After lunch, we carried on with our touring of Agra. The guide left it up to us to decide what we wanted to see next. He made some suggestions about local sights - The "Mini Mahal" and something else. However, we really wanted to the former capital of Fatehpur Sikri. The guide and the driver didn't look too thrilled, it was 30Km outside of Agra. Had they told us about the driving conditions we would have reconsidered...... But first, they had to show us a "demonstration" of the Mughal craftsmanship - the way the builders of the Taj inlaid the gemstones into the marble. Of course, this was just a way to get us into shops to buy stuff. All of it was extremely beautiful. Large tables of marble inlaid with stones, tiles and elephants were on display for sale. None of it was in our price range.... most of the marble table tops were in the several hundred dollar range. AND, then you have to get it home - in - one - pi.ece..
We made haste in that shop. Got back into the truck and on our way to Fatehpur Sikri.
Now, Agra seemed like a compact version of Delhi, if that's possible. The traffic appeared 10x more congested. The driver commented that...
"To drive in Agra you need three things :
1. Good Brakes
2. Good Horn
3. Good Luck
Drivers in Delhi drive better, they follow the rules; In Agra they don't follow the rules."
Rules ? What rules ? There are rules to driving in India...... ?
I would call driving/riding in Agra as - Very Dangerous. Trucks were loaded inside and out with people. A small family was crammed in the back of a small truck bed, the woman was barfing outside the back of a truck - holding a small child. Motorcycles, buses, tuk-tuks drove by seemingly without noticing. Buses, full to every inch had people sticking out their heads, barfing out the windows (which are bared over, by the way) and motorcycles, cars, tuk-tuks would ride underneath without a bit of care.
The narrow road out to Fatehpur Sakiri was overwhelmed with all forms of transportation. With the typical motorcycle (usually with 3 people) and occasional tuk-tuk (packed) were bicycles (2-3 onboard), carts pulled by cattle/camels, tractors slowly transporting cow dung or people (over-crowded) or both, and all sorts of stuff that shouldn't be on the road. The buses were the biggest obstacles.
Now, everything drives in the MIDDLE of the road; In a way this makes sense, considering that the SUVs are the next to largest, with tour buses the king of the road. Everyone is passing and honking and driving in the middle of the road. Nothing slows down...... unless...
Suddenly a cow appears in the middle of the road.
Our driver carefully slows down, because the cow is still crossing - it wants to get to the other side.
The driver cautiously maneuvers around the cow missing it by a few feet.
The guide and driver smile to each other and appear to have said - "Wow, That Was CLOSE !"
Okay - as you can imagine, with everyone in the middle of the road and passing other vehicles, there were a lot of close calls. And I mentioned in an earlier post that I maybe lost 1/2 a life in Delhi; On this trip I probably lost a few. I really felt that our luck was close to running out on this trip.
Yet, the driver and the guide looked totally unconcerned about this. The SUV that we were in didn't have a single scratch on it. And maybe for a good reason - the driver might not have owned it and he may have had a lot of responsibility driving this thing. Plus, they drive this route, and in this manner, almost everyday hauling tourists.
It just the way things are in a different country.
