

P.S. Today I got a package from my parents. A book about the Finnish nature, in English. They wanted to send a present to my host family for taking care of me. The book is actually really nice but reading it made me miss Finland again more... Gosh.