Agra Fort

After drinking all of my beer and Joanne's the previous night, we slept too late to get up for the sunrise view of the Taj we had planned, and I woke with a hangover. So we had to slightly reschedule. We had been planning to see the Taj and Fort in the same day, which saves Rs50 per person because of some portion of the ticket that applies to both. We decided Rs50 wasn't that much, so we would just see the Fort today and Taj the next day. John, with whom I was last in Agra, had sent a couple of text recommendations of places to stay, so when we passed one of them I suggested we go in for lunch. The food wasn't up to much but an old guy appeared while we were there; in fact the very same old guy who John and I had spoken to more than three years previously on the roof of Shanti Lodge. He sold essential oils. I can't remember if he said his name, but he has such a nice, calm manner that his presence is almost hypnotic. I wonder if some of this is due to the essential oils, which he spreads liberally over his potential customers' arms. I'm told essential oils can be quite powerful substances and should not normally be used neat on the skin like that. So after a few dabs of opium poppy and a splash of lavender I was feeling quite well disposed towards the fellow again, and I was very happy to see him again because he had seemed pretty old the last time and I had wondered if he would still be around; he didn't seem to have aged at all. We bought a couple of little bottles and left on a little cloud. I'm not sure if it's his personality or the oils, but what a nice old man!

Nice oily man

We found a book shop and, after convincing the proprietor that we were only interested in his Nepal Lonely Planet and not his hashish, we managed to bargain him down to Rs500 from what he originally said was a fixed price, set by the Indian government of Rs800; Indians don't seem to value the concept of truth in the least. I had a little chuckle for the American girl who thinks she's going to be able to sell her book for Rs600. If they are willing to sell at Rs500 there is no way they are buying for more than Rs150.

Marble work inside the Fort

You can see the Taj from the Fort

Next we went to the fort. Outside, a sign said “Entrance: Tourists Rs300. Indians Rs20”. A Sikh man and his family were stading next to us and he looked us up and down, then read the sign out loud. “You have far too much money” he proclaimed after he finished the sign. As if we enjoy paying far more for things! As if we had any choice other than not to bother seeing it! Inside it was quite obvious that the foreigner price is too high because we were almost the only whites there. The fort was interesting and very impressive and, if I wasn't expecting Indian prices, a pretty good deal. It is huge, however about three-quarters of it is off-limits because it is occupied by the army. So it's an actual still-in-use fort. As we were leaving we were rounded on by various unfortunates begging or selling things.

The Fort is huge

After buying some postcards, we were tailed by a guy selling a “marble” elephant carved inside an elephant. It was almost certainly soapstone, but it looked quite impressive to me, although I had no need for one and I couldn't think of anyone who would want one as a present, nor how I would get it to them. He started somewhere around Rs600, although I wasn't paying much attention at the beginning so it may have been higher. As we walked, he dropped the price again and again.

Inside the Fort

We were heading to a market Joanne wanted to go to for clothes and it was easily within walking distance, but the man kept following us. I was curious just how long he would go, but unknown to me Joanne was annoyed and upset by him badgering us. I am happy to filter these things out as long as I'm not in a bad mood. Joanne flagged down a cycle rickshaw, to get out of the situation she explained later, although I hadn't even realised there was a situation. As the old guy peddled off I heard the elephant vendor say “fifty rupees”. An interesting demonstration of how the prices work around an international tourist magnet like the Taj Mahal: down from Rs600 to Rs50 without me even having to open my mouth!

The Taj through Fort archways

On the rickshaw the driver suggested we go to a different market. We had agreed Rs20 which seemed reasonable as it was practically across the road form where we got in, but this other place was further away. First of all he told us the market we wanted was just old second hand army clothes, the he told us we could go to both markets and then back to our hotel for Rs20, but when he mentioned shops we said no, we'd seen enough shops yesterday. Shortly after he set off he said he wanted to give us a rickshaw each “because Agra is very hilly – same price: ten and ten”. I thought he was maybe just giving a young guy, his son (or grand son) maybe, a chance. But as we cycled past the market we'd asked to go to, I could see the old guy saying something to Joanne, in front, and Io realised we'd been split up to prevent conference. I tried shouting to Joanne, but it was too noisy and she was too far ahead. He just kept going and going, and when we were far past where we wanted to go he stopped and my young guy caught up. OK, we can go to such-and-such shop, he said. “We agreed no shops”, we responded. Apparently he'd told Joanne that our market was “closed on a Monday” but it was nonsense; I'd seen the market up side streets we passed. Again and again he said just this – or just that – only looking and so on, but we told him we'd had enough of looking and we knew that it isn't really “only” looking; it's sit down for enough time to justify his commission and then endure hard sell for even longer. Eventually I offered him Rs10 extra to replace his commission, just to take us where we wanted to go, but he said that it wouldn't even cover his costs. We had had enough, so we looked at each other an got out and started walking. We were ages away from where we wanted to be, but we were in a corner with yet another Indian cheat. He came running down the street after us shouting “give me my money! Give me my money!”. I didn't want to be arrested or lynched, so I prepared Rs10 to give him, which seemed about right for the distance given that it was the wrong place. In the end I felt a flush of anger and swapped it for a Rs5 note, which I turned around and gave him, It was enough, and the disappeared. Really he should have given us money, since we were now further from our destination than we had started! We actually had a very interesting walk through a part of Agra with no tourists, which is quite unusual there. We had people staring at us the whole way back, but Joanne didn't find what she was looking for at the market anyway, so the walk back was really worthwhile, and all down to a cheat. Back at the fort we got an auto-rickshaw, “Direct” I said after saying where we wanted to go. That's the keyword. That night we had dinner on a neighbouring rooftop restaurant, where the view of the Taj is not so good, but the food was very nice, and bountiful.

Playing with long exposure on my camera...

Agra, India