Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Delhi-Agra-Delhi-HOME..

Day 1

Travel From Punjab To Delhi

Reached station at around 8.30 am and found out that the train arrives on platform 2, we get to it and wanted to catch up on some breakfast, we had poori alooo and bread, was pretty cheap on the wallet. Oh ya during the wait at station there was announcements happening of trains arriving and departure, the announcement was very funny about a train that goes to a place which sounded like Baginda and the way it was announced was so so funny, “Ting Ting Ting.. Train No..Blah Blah Amritsar to BAGINDA amirtisar BAGINDA express arriving shortly on platform no2..”, this went on an on though we had a great laugh about it for a while then it started to get on our nerves, that lady will just not shut up, it is a recorded message but still “SHUT UPPPPP LADYYYYYYY”. We even recorded it for bugging everyone later :-).

Ok train arrives 20min late but hey its cool its just 20min not 20 hrs. We reach Delhi station at around 6pm.. Now comes the task of finding an accommodation at Delhi.. we get out of the station and we are surrounded by the auto and taxi people, oh my GOD leave us aloneeeeeeeeee pleaseeeee, anyways one taxi guy comes all the way along with us till we are out of the station and tells us that its Durga Pooja time and tough to find accommodation and takes us to a Delhi Travel Bureau. We had to find a place to stay so we thought lets give it a shot, we get in and enquire about the stay and we wanted to visit AGRA too.. so we looked for a package deal, and after lot of blah blah he came up with a package of around 4.3k per head for a 2 night stay at a AC hotel, travel to AGRA in a Tavera SUV AC and drop to airport on the last day, though it was a killer amount we agreed to it and took it, ok we need to go to the hotel booked, he arranged a taxi for the same which we had to pay Rs.100 and guess what it was just 200 to 300 mts away, how the HELL are we suppose to know that.. so we had to pay Rs.100 for the taxi, what a shot in the head.

We arrive at the hotel, thank god it’s a nice hotel and very good rooms, we got 2 rooms, we were 5 of us and one of us was to leave back to Bangalore the next day itself coz he had to attend office, he decides to go to his relatives place for the night which is in Gurgaon.. We settle in the hotel and plan to visit some place in Delhi.. First we check out for a taxi for the guy to travel to Gurgaon which we found in the hotel itself and we let him off to his relative’s before we stepped out of the hotel for a stroll in Delhi.. oh ya forgot to mention the Taxi fare to Gurgaon.. Rs.650 hee hee ya 15 to 20 kms away I guess… ok he is gone and we are on streets of Delhi, wanted to visit Palika Bazaar but unfortunately it closes at 7.30 and it was already 8 so we walk to Cannaught Place and find a Pani Puri Vendor hmmmm hungryyyyyyy, we took pani puri and it was really good, cold and yummmmyyyyyy, cheap too Rs.10 per plate, good, then we found the entrance to the Delhi Metro Station, station called Rajiv Chowk, yoooooo lets check out the metrooooo, we went picked up tickets to a place just 3 stations away just for the heck of traveling in Metro Rail, and we get to the station, WOW really cool station, really felt we were out of INDIA :-) clean and awesome, Keep it up Metrooo… we get into the train which was almost empty coz we went further away from city coz crowd to those places was very less.. had a great trip, really nice clean and FASTTTT, we reached the station in almost 10 min tops, we got out and went and took return tickets to the station we came from Rajiv Chowk, got back, and it was great, now just waiting for the same Metro to arrive in Bangalore ASAP.

Dinner time, where do we go??? I want to eat non veggg… we keep going round and round to find a place to eat, atlast we found one restaurant called ALKA or something, ok lets eattt, this is what we had, 2 beers, 1 screw driver, 1 glass coke, 1 full tandoori chicken, 4 plates biryani, OH MY GOD biryani really sucked… they don’t even give raita with it, we ordered for a plate of raita and they give a bowl or CURD which taste like milk YAKKKK, ok we finish the dinner and wait for the bill, HA HA here comes the BILL Rs.1600 wonderfullll…. Paid and got back to room without talking much coz you see all are still in shock hee hee, ok time to sleep, have to catch the cab scheduled at 6am to AGRA, good night…

Day 2

The WONDER Day

All up by 5.30 and ready for the trip, CAB arrives on time.. greattttttt… we are in the cab a big cab for 4 of us.. that was comfortable.. then we receive a call from the agent that another person would like to join us for the agra trip, a Firang US girl.. we ask if she would share the price for the trip which he says NO. So we say NOOOOOOO.. I know we are suckers but hey we wanted to have fun and a stranger in the group can spoil lot of fun, we didn’t wanna take any responsibility and lose out on anything we planned, though we had nothing planned ;-) anyways we were offff to AGRA..

At around 9.30 during the travel all very hungry, so we asked the driver to stop at some place where we can have breakfast.. ok says the driver and stops at a place which looks like a palace.. MY GOD ARE WE GONNA GET LOOTED HERE TOOO… we get in and get out of the place within min and ask the driver BOSS take us to place which is small and not a palace coz we are farmers not KINGS.. cool we go to another place small like a dhaba and have aloo parata and tea, boom even at that place it cost Rs.240.

AHole driver, doesn’t drive above 80, come on dude its open high way step on it, but no we keep going watching all other vehicles overtake us and go, hmmm we reach Agra at 11am, a place called SIKANDRA, place where Akbar was buried, nice place, went in checked it out and was out by around 12.30 or so, next stop THE TAJJJJJ, we get to the place by around 1pm, we wanted to take a ride on the rickshaw from the parking to the entrance of the Taj, he told Rs.5 per head, but it was a nightmare, seriously, as soon as we got out of the cab, atleast a million people surrounded us, owners of rickshaws auto and horse jonkans, my got all of us got IRRITATED, they are literally jumping on us to get into each of their vehicles, mannnn we got pissed off totally and decided to walk to the entrance, there was this one auto guy who kept following us as we walked bargaining bargaining and you will not believe if I say he came down to Re.1 per head and finnaly he was ready to take us for free, there will be some other catch we knew and we were so pissed of that we decided not to take it under any circumstance and walked to the entrance. OK there we find a huge queue, we go stand in the queue, one person comes to us and says that he can take us in very fast without queue and we have to pay him Rs.200, coz we were so irritated with everthing we denied it and decided to go by the queue itself, one of us went took the tickets and we stood in it for almost half and hour to 45 min till we had the pleasure of entering into the WONDER place after going though the security check and stuff… anyways it was worth every min of waiting and all the irritation… MAN it was a wonder, as soon as we entered from the main entrance all our mouths dropped at the beauty of THE TAJ MAHAL.. it was awesome mind blowing sight, though I have seen it before it was still a MIND BLOWING view, we spend lot of time at the TAJ, the Yamuna river view, everything was really as my friend say SUPER BA.. all were tired by then and we hadn’t had lunch too, so we slowly move out and buy some taj mahal models from a govt shop, I bought a small one made of marble and my friend bought 2 huge ones, and we were off to the cab, it was almost 4pm by then and we had to take a call, if to visit Agra fort or get back to Delhi and catch up on some place in Delhi, coz Agra fort could be seen on the way also from outside, so we decided to get back to Delhi, we saw the fort from the outside, ok now lunch time, the driver takes us to a place for lunch, we have some roti and some curry and again another Rs.600 bucks, my god I thought Bangalore was costly, HELL NO its NOT… anyways we get back to DELHI ya our driver right.. AHole we reach Delhi at around 10pm anyways we went to India Gate and it was perfect time, it was all lit up and looked GREATTTT… Felt proud to be an Indian…

Ok we get back to the hotel and wanted to catch up on some cheap dinner, so we walk to the station from the hotel, there was these street hotels where they sell roties chicken and stuff, we decided lets have from there, wanted to save something in wallet, got to the place, hardly any place to sit, but Adjust madi, we ordered 3 plates of chicken rice and one plate of veg rice and a small chicken dish, ufff nice dinner, get the BILL please, OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYY GODDDDDDD Rs.950, 950???? What the helllll we checked the menu and chicken cast 180 bucks per plate, lost all the respect for DELHI at that moment, lucky one of my friend had so much cash with him, we paid off and got back to hotel cribbing all the way about Delhi, it was HELL of an experience, anyways next day had to catch up on flight so we were off to sleep, good night

Day 2.5

Good bye NORTH INDIA

Got up by 9am, you see all josh lost hee hee, 3 of our flight to Bangalore was at1.45 pm and another person to Chennai flight was at 12noon, so we all decided to go together coz the cab was to drop us to airport according to the package taken, cab arrived on time around 10.30 and we left to AIRPORT, had breakfast there, sandwich Rs.50 each but no complaint about that coz it was really nice sandwich. Ok flights arrive on time all we got back to our destinations, reached Bangalore at around 4.30 pm and checked out for taxi to 2 destinations, 2 of us were going to RM Nagar and another to Hennur, each cab cost 330, so we decided to take one cab to Hennur and he said he will drop us home in his car, wise decision buddy, had a BANGALORE dinner yooooooooo, we had soups dry chicken starter 3 chicken fried rice and bill was somewhere near 250 its Cheap, got back home at 7pm. GOOD NIGHT

Thanks for reading… Appreciate the patience you had..

1 comment:

Madhu said...

Wow. Seriously what a rip-off!!!