India Day 1 to 2 - New Delhi to Agra - The Taj Mahal

India, New Delhi & Agra Trip Index

Day 1 to 2: New Delhi to Agra - The Taj Mahal
Day 3 to 4: New Delhi - Lodi Park & Qutb Complex
Day 4 to 5: New Delhi - Lotus Temple, Gandhi Multimedia Museum & Banquet
Day 6: New Delhi - Morning of Holi & Red Fort
Day 6: New Delhi - Jama Masjid & Safdarjung's Tomb
Day 7: New Delhi - Birla Mandir & India Gate
Day 7: New Delhi - Humayun's Tomb
Day 7: New Delhi - Purana Qila (Old Fort)

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This is the first in a series of posts about my trip to Delhi and Agra, India, to attend the 13th International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications (DASFAA 2008).

Unfortunately, this is the worst trip I ever made abroad. The tourist industry is teeming with significant numbers of unreliable, swindling, and undignified people -- a far cry from the educated and average person on the street. It seems like the government's promotion of Incredible !ndia is totally disconnected from the on-goings at the ground level. Hopefully they can clean up the mess on the ground soon to make India more accessible to tourists visiting on their own. I would not recommend a visit (unless on a packaged tour) before they clean up their act. After all, many of the impressive monuments in this part of India were left by the Mughal (Persian for Mongol) Empire. Since they are merely 350 to 400 years old, they should still stand for at least a hundred years.

17 Mar 08

Off I was for a week in India. Flying by SIA, they had a good selection of meals on board this reasonably short five and a half hour flight to New Delhi. There were two Indian menus and an international menu. Deciding to get into the Indian flavour, I picked something from the Indian menu that tastes great.

Butter Chicken. Tastes great.


Hotel Palace Heights, an unreliable hotel

After touch down in New Delhi, I met up with my friend and we took a cab to our hotel, Hotel Palace Heights, located in the shopping area of Connaught Place. Prepaid cabs are available from the airport counter for 250 Rs (USD 6.25). On arrival the cab driver demanded for a tip. So I proceeded to hand him 10 Rupees (Rs). "This is shit!", he says, "50 or 100 it is okay". Taken aback by his foul mouth I told him, "It is NOT okay. 30 rupees (USD 0.75) take it or nothing!". Thinking in retrospect, I should have just given him nothing for being impolite.

We met our other roommate at the hotel lobby. We had reserved a room for six nights. To our horror, the receptionist told us that they only had the room for us for three nights. "But you agreed to give us six nights!", we argued. "Sorry sir, our laptop broke down and we lost our reservations so everyone is booked for 3 nights", he replied with a smile. It did not seem to bother him that he was obviously using a desktop and lying through his teeth as we could see the reservations on his screen. The hotel had clearly over-booked itself. Then, he assured us probably someone will not show up or will amend their reservation and told us not to worry -- an entire load of bullshit while smiling. We found out about their wicked scheme when we moved out three days later. So much for Hotel Palace Heights honoring their reservations and this was for a hotel that costs USD 171.55 a night for a room for three persons.

Being too tired to argue further we retired to our room. Thankfully the rooms were well furnished with plasma tv and a good air conditioner. Although it is cool at night, the air quality in New Delhi is atrocious. I quickly went to bed as we had to wake up at about 5am the next morning to catch our conference tour to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

18 Mar 08

I woke up at dusk and got ready to leave for our pick up point. To my surprise, a taxi from the hotel to the India International Centre (about 1/3 the distance to the airport) costs 300 Rs (USD 7.50)! I found out later that whenever one books a cab from any hotel, it will cost anything upward from 300 Rs. Anyway there were three of us so it was not so bad. The taxi came with two people in it -- one to drive, the other to translate.

The India International Centre in the morning. The conference will be held here.


The road to Agra by bus is extremely bumpy. It is a combination of lousy suspension and road quality. If you ever need to get to Agra, use the train.


We stopped by some place called the country inn for breakfast.


Snakes. A pseudo snake charmer tried to cheat us.


He played his pipe but the snakes were not charmed and went their own way. Then he came over to those with cameras and demanded money without even giving a complete or decent performance. Needless to say, nobody gave him any.


Reasonable breakfast


Finally, Agra! It took 6 hours to get here by bus. It would have been 4 hours by train.


Horse cart


View Larger Map
The birds eye view of the Taj Mahal Compound. Route towards the Taj Mahal is shown in blue.


The first gate of the compound


Security is tight. It is good to see that they take nothing for granted. Even mini-tripods are not allowed.


The second gate


These miniature domes are in the Mughal style and such domes are seen everywhere in monuments of the Mughal era


These tower tops are also commonly featured


The Taj Mahal. Built by Emperor Shah Jahan for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal. Designed by a Persian Architect which some say was based on the earlier Humayun's Tomb.


Beautiful gardens adorn the compound. The Indians call it the symbol of love. It was built at a cost of 75 million rupees.


Emperor Shah Jahan wanted to built a black version opposite the Taj Mahal for himself. Fortunately, his son seized the throne and imprisoned him. Otherwise the empire will probably be bankrupted.


The top dome. The Mughals like to build symmetrical structures.


Shoes have to be covered before getting up close.


One of the four minarets. Sadly, visitors are not allowed to enter.


Calligraphy. These are not painted but a technique which they used to etch other stones into white marble.


The real beauty and expense of the Taj Mahal is not due to the structure, it is the semi-precious stones that were painstakenly etched into the white marble to form patterns and words.


The inside is entirely decorated with etched semi-precious stones. Photography is not allowed but nobody seems to be listening. In any case I don't see what is the problem if no flash is used.


Detailed carving of flowers on white marble.


The many arches



The Taj Mahal is flanked by two similar structures. One of them is a mosque (masjid). I am not sure what the other is.


The river behind


A look at the gardens from the Taj Mahal to the second gate.

Leaving the Taj Mahal, we were surrounded by touts trying to sell their wares marked up at ridiculous prices. Thinking that 200 Rs (USD 5) was reasonable for 2 sets of 12 postcards, I bought it from one of them. The subsequent numbers that tried to sell me their wares made me realise that I must have drastically overpaid for them. Turns out that my chinese friend managed to get 2 sets for a mere 30 Rs (USD 0.75). Interestingly he still did not buy it. "That's it", I thought. I will be sticking to him and learning his bargaining ways for the rest of the trip.

Then a little boy came up to me and asked me to exchange my postcard with him because one of my postcards was in german. Looks like while trying to get away from the crowd of touts I did not check my wares carefully. Smelling a fish, I agreed to the exchange. Sure enough after the exchange, the boy comes back to me and demands 20 Rs (USD 0.50) for the exchange. What a sly one. I see they start picking up these "skills" young. So I told him no and got back the german postcards. The boy was protesting all the way to the bus.

We left for lunch at about 3pm. Lunch was vegetarian. Notice that rice is a side-dish while naan (bread) is the main.



Some kind of India dessert that is very sweet.



We were taken to a local handicraft emporium that made marble products with etched semi-precious stones. Here the craftsmen file the semi-precious stones to the correct dimensions.



A whole lot of such products. They were all really expensive! The smallest box here cost about USD 100! Price is determined by the amount of stones needed to be etched and not the size.


The entrance to the Agra Fort (Lal Qila). Forts like these were actually used as palaces from which the Mughal rulers will rule the land. Shah Jahan was imprisoned in this fort by his son.


Panorama from the entrance of the Agra Fort.


View Larger Map
Top view of the Agra Fort. Entrance and panorama shooting point marked with purple. This map shows the many structures within the fort.

Unfortunately, after visiting the emporium, it was too late to enter the fort. That is the thing about these organised tours. The emporium is often more important than the places of interests. While departing from the entrance of the fort back to the bus, again we were harassed by touts. This time a new tactic surfaced. Take a set of postcards from them to see, and they will refuse to take it back. They will literally move their hand out of the way when you try to hand it back to them like an immature kid. Then they will keep reducing the price and say, "30 rupees oooonly!", in effect saying that it is dirt cheap so buy it. I found two ways in dealing with this. The first is to state a ridiculously low price. Somehow they cannot stand a ridiculously low price and will take it back and walk away. The second was something I learnt from my chinese friend -- slap the item on their chest and they will grab it before it drops. One can ignore these touts altogether. However the best priced souvenirs are only sold by them, you will probably not find postcards easily elsewhere or it will be at a much higher price in a store.

After boarding the bus, the long six hour journey back to New Delhi began. I tried to recline my seat so that I could take a nap. It turns out, my head was slamming on the seat whenever the bus bounced giving me a neck ache the next day. We stopped at the country inn again for dinner before finally reaching our hotel at almost 12am.

View the next related post here.