On our third day we were to catch a train out of Jaipur, bound for Agra. The question was, what do we do for the 2 hours we have to kill? We had noticed earlier that across the street from the hotel was something very old looking indeed. It turns out it was the burial grounds for the past queens. We had tried to visit it earlier, but had missed the opening hours. It worked well that we did miss it earlier, because it was the perfect way to spend those extra few hours. We checked our bags at the hotel and headed over.
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Like some grim warning from an Indiana Jones movie, there was a skull lying on the ground near the entrance. We decided it was likely a pig and moved on. Given the amount of stray dogs in there, one can easily guess how it got there. |
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After
that though it was fairly cool. Small tombs scattered around the grounds,
some more grand than others, as I am sure some wives were more loved than
others.
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There was quite a number of them, all connected by stone walkways. |
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It
was possible to climb up on to some of them, each was subtly different
from the last.
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We eventually climbed through some windows to this secluded courtyard where some lazy dogs were resting and took no particular notice of us. |
| It was in this courtyard where the monkeys took notice of us and came in for a closer look. I had read about the Indian monkeys and their ability to steal. So I didn't bother to stick around too long. |  |
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D on the other hand, stuck around to get a better look. |
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The
eventually climbed around us and came over the wall where I was able to
get a few shots at them. Cute little things.
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I eventually
realized that the bolts on that ancient door weren't locked and took great
pleasure in throwing them and then swinging the old heavy wooden doors
open. A quiet morning really. Well, quiet as I tomb I guess...
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The rest of the day was spent on a 2nd class air conditioned train staring at the people across from us. Each pair of us wishing the others weren't there so we could use their seats. I tried to get up to the top bunk for some rest, but it D said it looked likely to break under my weight. I was still exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before, I sure could have used some sleep. |
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When we arrived at Agra station, we let ourselves be picked up by some guy. He had lived here, done that. When we told him what hotel we were going to, he said, oh it's expensive. You need a reservation. We can try it but is is probably full. Of course he wanted to take us to a hotel where he gets a kickback. We thanked him for his concern, paid the relatively cheap fare he offered us to try and sucker us into another hotel, and walked away from him. The hotel was slightly holeish, but good enough. The bathroom was dirty, that was a turn off, but hey, thats what you get for 40 bucks a night in a tourist trap town. |
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That was all for the 4th day, mainly spent in transit. Don't worry though, I think you shall find tomorrow shant disappoint.