The Heartland

Our night train from Gorakhpur (near Nepal) to Lucknow was only about 7 hours long and put us in Lucknow around 6AM. I was still feeling sick (from that yak cheese pizza in Nepal!) and when we arrived at Lucknow I was dead tired. The worst part of it was that we had no plans of checking into a hotel that day. We had tickets for another night train that night.... or I should say, we were on the waiting list for a place on a night train that night.




So when we arrived in Lucknow we found the reservation office closed and so we decided to find a place for breakfast. We found a dingy little eatery next to the station and I had greasy French Toast and a cold lassi (yogurt drink). Dad had eggs. I had just enough twitches of hunger to eat a bit of the food but then I started feeling nauseous again. Dad was taking malaria medicine and had to take the pills 30 minutes before he ate and they made him feel sick as well.

But after breakfast we went to the reservation office and found that we had moved up a little in the waiting list for the night's train. There was nothing else for it, we would have to wait and hope we got on the train.

Meanwhile, I was so tired (did I mention I was also fighting a cold?) and so we went to the retiring rooms of the train station and bought us a couple of beds for 12 hours in the men's dormitory. We put our stuff in a locker, I put my earplugs in, and I zonked. Dad slept too (he was feeling just fine now, thank goodness).

The retiring room...



I woke up 3 hours later feeling like I had a bit more energy, but I still had to be careful that I didn't get too far from a bathroom.

But there's no sense in just sitting around when you've got a new city to explore. So we went first to the little tourist office at the train station. We told the agents about our evening train and they marched me over to a ticket counter, inquired on our behalf, and suddenly we had our beds on the train! So that was a good feeling. They also gave us a brochure of things to see in Lucknow.

So we got a pre-paid rickshaw driver and he took us around to the various sights.

Our first stop was the old British Residency that was bombarded and left in ruins in the first Indian Uprising (Revolution) in the 1850's. You could still see the cannon ball and bullet hole damage in the walls...















Next we visited the Bara Imambara, Lucknow's enormous Islamic shrine, built in the 1700's...




It was a large complex that included an impressive mosque...




And other funky structures...











Inside was pretty cool...




And we got our photograph with more random people...




Our rickshaw driver took us through the gate...




And to another Muslim shrine...







This one had so many chandeliers inside I felt like I was in the lighting section of Lowe's...

The rickshaw driver took us to a dingy place for lunch, and it was difficult to eat much. The rickshaw ride back to the train station was particularly hard as I was feeling increasingly ill and my energy was flagging. We got to the station and I laid down for a bit and then we went over to our platform.

The train was a little late but it was a great site as I was able to finally lay down on a bed and sleep. The only problem: it was nearly 11pm and we would have a 4:30AM arrival in Agra. I lay in my train berth coughing and thirsty and sick, hoping that this could be the worse day of my trip and that tomorrow would be better. Dad was very patient with me that day.

...

I woke up early the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed and energetic. It was still dark but I could see the red stones of the Agra Fort out the window as our train slowed to a halt at the station. We had a surprisingly easy time of getting a rickshaw driver to take us directly to our pre-arranged hotel without any flack. It was nice.

It was too early to check in, so we left our bags in the bag room at the hotel and went around to the south gate of the Taj Mahal.

There was a line for foreigners and a line for Indians. we were second in line. It was still a bit dark and as we were waiting in line a girl from farther back in line came over to me and started speaking in German! She was wondering if we could buy tickets for her and her friend, but I was just really confused how she knew I spoke German. I told her it should be OK to buy the tickets and then she realized that I wasn't the Austrian tourist she had met yesterday that she thought I was. It was funny.

So we got our tickets and went through the security to get into the Taj area. There was a bit more light now as the sun was coming up, though it was still a bit hazy, it provided a ghostly light as we finally came in view of the beautiful Taj Mahal...






We got our picture taken....



If you want something done right...




We wandered up closer to the magnificent structure. The thing is huge!




And then the sun started to come out and the Taj came alive...




It even sparkled...




The gardens around the Taj Mahal were also beautiful with a lot of squirrels and even some parrots...



And birds building a nest...




And snowy egrets...




And security...




It was great wandering around the famous landmark and taking it all in. And as an added bonus, I was feeling much much better...




Inside the Taj...




I even made new friends...




Ta DAH!




Yeah, it was good...












I took about a million photos of the darn thing and got a few nice ones before we finally left the monument...




And passed through the outer gate into Agra again...




We went back to the hotel, checked in to our room and went up to the roof for breakfast.

A spectacular view of the Taj! Best of all, I finally had an appetite again! That honey porridge and banana lassi tasted soooooo good...



Unfortunately, just as I was feeling better, Dad took his malaria pill and it made him lose his lunch (or breakfast, rather).

We had already seen the main sight of Agra, however, and it was still only 10AM. So we both had a shower (nice, since we hadn't showered since Nepal), and had a brief nap in the room.

Dad was feeling better after we woke up and so we went for a little walk.


We caught a nice view of the Taj from the river...







And then we came to Agra Fort...




Even if there were no Taj Mahal in Agra, it would still be a worthy tourist draw just for its magnificent red fort...








At the entrance, Dad found some twins and said, "I'm a twin." And somehow it ended up in a photo...

The inside of the fort was quite impressive with a variety of finely constructed structures...









And a lot of cool doorways, archways, and gates...







The fort also had a great view of the Taj Mahal....







And there were monkeys...




That evening we went over to the other side of the river for sunset, but the clouds made it a bit more gloomy than I'd hoped. It was still a sight to see...




The next morning we packed up our stuff from our cramped little room...

We had a nice breakfast on the roof...



And then we took a rickshaw to the train station. Our train to Delhi was scheduled to leave at 10:23AM. So we got there in plenty of time to make the train. What I didn't realize, however, was that the train was the Kerala Express and was coming from the opposite end of India, over 30 hours away. So when we got to the station we saw that it wouldn't arrive until 1:20pm. No matter, we decided to go somewhere nearby and use the internet.

There was no internet nearby and so we had to take some bicycle rickshaws...






I used the internet while Dad got a shave. He was tired of the beard...



We got back to the station and found the train was now delayed until 3:30pm. So we ate a little lunch and cooled our heels on a bench with our books.

Finally, at 4:40, our train arrived and we rode it three hours (making friends with a fellow from Mumbai and his friends from Oman)...




And I had a creepy guy standing behind me the whole time...




And we arrived in Delhi, but that's a story for next time...




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