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.

White Water Rafting - The WoW Experience

Was always thinking of going to Kolad, near Mumbai for Rafting in the dam released water but luckily had some project in Gurgaon for more than 2 weeks and as weekend was inbetween the work days, me and my colleague decided to go to Rishikesh for the real deal of White Water Rafting in the Holy Ganges.

Rishikesh a small sleepy town on the banks of Ganges which is around 224 KMS from Delhi ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus) is where all the major activities of White Water Rafting takes place. Now I shall describe on how we travelled to Rishikesh and what were the day schedule.

We decided to leave early in the afternoon, left around 12:30 Pm after having a good breakfast at Haldiram's in Gurgaon. After 60 Kms ride through New Delhi and Old Delhi we reached ISBT in one and half hour. Entered the massive ISBT and were asking people where will we get buses for Haridwar or Rishikesh also deep in our heart we were hoping we get a Air Conditioned bus but then we hear a sweet words "Haridwar Rishikesh Haridwar Rishikesh" from a torn down bus conductor. We ask him once and hop on.

Note: ISBT is one those massive bus terminals whe breuses ply from Delhi to almost every city 500+ kms from there. You can reach anytime and you can get a bus to anywhere 24 hours. And it is the starting point so you do get a place to sit also.

The bus had cushion seats and like an idiot I selected a window seat on top of back wheel. So could not get good leg room. Note: Always sit next on the first seat next to the door has ample leg room. The tickets cost Rs. 177 only and after 7 hours running through wrong side and off the road we reached Haridwar.

Our trip was taken care by The Great Himalayan Expedition and as we reached late we had to take a car for Rs. 600 to Marine Drive (one of the sandy beaches on Ganges). We got off after 25 Kms ride to the beach and a raft came to ferry us on the other side. Where we see lots of tents and people joking and singing and drinking.

We were assisted towards our tent which had a big cot and blankets. After having dinner which had veg and non veg fare was quite good. After relaxing a bit by the river we went off to sleep

Note: Things to carry, hand sanitisers, soaps, tissue papers, torch and medicines and top of the list should be alcohol (if you drink)

Got up around 7 am and we were told the next raft moves out at 10 am while we did our morning stuff and had a hearty meal. We were introduced to our Leader, Ram Singh who was going to guide us on the rough and beautiful Ganges.

We were first told all the things about the raft, the oar and what are the different terms.

There are around 9+ Rapids on the 25 Km Rafting trip, will try to name each of them
- Balance : one of the easier rapids where we were told to stand on the raft edge and it was pure fun to hold your balance
- 3 Blind Mice: 3 rapids one after another with difficulty increaing on each one.
- Back to Center: Another simple one with bit of bump inbetween.
- Roller Coaster: The big Daddy of all if you are right in center of it you can be hit by huge waves on your face and at times lose your balance.
- Golf Course : Similar to Roller Coaster but a bit smaller we missed out on the main surge.

There are 4 more which I currently cannot remember the name of. Icing on the cake would be the 25 feet clifff jump where we saw lots of guys reaching the edge and backing out.

And the end of the day after paddling forward and backward and swimming in the river made us a tired bunch.

The total cost for us was Rs. 1600 for Staying and rafting, traveling was around 1000 from Gurgaon to Gurgaon and all the experience was priceless.