Agra - Tourist and Touts Delight

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It was nice sunny Thursday afternoon when we confirmed on the plan of going to Agra from Gurgaon (this is where i have being staying for sometime now). Come saturday morning we wake up with our general laziness and pack our bags for the big trip to Agra and Fatehpur Sikri.

We reach Faridabad/Ballabhgarh Bus Depot which is on the Delhi Agra highway and we were on a budget trip we get a Madhya Pradesh Parivahan and we enter we see no place to sit. Never do that by mistake, never take a bus which is going to another state from your preferred location you will never get a seat. The ticket cost Rs. 120 till the outside gate of Taj Mahal after a smooth ride and good lunch at Baanke Bihari hotel which would not be my first choice to stop but note: this is where all the State Transport Bus Stops. We get down from the bus @ 5 pm after some time we realized we were a bit too late. Read below to know more.

Taj Mahal is open till 7 almost but last ticket is at 6 pm and it gets dark and no point in going inside. Well let me move back a bit, we got down from the bus and there was a smiling rickshaw (auto for Delhi people) wala waiting for us.
Now comes the best salesman pitch you can ever hear.....(let me call him Bunty)
Bunty: Good evening sir, where do you want to go?We: Taj Mahal, how much?
Bunty: Sir, only Rs. 10
We: Cool, lets get in,
Bunty (after getting into the rickshaw): Sir i would like to say that no bags are allowed in Taj Mahal. Where are you staying?
We: A friend of us told us some place (saying the hotel names reading from the sms which I had received)
Bunty: Sir, those place are not good, I will show you a better place and then you can go to see Taj Mahal once you put the bags away.
We: How much will you charge?
Bunty: Sir only Rs. 30We drive in some bylanes, mini lanes of Agra and reach a place Baluganj where we find Lavania Vilas in our budget well over our budget but in our effort to reach Taj we made the deal, put our bags and then on our way to Taj Mahal.
Bunty: So sir, Agra is a very beautiful place and there are so many things to buy and see such as Saris made from Banana and Bamboos
We: ohhhh! (we were delighted because we have never heard of saris made from banana and bamboos)
Bunty: Sir, Agra is famous for Leather shoes, there is a small market for shoes also.
We: Ohhh! (shoes, that too leather all men like it)
Bunty: Then I will take you for dinner. What would you like to eat?
We: Well, what is famous in Agra?
Bunty: Sir, everything Indian, Mughlai, Chinese etc etc
We: mmmm we will think about it.
Bunty: Now sir we have reach Taj Mahal but as the line is too big outside, I shall take you to a person who will give you the tickets but you have to pay Rs. 5 extra.
We: Rs. 5 no big deal ok.

We did our Taj Mahal trip and awwed in wonder, stories from the guide (who give exams to get UP Guide License). Tool lots of photographs and then, sir you should buy mini Taj Mahal, we go in UP handloom shop just outside Taj Mahal and bought 1 mini Taj Mahal for Rs. 100 and after just 10 steps the same product was sold for Rs. 50 (note: do not buy anything in the first store check out other shops compare and then buy)

Bunty: Sir, how was the trip?
We: It was nice. Bunty: Now sir the famous sari store.
We: Bunty, how much is the whole trip going to cost us?
Bunty: Sir, only Rs. 250



Well if you read from the second line of Rs. 10 we paid Rs. 250 and if we had taken rickshaws stop by stop it would not have cost us Rs. 100. Agra is a small place, decide a place and get down there and say bye bye to your auto rickshaw wala. Because it is like a spider web, but the spider is a smiling rickshaw driver who with good talks will take you to places which he intends you should see. If you want to read we ended up buying Saris for our near and dear without us having any knowledge of it coming up in the next post.

So as my title says, Tourist and Touts delight, there are so many things to see in Agra which millions website have shown but there are only few who write the real thing and this is the real thing.