March 29, 2014

Virtual Vi-Agra

christinelouise Asia, NovaTOURient, Travel Talk 2014, Agra, Asia, India, taj mahal

Agra is bigger than I expected. I guess I thought there would be a few sights, a handful of hostels and a restaurant or two. Not much. Instead, we’ve been more out here than say, Rishikesh.

After the movies and going back to the hostel, we go to McDonald’s for dinner. For reals. It’s right between the hostel and the cinema, so why not? Behind the counter, about 8 young guys are standing, ready to take people’s order. I would say it’s a bit over-staffed, but this is definitely not uncommon in India, from what I have observed. Of course, all the guys behind the counter are all giggly, but hey, I get fries with that.

We get up at 5 in the morning and put on our clothes from Jaipur – Sara her custom green maxi dress, and I my pink sari. We meet up with Steve from England, we call him Papa Bear because he looks out for us, and we share a tuk tuk to Taj Mahal. After paying the 750 rupees fee for tourists, and waiting in a painfully long line for the “high value ladies”, Taj Mahal is right in front of us as the sun is rising. This place is more beautiful than you can imagine. I’ve never given much thought to how it would look up close, but the details are pertty amazing. Damn, Shahjahan could make buildings.

If we are to believe what they say, he built this as a memorial for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during childbirth. Their bodies are buried in the center of this glorious building. Now that’s a real monument of love!
The view from Taj Mahal – quite an impressive gate, hey?

We spend ages at TM, just admiring it, talking and taking awkward pictures like these:

With Papa Bear

Once we are done, like 3 hours later, we go see “Baby Taj”, which is also a tomb. We are the only tourists there, which is quite nice, although kind of creepy too. Coming from one of the most crowded places in Agra, the silence at Baby Taj is almost unsettling.

After breakfast at a rooftop restaurant, Papa Bear goes back to the hotel, while we check out Agra Fort, which is the prettiest fort we’ve seen so far – but also like the 3rd or 7th, so we’re not that interested.

This has been a magical day… Except this is what I look like when my Sari comes off (sorry to those who get offended by my red butt)

March 28, 2014

How we were almost raped in a cinema

christinelouise Asia, NovaTOURient, Travel Talk 2014, Agra, Asia, India, scary stories

…sort of.

After a bumpy, painful 13-hour busride, we arrive in [insert random name] at 6 in the morning. I honestly don’t know the place, never heard of it before. Anyway, the busdriver makes us get off the bus and wait for a public bus, that we get on with our backpacks. Didn’t see that one coming. I was never told by the travel agent that we had to switch busses. It’s our first time on an actual local bus, and it gradually fills up with young people, probably students, and they all seem very interested in the two tired-looking chicks in the back. Thirtysomething kilometers later, we stop somewhere in Agra, and the bus is almost empty. I ask the bus driver for directions, but he just tells me to stay on the bus. He parks it on a parking lot full of empty busses, and he and his friend get out and ask us to follow them. We do for a little while, until it becomes pretty obvious that they’re just trying to take us somewhere we can’t get help. We run away silently.

Once we’ve reached a street with lots of tuk tuks, we begin to bargain for ages for a reasonably priced ride. We finally arrive at Pyrenees Home Stay, which is perfect by the way. We have breakfast on the roof, and we can see the Taj Mahal from there! Since it’s Friday, it’s is closed, so we decide to do all the sightseeing tomorrow. After a nap and a shower, we get dressed for lunch. Since all my pants and shirts are in the laundry, I wear this.

Bad move. After lunch at Pinch of Spice, it is only 3.30, so we decide to go to the movies. There’s a 2.5 hour long horror movie in Hindi playing at the moment called Ragini MMS 2, starring Sunny Leone (yes, the pornstar). Bruno recommended it to us. We are about ten minutes late for the movie, same as two local guys, who insist on showing us the way to the auditorium and sitting next to us. It becomes very apparent that this was a bad idea.

First of all, people in India seem to be very responsive to the movie they’re watching. When something’s supposed to be funny, they’ll almost exaggerate their laugh. When something’s scary, they scream a little louder than I’m used to. It’s also very apparent that sexuality is still a bit of a taboo, so people have to repress their sexuality a lot. That often leads to an overreaction, so here we are, watching a movie starring a former porn star in her underwear. We’re talking about a tank top and panties, and the guys around us go absolutely crazy. That’s when I realise that we are almost the only girls in the auditorium.

The guy next to me keeps offering to translate the movie for me, but I insist that I’m fine. The overexaggerated acting, the simple plot, and the fact that half of the lines are in English makes it a lot easier to understand a foreign movie than you would think. Still, the guy makes a few translations here and there, before going in for the kill: he leans in and asks me if I want to “french”. Completely shocked and disgusted, I almost yell out “no!” in a much ruder way than I intended to. He doesn’t seem too fazed by my rejection, but tells me that my skirt is very short and daring, and that I should be more careful – guys will be grabbing my ass if I keep wearing that. Just like that, my life is more scary than the horror movie.

During intermission, we both go to the bathroom to get away from the guys, but even more of them are standing in the lobby. I tell Sara what happened during the movie, and we agree to find new seats. We scoot in a few more seats, but people behind us start shaking our seats and carefully touching the top of my hair. Jeez, we’re just two pale people watching a movie, leave us alone. The attention is pretty intense, so after the movie, as everyone gathers by the elevator, we decide to wait until everyone has left before getting into one. When we come out of the elevator and walk out to the parked tuk tuks, some of the guys from the auditorium are still hanging around, and they even follow us on their scooter for a little bit, while we are on a tuk tuk back to the hostel.

So this was the story of how I wore a skirt and we went to the movies, and people followed us around and probably wanted to rape us. Talk about a scary day.

I’ll end this post with a picture of Sara walking next to a lady with a big bowl of cowpoo on her head.