Annoyingly we couldn't go and see the taj mahal today, meaning we had to spend an extra day in Agra. Luckily there are still plenty of things to do, and so after breakfast at the hotel next day we found a tuk tuk driver willing to take us on a tour. This started with a visit to the Baby Taj, a small temple made to look like the taj mahal. It's really beautiful with patterned marble over the walls.
Afterwards we went to a nearby water park. How cultured. I went on my first trip to India but this time it was much more quiet which was nice as we didn't require a security escort this time. We arrived and got food at the restaurant there for about 60p, then went on the various slides. There's a little building with indian music playing and water raining down and we went in there and danced with the locals which was so funny.
After that we were driven to a free monument, which was like another temple but quite old and run down. Here there was a big group of boys who I think may have been from a local orphanage? They were really sweet and followed us around, all wanting to shake our hands. Some of them jumped into the river below from so high up which was slightly terrifying to watch.
Next on our tour was a trip to a local shop, which we agreed to do as our tuk tuk driver gets commission even if we buy nothing. We just looked around for like 5 minutes at the various ornaments before heading on to our final stop which was just seeing Agra fort from the outside. It looked pretty but I think we'd all reached our maximum capacity of temple and fort viewings for the day, so there wasn't much point paying to go in. We went to a place where you can see the Taj mahal from behind, which was really pretty and empty.
After this we got back to the hostel and had the cheap dinner there. It was really delicious home cooked curry which was made by a woman they called aunty. Mmmm. We had a quiet evening in the hostel, trying on sarees we rented from aunty to wear to the taj mahal the next day.
Laura x
Afterwards we went to a nearby water park. How cultured. I went on my first trip to India but this time it was much more quiet which was nice as we didn't require a security escort this time. We arrived and got food at the restaurant there for about 60p, then went on the various slides. There's a little building with indian music playing and water raining down and we went in there and danced with the locals which was so funny.
After that we were driven to a free monument, which was like another temple but quite old and run down. Here there was a big group of boys who I think may have been from a local orphanage? They were really sweet and followed us around, all wanting to shake our hands. Some of them jumped into the river below from so high up which was slightly terrifying to watch.
Next on our tour was a trip to a local shop, which we agreed to do as our tuk tuk driver gets commission even if we buy nothing. We just looked around for like 5 minutes at the various ornaments before heading on to our final stop which was just seeing Agra fort from the outside. It looked pretty but I think we'd all reached our maximum capacity of temple and fort viewings for the day, so there wasn't much point paying to go in. We went to a place where you can see the Taj mahal from behind, which was really pretty and empty.
After this we got back to the hostel and had the cheap dinner there. It was really delicious home cooked curry which was made by a woman they called aunty. Mmmm. We had a quiet evening in the hostel, trying on sarees we rented from aunty to wear to the taj mahal the next day.
Laura x
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