Incredible India

Namaste everybody,

This part probably will be a bit longer than normal. So sit back and relax :).

At the moment I am sitting in the train writing this so I have plenty of time.
I will start again where I stopped the last time in Jaipur.

In Jaipur we spend 2 days walking around the city and going out of the city. We met a Swiss guy who did some volunteering work in India, with him we travelled around the city and hired a tuktuk for a day to get out of the town to go to a beautiful fort.

We stayed in one of the most relaxing hostels I have ever been. It had a nice rooftop with a view over the city and the city walls. The city walls of Jaipur almost look like the Chinese wall. In this hostel the evenings where quite relax the nights where long and full of tips of other people.

After 2 days we had to leave again to keep up with the schedule we have in mind. We took the train to Agra at 6 in the morning to be there on time.
After arriving in Agra we tried to book the next train for the next evening because it is a night train, this was full so we booked one for the day after ( at the end a good decision).

In Agra the first day the Swiss guy went to the Taj Mahal because he had to leave the day after. Rutger and I bought the ticket for the Taj for the day after and we decided it was a good idea to walk to the other side of the river via the Agra fort. The Agra fort looked very impressive from the outside but from the inside the views on the Taj Mahal where the best and the rest was not that great.

After the fort we decided to walk on via railroad bridge :-S. The bridge was between 2 slums so maybe it was not the best idea of this trip. But while walking on the bridge a lot of people came to us and wanted on the picture and started talking with us so the walk to a bit longer than we thought. When we arrived at the shore with the view on the Taj Mahal it was worth the walk.

The way back we got a lift in a tuktuk with an Indian family, we were with 11 people (with 2 babies) in the tuktuk.
After arriving back at the hostel we met a German girl named Nicole, she changed my view of India completely, it surprised me and overwhelmed me as well and sometimes it even did not feel save… are you curious now????

The next day started as relaxed as possible, we stood up 5.30 to go to the east gate of the Taj Mahal to be the first to see the sunrise. Our hostel was 50 meters away from the gate so that was not a problem. Nicole joined us to the Taj and the sunrise was beautiful, the sun was shining and it was almost a blue sky (sorry mom). We spend almost 3,5 hours there with walking around taking pictures, Rutger had to wait quite often (sorry) because Nicole and I were taking pictures. In the Taj Mahal several people came to us to ask if they could take a picture of Nicole and us. After a while we just sit down and talk and relaxed in the shadow of the Taj. After 3,5 hours we thought we spend more than enough time there and we decided to go to a small village outside the city.

The city we went to was named Fathepur Sikri. Whe took a local bus, what was an experience already but what happened in the village was overwhelming.

When we arrived there was a celebration going on because of the end of the Ramadan. A guy told us that there were more than 40.000 people in the village. The fort which is located above the village is stunning, the best I have seen so far in India, but what the most rememberal thing about this afternoon was where the people.

Nicole is a blond girl of 20 years old and we were in a village with 40.000 men after the Ramadan who are not used to see western girls. The most came from the land and where there to celebrate. In the beginning we could walk relatively easy true the village and sometimes people asked us if they could take a picture. Nicole and we just found it funny but after a while there were just too many men around us and we decided to move on. At that moment that was not a problem but they started to follow us and started to throw small stones to Nicole. We asked her if she wanted to leave or walk around. She wanted to visit the ruins of the fort, it was very beautiful and the scenery was amazing but we could not really enjoy it because of the men around us.

They were yelling and screaming to us from up the hill and they came from everywhere to take pictures of Nicole.We decided to walk back but Nicole wanted a last picture of here in the ruins. I took the picture and what happened than I have never seen in my life before. After the picture more than 200 men came to us and started to touch Nicole and pushed here in a corner. It was just too much and she had to hit some guys just to get away. The way back to the bus station was just no fun and everybody tried to touch here or tried to walk against here. Finally at the bus station it was more relaxed and we finally had some rest. What happened during these few hours we were in Fathepur Sikri I will never forget in my life. The way she reacted could not have been better because the men would have enjoyed seeing her being panicked and that never happened. When we where at the bus station we finally had some piece.

Have to stop now because we have arrived in Varanasi.

Back again, at the moment I am typing while looking out over het Ganges River.

I stopped at the bus station, after going back to Agra we took a shower and we decided to go out for dinner on a rooftop with the Taj Mahal in our sight.
The next day we just walked around and bought some souvenirs. In the evening we went to a park where we could do a nature walk. In this park we have seen the best view on the Taj Mahal, here the view was so serene it gave spiritual feeling…. Too bad again here again where some boys that thought they could do everything with Nicole and after taking a picture they started to touch her everywhere. We tried to send them away but they just did not want to listen until we said we would go and get the police. Finally they left and we could go and enjoy the view again. After going back to the hostel we had dinner and we left to the train station.

We had a sleeper train to Varanasi but it was nothing like last year, it was a big coach without any privacy. There were 3 beds above each other and no windows. Or doors we could shut. At the end I slept very good on the top bunk but Rutger and Nicole slept a bit less.
For now I think it is more than enough. Next time we are in Nepal.

For now goodbye and till the next time.

Greetz Rutger and Tom