We spend a couple of days in Delhi before picking up Charlotte, a friend from university who will spend the next few weeks in India with us then travel around south east Asia with me. Whilst in Delhi Alex and I try to book our up coming trains, but because of the popularity of the Golden Triangle and Rajasthan all trains for the next few days are completley-and-fully-not-possible-booked-up-madam. So we do what we said we never would, and book a car and a driver - just for the two journeys when the trains aren't available. The travel agent tries his best to persuade us to take a car for the whole two weeks - "more flexible, more comfortable, safer, faster". We are not persuaded. We like trains and rickshaws and we have met other travellers who got suck with awful drivers. Two days only, then back to reality.
After picking up Charlotte we drive to Agra and it soon clear that we made the right decision. Our driver is perfectly nice - Babu, 20 years old, born and raised in Delhi - but he stops several times at expensive tourist emporiums and restaurants where he will get a commission. The roads are awful and I long for a gently swaying train, with no beeping horn and space to stretch out. The supposed benefit of a car is that you can stop whenever you want for food or the loo, but on a train there is food and a loo there constantly. There are people to watch and talk to and arriving in a city on a train and walking from hotel to hotel is much more satisfying than being driven.
After one night in Agra (separate post on the Taj Mahal to come) we drive for seven hours to Jaipur - 'the Pink City'. Where as a 20 hour train journey has become bearable if not normal, seven hours in a car is awful and I'm looking forward to our train to Udaipur in a few days. After a few days in Udaipur we will a travel to the camel fair town of Pushkar, Jodhpur - 'The Blue City', Jaisalmer - 'the Golden City' and back to Delhi in time for our flight to Bangkok on the 17th.
After picking up Charlotte we drive to Agra and it soon clear that we made the right decision. Our driver is perfectly nice - Babu, 20 years old, born and raised in Delhi - but he stops several times at expensive tourist emporiums and restaurants where he will get a commission. The roads are awful and I long for a gently swaying train, with no beeping horn and space to stretch out. The supposed benefit of a car is that you can stop whenever you want for food or the loo, but on a train there is food and a loo there constantly. There are people to watch and talk to and arriving in a city on a train and walking from hotel to hotel is much more satisfying than being driven.
After one night in Agra (separate post on the Taj Mahal to come) we drive for seven hours to Jaipur - 'the Pink City'. Where as a 20 hour train journey has become bearable if not normal, seven hours in a car is awful and I'm looking forward to our train to Udaipur in a few days. After a few days in Udaipur we will a travel to the camel fair town of Pushkar, Jodhpur - 'The Blue City', Jaisalmer - 'the Golden City' and back to Delhi in time for our flight to Bangkok on the 17th.
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