Agra

After being able to manage over-crowded suburban trains in Mumbai, we thought that worst is behind us, but the worst episode of Indian over-population was only about to come. It was the train from Jaipur to Agra. First you can just observe what is going on with wide open eyes and terrifying look, when you see such a mass of people trying to enter the train, pushing & pulling each other, climbing in from the emergency windows, just to catch some places, even though they might have no ticket at all......
Then when you manage to enter the train, reach to your place through the crowd standing in the aisle and see that already five indians are sitting on your double seat, your brain wakes you up and fighting hormones rush into the blood....

It took us some 10 min to gain victory over our place, that we had bought. But within this 10 min we lost at least 10 000 nerve cells each....

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We went to Agra only because it's "a must" when you are traveling in India and most probably we were little brainwashed by tourist information books and PR of Taj Mahal. However, we knew from the beginning that going into this mausoleum area is not for low budget backpackers like us, we still wanted to see this "miracle of ancient world" with our own eye, even if it had to be from the distance.

Somehow we expected that since it is so touristic place, then Agra is more developed and more beautiful than most of northern Indian cities, but it was the opposite - poor, dirty and unorganized place (even the area of hotels and tourists), where you wouldn't want to spend more than just 1-2 night.













Taj Mahal and the slum in front of it













Taj Mahal in the evening light













Taj Mahal from the nearby park (entrance to the park 50 Rupees)














As we were taking pictures from Taj Mahal in the park, some beggar kids noticed us.












Monkey in the air. As in most (north) Indian cities, monkeys are ruling the area and terrorizing the people.



Since our India trip was already soon coming to an end, we started to leave our worn-out clothes everywhere, where somebody else could have some use of them. So when leaving Agra, two guys came to socialize with us, in a good hope that we will give them some money. When Branko however gave them his blue shirt, they were more than happy about it, even though they had to share it.