Tedious Taj and the train to Darjeeling

or:

Agony in Agra and the cross-India Express.

Once again we are in recovery mode.

It all started at 4:15am in Amritsar - as previously posted - we hdad an early start for our 8 hour train ride to Delhi. Shortly after arrival we had booked a return bus trip to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) the following day and a 28 hour train ride the next day, to Siliguri, far north West Bengal.

Exhausted from our early start that morning we got to bed sometime after ten o'clock, waking early again at 5:20am to get to our bus pick-up spot by 6am. It was a scheduled five hour ride to Agra and our seats were in the ergonomically compromising back seats (note:bench) of the bus with a fan screwed to the wall where my head should have been. After more like seven hous sitting with a hunched back and getting minor brain damage from the bumps in the road banging my head into the corner of the fan, we arrived in Agra. First stop was the Fort and Heather and I decided - bugger this - and jumped on a cycle rickshaw to take a look at the Taj Mahal and then get a different bus back to Delhi.

The Taj costs nearly $30AUD to get in so we had a look from a distance. One of the least awe inspiring contructions I have ever seen. I guess it's all the hype it recieves, but it seriously was nothing special - apparently built for love by a filthy rich Maharaja - I would have sent it back for improvement if I was the unlucky lady to have this built in my name.

So anyway - as per usual, our rickshaw driver wanted to take us to a multitude of shops - he gets a drink or lolly just for brining us into each shop, and he was a nice enough old man so we agreed. After getting our attempt to buy another bus ticket found only an over priced 'seat' in the cabin (ie. with the driver), we had no choice but to agree as all the buses leave about the same time and get into Delhi after midnight. So for the first three hours of the journey Heather sat with her knees under her chin directly behind the driver - later noticing his underpants were hanging next to her head. And I sat with the gear stick between my legs and an Indian with half his backside on my leg.

At the dinner stop (birthplace of Hare Krishna) we were shifted onto another bus which apparently was quicker and more spacious. This time (for the final three hours) we sat on a bench that looked across the cabin at the driver with our backs resting uncomfortably against the window frames and handles. We finally made it back to Delhi just before 2am and went back to our hotel for a quick 3 hour power nap before getting up at 5:30am again to get our 6:30 train to Siliguri.

So tired, dirty, hungry and with sickness returning again we threw ourselves into our 4-man sleeper 'cabin' (curtains for walls) and slept for most of the first day. The highlight was the sleeping, followed by the omlete, which was the only stomachable food as the taste of Dal is starting make us nauseous.

I started reading a book 'Mayada - Daughter of Iraq', published in 2003 and appears to be blatant propoganda for the invasion of Iraq - it almost quotes the news (or maybe journalists used this book as their source) - but if taken as unrelated to the US invasion it is still a historically interesting book.

I fell asleep reading and woke up in time for an omlete before arriving in New Jalpaiguri (station serving Siliguri). After the usual cacophany of lies a taxi driver finally took us and a Spanish and Korean pair to the Jeep stand in Siliguri - two and a half hours of climbing and winding later we arrived in Darjeeling.

Both exhausted, and I'm feeling fluey again with a sore throat, we are not impressed by Darjeeling itself. After the quietness of Leh in the Himalayas - our expectations for Darjeeling were to high - the town is a busy, noisy and uninteresting. Jeeps are crammed into the narrow roads and the constant smell of diesel fumes in India has managed to pervade this town as well. It is west-facing on the hillside so the view down the valley is pretty, but gets old after a few looks. Some exploring tomorrow and a visit to a tea plantation might reveal something more interesting about the place. I see it more as a base for getting to Gangtok in Sikkim after we sort out permits, and then down and across into Bhutan for a day of free sightseeing (yes, it is free to go for a day).

I have to say that my impressions of India have not been that great. Leh was wonderful and inspiring. But the rest of it is just pollution, poverty, and people waiting to rip-off an uninformed and trusting traveller. I don't need to see poverty, I know it exists, and the pollution created by 1.1 billion people is saddening more than anything. Any natural wonder that exists is always shadowed by the threat of ever growing pollution and a population that follows in the conspicious consumption habits of the West. No doubt the final few days in Kolkata will be the icing on the cake - where pollution, poverty and inequality is supposed to be at its worst.

While I'm in a bad mood - I might post a little drawing of Mohammed. Just to offend people who like to take offense at EVERY BLOODY THING that they can. If your religion can't cope with humour, satire, analysis or criticism then that is your problem - get the hell over it - if you actually had 'faith' then the hypocrises you follow wouldn't bother you when challenged. But then again you'd have to be a moron to believe in a blatant hypocrisy just because your school and family told you it is 'right'.