Lassi Come Home

Just had our first sleep in for some time and feel great as a result. It is good to have a day out of the traffic and one where we can do some touristy things. It would be a crime to sleep one night in Agra and not go see the Taj Mahal.

Yesterday we drove over 260 kms from Kanpur. We left Kanpur at 6am and arrived in Agra at 5.30pm – so 11.5 hours on the road. However this was punctuated with a unplanned 3.5 hour stop in a town called Etawah. We had planned for a quick stop to get our transmission oil changed and for what seems like the millionth time, get our muffler fixed. When we found found a mechanic, who turned out not to be a mechanic, we discovered our battery bracket had disappeared and the battery was hanging on by the wires – mid road disaster averted. Luckily the “mechanic” was a welder, and welded in a new bracket. When we then asked to have the transmission oil changed we kidnapped by a man in a turban, and a 12 year old boy in army fatigues – telling us the real mechanic was 500 metres down the road. So off we drove, with our 2 passengers, and 500 metres became closer to 5 kilometres. Here we did find a mechanic and he changed the oil, and attempted to fix the muffler. Then we were asked for 2000 rupees – not by the mechanic but by our two escorts. A scam was in the air! Long story short, we settled on 1400 (rip off) but we needed to keep moving and things were getting heated.

Then the 12 year old boy jumps in our Rickshaw and asks if we can give him a lift to his school – which we obliged. This was on our way so we said yes, and for 5 kilometres he kept badgering us for foreign currency, gifts, music systems and clothing. We dropped him off, said goodbye, and were on our way.

The road to Agra that afternoon was good, we passed many herds of camels on the road and drove through torrential rain. Arriving into Agra was amazingly easy, the city has good road signs (plenty in English), and as usual we were always willingly assisted by the brotherhood of other Rickshaw Drivers – who always give us the thumbs up when they see 2 crazy westerners driving what is considered one of the lowest forms of transport in India.

Some funny things:
– We continually get shocked looks from people when we pass them – some like they have seen an apparition.
– In Lucknow we got a passenger, who gave us directions through the city in return for a lift to the railway station. As Paul drove through manic traffic, our passenger started talking about his work experience and Andrew interviewed him for a potential job.
– While in Gorakpur Andrew was talking to some police to get directions, a woman hopped into the back of the Rickshaw and gave Paul instruction on where she wanted to go. On seeing Paul turn his head to her and saying, ‘where to love’, she screamed and quickly scurried out.
– On another occasion Paul got out to ask a shop keeper directions, and the shopkeeper said, ‘where is your driver’, walked up to Andrew and started talk aggressively in Hindi – which we think was something like, ‘you call yourself a Rickshaw driver and you don’t know where one of the well known hotels in town is’.

Tomorrow we head to Rajasthan and to Jaipur.

Top-Tip/Factoid: Even in the most ‘isolated’ places, if you want to draw a crowd, stop by the side of the road, open the back of the Rickshaw, stand there, and you can be guaranteed to have a crowd of people around you within 5 minutes. This can also double as an opportunity to talk cricket.