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This dude showed us how they made the Taj Mahal...well, kind of...
…in my opinion, as long as we think we paid a decent price (compared to our home country), it doesn’t really matter if you get ripped off a little. Everyone’s still happy.
As a tourist, no matter where you go, you have to look out for scams and people trying to rip you off. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories, such as where people offer you something on the street for free, but once you take it, they say it costs $X and they won’t take the good back. The best one I heard was in China, where they offload buses of sightseers at a souvenir shop and lock the doors until they’ve all made at least one purchase!
We didn’t experience any such extreme problems in India, but I would like to offer a warning about these “private tours”. From what I hear, most of them are the same — that is, they will take you to a lot of places not on the itinerary or places you didn’t ask to go to for the sole purpose of making you spend more money.
It’s pretty much unavoidable, so if you don’t like that kind of stuff, make sure you tell them up front or else it can get a little frustrating. Your guide may get pissed off (because that may mean they get a smaller cut or commission), but don’t forget you’ve already paid for his services, and they still need to treat you decently if they want a tip at the end.
(to learn how to avoid being ripped off in India, click on ‘more’ to read on)
The Taj Mahal, one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World“, deserves a whole post to itself. For once, I actually agree with the guide books that say that pictures do not do the Taj Mahal justice. It’s just one of those things that you simply have to see in person to fully appreciate what a remarkable piece of architecture it truly is.
(click on ‘more’ to read the excellent adventure!)
Our flight to Delhi took off around 4pm. We got to the so-called award-winning Hyderabad airport (which caters for both domestic and international flights) at around 12:30pm and had, you won’t believe this, Pizza Hut for lunch. There wasn’t much choice once you’ve checked in, and we opted for the most familiar, but most expensive choice. To be fair, the pizzas were pretty good.
Hyderabad to Delhi was roughly two-hours. When we exited customs and gathered our luggage, we looked for a sign with my name on it. This was harder than it sounds because there were literally dozens of people with signs out there. Anyway, we found our man, a smiling Indian fellow with the surname Kumar (as in “Harold and Kumar”). He spoke excellent English and was very friendly.
The drive from the airport to The Park Hotel (where we stayed) was about half an hour with some traffic. Delhi is split into “Old Delhi” and “New Delhi”, the latter of which is the capital of India. It’s more of a metropolis than Hyderabad, but it’s nowhere near as crazy as Mumbai, Kumar tells us. Mumbai (Kumar likes to call it “Bombay”, it’s former name) is all Bollywood, whereas Delhi is more serious.
We had arrived at possibly the worst time of the year. It was the hottest time of the year — hotter than a freaking furnace (seriously, you could have told me I was on fire and I would have believed you), and dustier than a monster truck rally thanks to the construction taking place for the Commonwealth Games in October. Everywhere we looked, construction was taking place, especially the Delhi metro, which was already operating but a lot more needed to be done.
Near our hotel we saw an electronic sign saying that there were only 107 days left till the Commonwealth Games. Kumar says they’ll get everything done in time because they have people literally working around the clock, 24 hours a day. We saw workers either sleeping on the ground or in makeshift tents on the actual construction sites. It was kind of scary and depressing.
The Park Hotel where we stayed is rated 5-stars, but it’s not quite as extravagant as some of the other luxury hotels in Delhi like the Oberoi, ITC Maurya, The Taj Palace, Claridges, the Lalit, the Shangri-La and the Sheraton. However, it was still very good — clean and the well-equipped — and besides, we were only there to sleep.
We were pretty tired by the time we checked in and threw our bags down in the small but excellent hotel room. Too tired to go out, and having agreed with Kumar that we’d leave for Agra (to see the Taj Mahal) at 7am the next morning, we decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant, called “Fire” (probably named after how it felt outside).
Let me tell you, Fire ended up being our best meal in India. Sure, it was expensive, but the dishes were catered towards foreigners and we absolutely fell for the heavy cream and strong flavours. The initial free appetizer was sublime, their naan was quality, and yes, we ordered butter chicken and chicken tikka. It’s so sad but it really was delicious! We also had this eggplant thing which was very nice too.
This free appetizer was awesome, but I can't tell you what it was
The stuff we ordered was great too
With heavy heads and heavier stomachs, we retreated to our rooms, watched a bit of soccer and promptly fell asleep.
Our time in Hyderabad was drawing to a close, and it was time for us to prepare for the next leg of our journey, a short stay in Delhi. It wasn’t every year that we’d get an opportunity to visit India, so we thought we’d make the best of it. There were several other options (such as Mumbai and Cochin), but in the end we settled on Delhi and the Taj Mahal.
Well, as it turned out, preparations for the Delhi trip was a test of patience. It had to be planned seamlessly because we were going to arrive in Delhi after 6pm at night, take a day trip to Agra (for the Taj) on the second day, and the third day would be spent sightseeing in Delhi before catching a red-eye flight to Hong Kong that night.
Having had numerous warnings about touring in India without a local guide, we knew how important it was to have everything ready in advance — from the hotel to the airport transfer to the personal taxi. The last thing we wanted was to arrive at Delhi airport without anyone to pick us up and no hotel to stay at!
Anyway, we began looking around about a month before our trip, but my marrying mate told us that his dad knew some people who knew someone that could arrange the whole thing for us at a good price. Excellent! It’s always good to know someone local that knows what they’re doing and can put our minds at ease.
Well, things didn’t turn out as easy as we expected. After not hearing back for a week or so, I contacted my friend’s father who said basically they had a family friend who went with this agency in Delhi and thought it was pretty good. He then emailed me the correspondence he had with the tour group (Golden Triangle Tours), which included a draft itinerary.
It included: 2 nights stay at the 5-star The Park Hotel near Connaught Place (essentially the centre of town) and a personal driver who would pick us up and drop us off at the airport, take us to Agra for one day and drive us around to see Delhi’s main attractions for another. We’d also get a local guide in Agra to show us around the Taj. All for US$550. We actually could have probably gotten it cheaper had we booked it ourselves (through this place — Intrepid Tours) and gotten an even better hotel (such as the Oberoi), but going through our friends was less hassle…or so we thought!
Problem number 1: email issues. For some reason, my emails go through to my friend but not all of his emails go through to me. I know this for certain because others in group emails have gotten the emails I’ve missed. As a result, the correspondence between me, my friend, and his dad, was all over the place. All I got was the draft itinerary, and even though I was promised an updated one (with some small amendments), I never ended up getting it. We were told not to worry and everything, including payment, would be sorted out once we got to Hyderabad.
Problem number 2: families where a member is getting married are busy — very very busy. When we arrived in Hyderabad, I spoke to my friend’s dad at the first available opportunity to ask whether our Delhi arrangements were “locked in”. Yes, it was locked in, I was told, but he still had to call the guy to confirm and to give him our flight details. He would do this after the morning session.
For the next day and a half, I didn’t want to bother them. They were ridiculously, insanely busy, and I doubt any of them got much sleep. And so I stayed silent until the last day, until after the couple were wedded, before asking again. Oops, amidst the chaos, the Delhi arrangements had been forgotten. But don’t fear, my friend’s brother would help us sort things out. He’d call the guy this afternoon and then call or message me.
Problem number 3: poor telephone networks. We waited and waited that afternoon but didn’t receive any calls or messages. I tried calling with my roaming phone but couldn’t get through. Understandably, we were a little concerned because we were flying out to Delhi the next afternoon. I tried calling using a land line in the hotel that night, but no one picked up. I tried emailing to their Blackberries, but no response either. As expected, they were still immersed in the festivities. By the time I went to sleep that night, it would be fair to say that at this point I was freaking out a bit.
The next morning, I finally got through on the land line. As it turned out, my friend’s brother had sent me a lengthy text telling me that everything was okay except that I had to contact the guy myself to give him our flight details. Unfortunately, such was the nature of the Australian and Indian telecommunication networks! Nothing came through! My emergency texts sent the night before weren’t even received until the day after that!
So we called the guy (it was 10am but I’m sure I woke him up) and finally got everything sorted out over the phone. Yes, someone would be there to pick us up and drop us off at The Park Hotel that night.
I risked death several times during my stay in India. And no, it’s not the spicy food. It’s the crazy traffic that I mentioned in any earlier post.
Which auto rickshaw should I choose?
On our second day in Hyderabad, we decided to go grab a late night snack at the luxurious Marriott Hotel at around 10pm. After finding out that a booked taxi would cost us 700 rupees to get there compared to a 50 rupee auto rickshaw ride, we opted for the latter in order to save a bit of cash. After all, the Marriott was only 4km away. How bad could it be?
Anyway, we got the hotel to arrange two autos for the four people (two in each) and they negotiated a 50 rupee fare for each one. The ride there took about 15 minutes, but it was a heart-stopping ride as the auto zig-zagged through speeding traffic and we were jolted out of our seats every time the little three-wheeled vehicle hit a bump or pot hole (and there were plenty of them). It was pretty scary, and we decided after arriving at the Marriott that 700 rupees on the way back would probably be worth it.
Riding inside an auto
However, when we were ready to leave, we asked the hotel reception, who said that it would cost us 1300 rupees to get a taxi back to the Taj Tristar (where we stayed). 1300 rupees! We weighed that up against the cost of an auto ride and thought, what the heck, we’ll risk our lives again.
The hotel basically told us to go out of the gates and find our own autos, which we did, thinking that it wouldn’t be all that hard. After all, my marrying mate had told us that the city of Hyderabad “comes alive” after 11pm each night. I think he got “comes alive” and “drops dead” mixed up, because when we exited onto the street it was eerily quiet, not an auto to be seen anywhere.
We waited and walked around, and finally a lone auto headed our way. Realising that this was our only chance to get back to the hotel, my colleague was happy to pay double (ie 100 rupees) for the ride. The auto’s driver for some reason had a companion with him in the front seat, so the four of us all squeezed into the back seat. We were basically sitting on each other’s laps. I thought this was uncomfortable until I saw that it was nothing because locals often packed six or seven people into the same space! Once we even saw 10 people on a single auto!
If we thought the ride to the Marriott was rough, the ride back was ten times worse. For starters, the streets were almost completely empty, with only the occasional sedan driving in the opposite direction, usually coming right at us because this auto had no lights. “Come alive” my arse.
The auto traversed various back alleys and rough roads, and we had absolutely no idea where it was going. For all we knew they could have been driving us somewhere to rob us. Did I mention that the driver didn’t exactly know where our hotel was? We showed him the hotel’s business card, but he didn’t look confident at all (no head wobble).
At last we arrived at a giant intersection, and the driver turned around and asked, “Left or right?” Taking a wild stab in the dark, we pointed left. Fortunately, the 50% gamble paid off and it was the right direction. Shortly after we could see the hotel. Imagine if we got it wrong?!
Unbelievably, the day the wedding concluded, we went back to the Marriott for dinner. I don’t know what went through our minds, but we ended up catching autos to and back, after vowing never to risk our lives in one of those things ever again! I guess being cheapskates outweighed safety.
I like to write about stuff. Books, film, food, travel, games, sport, whatever. Currently working on a few books. Hoping to finish one some day. Maybe.
