India Day 2: Agra Adventures

We woke up early to catch the fast train to Agra. Changed some MYR to INR, the 2000 for the day and checked in to our hotel/guesthouse about 200m to the west gate of the Taj Mahal. We'd agreed to hire a tour guide with a taxi driver for half the day. He said he'd guide us through the Agra Red Fort for INR2000, taxi and entrance included but he'd have to leave us by lunch because he'd already been hired by an American tourist who was on the way. At the time of writing this, I think we were scammed. Or lied to. By lunchtime we had spent our rationed cash and were broke.

The Red Fort was lovely. The guide spoke about it's architecture, raison d'etre and historical setting. Pictured are columns in a courtyard I was obsessed with. We were told that the fort included Hindu elements despite the place being ruled by muslim Shah Jahan as a show of respect for all religions practiced by its people. These columns were decorated with supposed elephant trunks representing Ganesha.

The evening was surreal. Bob and I went out wandering the streets of Agra looking for ATMs. We wandered in zigzags for hours in vain: they were all out of cash. I think Bob was close to despair as the sun began to set and we had no more than a couple hundred INR. We eventually stepped into a money changer who fleeced us off our MYR with claims of tax and black market charges. We walked further out into Agra town looking for a universal power adaptor, also in vain, wandering in what appeared to be an abandoned mall.

As the night sky got ink black and our mocking misadventures rubbed in our leg ache, we took an auto-rickshaw back to our hotel. It's really important to keep spirits light and uplifted at moments like these. And I think Bob and I did a fair job taking turns.