India’s Train System

I suspect the modern-day equivalent of the Bletchley Park team would struggle to crack the Indian railway booking system. It required judicious use of a VPN service, tedious trials of booking apps and an awkward customer service interaction to get things going. But having successfully signed up and worked out a way to pay for the tickets, I was steaming ahead and on the right track.

The first of our Indian Railway experiences took place at Nizamuddin railway station – a forty-minute Uber ride from our hotel followed by twenty minutes of confusion as we tried to identify what platform was what. Having gone past the stage of worrying about looking gormless, I asked a couple of relaxed-looking fellas what platform we were standing on. They didn’t seem too sure either, but platform 1 was their best guess, so we went with that and looked elsewhere for platform 4 (or was it 5).

Agra 1

We found the platform.

Whatever it was, we made it in plenty of time to watch the porters heaving some seriously heavy luggage onto their heads and carrying it off like it was a lesson in deportment before the 12050 / GATIMAAN EXP to Agra arrived.

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Porters

Agra 3

EC Chair Class

Seats on Executive Class are allocated before getting on the train, so there are no emotional outbursts – and the train and the service were remarkably good.

Agra and the Taj Mahal

One hour and forty minutes later, we stepped off the train and into another Uber for the short ride to our 2-start luxury hotel, close to the Taj Mahal. Ten years ago, I promised Maria I would take her to see the Taj Mahal, and I wanted to do it in style.

Actually, the hotel was very good, and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful. And it couldn’t have been more convenient for the Taj Mahal; it was just a 5-minute walk away. At my request, rather than being forced into it, the hotel arranged a tour guide for us – Shamim Manoj of Moon India Tours – and away we went.

The rest is in the photos:

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Streets of Agra

Agra 5

Entrance to the Taj Mahal

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The Taj Mahal framed by the entrance

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That view never gets old

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Posers

The camera angle above – the Princess Diana seat – is the domain of the official photographers, but Manoj delicately backed them off so that he could take a photograph.

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Another angle

Agra 10

Carving inspection

I don’t know what caught the eye of this little girl, but she seemed fascinated by the carvings. And why wouldn’t you be? The craftsmanship is exquisite.

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More Taj

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And some more

And some myth debunking, courtesy of Shamim:

  1. There was no plan to make a mirror image of the Taj Mahal across the water in black marble,
  2. The stone masons walked away with their hands still attached to their arms after it was finished.

Agra Fort

After the Taj Mahal, we took a tuk-tuk to the Agra Fort – a huge, sprawling place that started as a modest brick building before Emperor Akbar turned his attention to it.

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Jahangir Mahal

Akbar built the palace above for his favourite son. My dad built me a pushbike.

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The Emperor’s Hot Tub beats an Intex inflatable, but it’s a bit less portable.

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View of the Taj Mahal from the fort

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Khas Mahal gardens

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My kind of carvery

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The mirror palace

Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah

Then, we bundled into another tuk-tuk to get to the Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, otherwise known as the Baby Taj.

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Wedding horse

Wedding season was in full flight while we were in India. And we spotted several horses – and elephants – used to transport the groom to meet his bride. The photograph below is one of them – a horse, that is, not an elephant or groom.

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Entrance to the Baby Taj

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Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah

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Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah

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More stonemasonry

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And some more

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Inside the tomb

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The similarities between this and the Taj Mahal are clear here

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Monley business

Taj Mahal across the water

According to the myths and legends, this was to be the site of the black Taj Mahal that never was. In reality, it was always going to be parkland. But it offers a great view of the Taj Mahal for free.

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Taj across the water

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Camel

Some enterprising individual had set up a camel riding enterprise near the entrance to the park. Although his side hustle of demanding cash to take a photograph didn’t work out for him, He tried to hassle us for 500 rupees (about £5), but all he came away with was an expanded vocabulary in northern English.

And that was it for our Agra visit. The next day, we were in a first-class sleeper carriage on a train to Jaipur – £22 for two.

Agra 30

Dining

Agra 31

Sleeping