Train stations parties until the little hours of the night - India Part 2

The overnight train the second time around, from Varanasi to near Agra, was a bit of an ordeal. We showed up at the station at 21:00, one hour before the train was scheduled to depart at 22:00, and were soon told that the train had been delayed a few hours, now expected at 00:00. We went into the upper class and sleeper class reserved seating area to sit and wait and found it was full of people sleeping on the benches. One of the guys checking people were allowed to be in there went around and woke some people up, clearing enough seats so everyone could at least sit down.

We soon noticed what appeared to be rats lurking in the shadows underneath benches, occasionally making dashes in and out of the toilets. The toilets were a sight to not be seen. Wreaking of shit, the guys toilets consisted of three squats one of which had leaking plumbing that sprayed water at you as you first walked in the door, or went near the basin to wash your hands. How lovely!

The station we were at is quite a busy interchange station, so pretty much every 5 seconds there was an announcement, each preceded by Microsoft's tada.wav sound. Not annoying in the slightest. I started watching my watch to measure the silence and got excited where there was no announcement for an entire minute! As 00:30 approached we got word there were further delays, and a later ETA, which when it came to be that time the train didn't show and we didn't get any new information. The guys who make sure that people in the waiting area are actually allowed there went home and suddenly the room was full of homeless people sleeping on the floor, even under the benches we were sitting on.

Finally at 03:30 our train arrived and we boarded, only 5.5 hours later than planned, and only a few hours before we were supposed to be arriving in Agra, which obviously wasn't going to happen. Completely exhausted and out of patience from staying up so late, you can imagine how overjoyed we were to find a guy sleeping in one of our assigned beds, and used blankets and pillows in most of the remaining ones. A conductor kicked the guy out and sorted us out with new bedding and so we could finally get to sleep.

Waking up the next day we were told the train was somehow now every later again so we probably wouldn't get to Agra until 16:30 so we'd be going to the Taj Mahal the next day instead, a fact that made Kim ecstatic as it meant we'd be there on her birthday!

At 14:30 we suddenly had to get up and get off the train as we'd arrived near Agra early-late somehow. We were given the option to visit the Red Fort that afternoon which nearly everyone chose to do.

It was a shocking day in Agra, with dark clouds looming, so it was no surprise at all when it started to piss down with rain soon after we arrived at the Red Fort and not stop while we were there. The fort itself was an amazing building, and even seeing it under such awful conditions everyone still really enjoyed it and I personally found it way more impressive and interesting than the Taj Mahal.

That night back at the hotel we met the final two additions to our tour group, Brad and Brad from Sydney and Melbourne.

The next day we got up extremely early and headed to the Taj Mahal. We were pretty much the first people there which gave as a great opportunity to get some nice photos without too many people in them. I found the Taj to be pretty impressive from a distance, but it didn't really have much more to it after that initial impression. I'm glad we got delayed the previous day, as I don't think my impression of the Taj would be as good as that of the Red Fort if we'd been to see it in the heavy rain.

Because of the previous days delays we didn't get the local bus that was on the schedule and instead got some private cars; definitely a bonus for what turned out to be a 6 hour drive to Tordi Garh, the old Palace in Tordi Village.

We were greeted by the "royal" owner (maybe he was a prince or something? King doesn't sound familiar) and had a nice buffet dinner and drinks to celebrate Kim's birthday. I was sharing a room with one of the Brads, and not long after going to bed he started to lose his balance and get vertigo every time he laid down and started to freak out a bit exaggerating that he probably had a brain clot or something, so he went off to see our tour guide and came back 10 minutes later looking quite paniced, and told me he was being taken into Jaipur hospital. We're told he was ok, but he'd gone back to Delhi to head home so we didn't really get to spend much time with him in the tour group.

In the morning I got up early with a small group and we walked up the hill behind the palace to the site of the old fort to have a look, see the view and have some chai and biscuits. It was a surprisingly challenging walk, from the ground it looked like a 10 minute stroll, but it ended up taking an hour, and the humidity was so high that every inch of fabric I was wearing was drenched in sweat by the time I got back down to the palace.

After getting back we went for a walk through Tordi village guided by the royal dude. Tordi is a tiny little village a few hours outside of Jaipur; small enough that tourists coming to visit still cause the kids to crowd around excitedly, asking for "one photo" with their friends and siblings so that they can shyly look at themselves on the screen afterwards. I think in the whole time we were there I didn't get asked to buy anything even once, nor did I see a single piece of touristy crap for sale.

It was explained to us how the money raised by allowing people to stay at the palace and from the meals served there is used to help keep the town going, and how they discouraged giving the children lollies or money so that they don't start expecting it, and preserve the awesome vibe the place currently has.

We made the drive back into Jaipur and checked into our hotel which was full of winding corridors and stair cases making it an interesting walk from the front door to the rooms that probably took more than 5 minutes.

We went on a quick tour around Jaipur to get our bearings, then headed to the local movie theatre to watch the current big Bollywood hit, "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani". The theatre itself was a very impressive building, especially on the inside, it felt like a palace. The movie was visually very colourful and entertaining to watch although I was surprised by how few songs there were; it was a 3 hour epic (with intermission) but I think there were only 3 songs in the whole thing. It was a bit tricky to follow what was happening at times since none of it was in English.

I went to the toilet in the intermission and it was crazy. I think I've been in mosh pits less crowded than that tiny room was.

The next day we headed to the Jaipur palace, home to a king with 100 wives to look after his needs. There was a courtyard where him and his many wives would party, all but his first wife who had to stay in a room separate from the others and could only watch. It seemed like a pretty shitty deal for that first wife.

We had our last dinner with the larger tour group that night at a rooftop restaurant that's speciality was meat. I had a plate of various BBQ'd meats and it was delicious.