June 16 Day 121
We arrived about 2 hours late to a filthy parking lots who knew where. A tuktuk driver attached himself to us and Meg actually bargained up from his price, still snoozy.
He got us to our hostel, who invited us to have breakfast on the roof. We were told that the selection had been picked over as a monkey had just run away with the bananas. These were soon replaced and we had a decent meal and a long talk with Ian, a recently graduated student from Kansas (Ian) whose experience in India was fairly parallel to ours.
We checked in and the place had a laid back vibe and a very western backpacker clientele, which we hadn't seen in awhile. The staff were very laid back and amiable and the people staying there were friendly and comparing travel notes.
We put our stuff in our room and set stuff up. We then went out for lunch and ate well at a place that had excellent lassis. The owner was very talkative and an outspoken Modi supporter. He told us of a film about his life that just came out, documenting that he wasn't responsible for the slaughter of Muslims. We weren't sure whether the film was propaganda or not, but the restaurant guy was willing to discuss the issue.
Back at the hostel we relaxed and hung out. The India Pakistan cricket game was on and so many people were gathered around to watch it. India batted first for three hours plus rain delays so it was a pretty slow progression but this left lots of time for the Indian guys to explain to us the rules and finer points of the game.
At 5:30 Matthew, sort of the hostel energy source, was doing a sunset tour of the Taj. We had tea in the hostel and then headed out on a short walk to a riverside behind the Taj to watch the sun set. The beach had a bunch of monkeys running around it and an Indian family was feeding them, which ended with the monkeys getting to close to them and tugging a woman's sari. In our group there were many stories of monkeys attacking people and we compared notes. The sunset was nice when it peeked through the clouds but the sun was on the opposite side of the river from The Taj so we didn't really see them combined.
Back at the hostel we took a break and then piled into 2 tuktuks to hit Mama Chicken, which is famous in Agra. The menu was two pages of chicken, done invarious ways. You pay at one counter then give your slip to two guys in headsets who are constantly calling out orders to the chefs and calling people's names for pickup. Everything looked great and dozens of Indians were there, a good sign. At least 10 guys were staffing grills and tandooris and the chicken kept coming. Ours took a little longer, being tandoori but it was still pretty quick.
The tandoori was amazing, the satay was covered in coleslaw rather than peanut sauce and so was a disappointment. Everyone who ordered chicken in gravy loved it and one of our group ordered naan, which was huge and so shared around freely.
After eating we walked through a crowded pedestrian street but were too stuffed for ice cream. We went to a supposed fixed price shop for some of the group to look at shirts and then got back to the hostel. Matthew went out on a local shopping trip with some of the group members but we had an early morning the next day. I watched cricket for awhile with the Indians. Pakistan was falling far behind but had a bout 2 more hours to go so I just went to bed.
We arrived about 2 hours late to a filthy parking lots who knew where. A tuktuk driver attached himself to us and Meg actually bargained up from his price, still snoozy.
He got us to our hostel, who invited us to have breakfast on the roof. We were told that the selection had been picked over as a monkey had just run away with the bananas. These were soon replaced and we had a decent meal and a long talk with Ian, a recently graduated student from Kansas (Ian) whose experience in India was fairly parallel to ours.
We checked in and the place had a laid back vibe and a very western backpacker clientele, which we hadn't seen in awhile. The staff were very laid back and amiable and the people staying there were friendly and comparing travel notes.
We put our stuff in our room and set stuff up. We then went out for lunch and ate well at a place that had excellent lassis. The owner was very talkative and an outspoken Modi supporter. He told us of a film about his life that just came out, documenting that he wasn't responsible for the slaughter of Muslims. We weren't sure whether the film was propaganda or not, but the restaurant guy was willing to discuss the issue.
Back at the hostel we relaxed and hung out. The India Pakistan cricket game was on and so many people were gathered around to watch it. India batted first for three hours plus rain delays so it was a pretty slow progression but this left lots of time for the Indian guys to explain to us the rules and finer points of the game.
At 5:30 Matthew, sort of the hostel energy source, was doing a sunset tour of the Taj. We had tea in the hostel and then headed out on a short walk to a riverside behind the Taj to watch the sun set. The beach had a bunch of monkeys running around it and an Indian family was feeding them, which ended with the monkeys getting to close to them and tugging a woman's sari. In our group there were many stories of monkeys attacking people and we compared notes. The sunset was nice when it peeked through the clouds but the sun was on the opposite side of the river from The Taj so we didn't really see them combined.
Back at the hostel we took a break and then piled into 2 tuktuks to hit Mama Chicken, which is famous in Agra. The menu was two pages of chicken, done invarious ways. You pay at one counter then give your slip to two guys in headsets who are constantly calling out orders to the chefs and calling people's names for pickup. Everything looked great and dozens of Indians were there, a good sign. At least 10 guys were staffing grills and tandooris and the chicken kept coming. Ours took a little longer, being tandoori but it was still pretty quick.
The tandoori was amazing, the satay was covered in coleslaw rather than peanut sauce and so was a disappointment. Everyone who ordered chicken in gravy loved it and one of our group ordered naan, which was huge and so shared around freely.
After eating we walked through a crowded pedestrian street but were too stuffed for ice cream. We went to a supposed fixed price shop for some of the group to look at shirts and then got back to the hostel. Matthew went out on a local shopping trip with some of the group members but we had an early morning the next day. I watched cricket for awhile with the Indians. Pakistan was falling far behind but had a bout 2 more hours to go so I just went to bed.
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| The Taj view from in behind. |
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| Sunset monkey in the Taj's backyard. |
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