I Survived the Sleeper Bus to Agra and Back!

Namaste!

Again, I am trying to get caught up on my blog... and am writing about our little trip to Agra last weekend (July 23-25).

After our little taxi ride to Dharamsala (aka massive hours) Katie and I decided to try a different form of transportation, and the sleeper bus was recommended by some and totally discouraged by others with people telling us that we would get robbed or drugged, fantastic. But the other group members decided the taxi was okay and it could only fit six people, Katie and I would be the seventh and eighth members to this trip thus it was not economical for us to jump on in another taxi because it would have cost everyone wayyyyyy too much. This left us with some options, take our own taxi and have it cost over $200 (20,000 Rps.) per person to go to Agra and back, or we could take the sleeper bus (with AC) and have it cost about 1000 Rps. which is more like $20 in the US. Well guess what we picked... the sleeper bus.

On Friday morning we reserved our spots on the sleeper bus and arrived at I.S.B.T. (the bus station) at around 7:30 pm to swoop onto the sleeper. When we received our spots we were so pumped, Katie and I had our own double bed! And there was AC! This ride down to Agra was great, we weren't bothered by anyone (we had the curtain closed so no one could see us) plus we were at the very front of the bus so we could really see where we were going (and who was coming on and off the bus... this is key). By the time we got to Agra we had slept for about 6 hours and the total trip was about 12 and half, and we had to pee like none other!

Once we got off the bus we found the GROSSEST bathroom in India. Katie told me after that out of all the bathrooms in India she had been in this was the worst (I had no idea on the other hand because I tend to wait until we get home and not take my chances at public bathrooms... probably not the best idea). This bathroom was just a "hole" in the ground and the door had cracks between the boards so you could totally see in and out, plus the "locking" mechanism was a chain that you put over a nail. Oh how I miss you New England out houses! Anyways when we were finished a woman in the bath room was squatting in the corner and asking us for money for food (this was all with hand gestures) but Katie and I both agreed after we gave her about 5 Rps (10 cents in the US) that she did not need it at all because she looked very well nourished... This was only the beginning of the chain of scams of the trip.

The next order of business was to find a place to eat breakfast close to the Taj Mahal because the rest of the group in the taxi had not arrived in Agra yet. So we jumped on a rickshaw (in Agra they called them took tooks) where we were taken to a place close to the Taj Mahal, but we wanted to go to a cafe... this is when our driver told us to hop on this bicycle carriage and this other bicycle driver would take us to a cafe. Once on, Katie and I realized this was possibly our biggest mistake of the morning because it was slow going and Agra is HOT! Plus not even 5 minutes into the ride Katie got whipped in the face by a dirty cow tail... yes... they are everywhere! Because the situation was already out of control Katie didn't think much of this cow flick... oh we were in for it.

Once we got back onto the main road the guy asked us again where we wanted to go and we said to a cafe to eat breakfast that had AC... he told us that he knew a very good place and it was close by. Well this place was called Only Restaurant. Once we pulled into the parking lot I immediately noticed there were no cars in the parking lot and the fountain was broken and it looked closed. We asked the driver if it was open he said yes so we went in. To our surprise it was open but we were the only people there! The only man working there turned on the AC for us and took our order. I put my contacts in at another empty table... there were many... oh and the hadn't really turned the lights on... or maybe that was just the atmosphere they were trying to create.... anyways we had our own personal restaurant... ridiculous!

The food wasn't great, but we ate because we were starved! Once we were finished we found our driver of the bicycle thingy and we asked him to take us to the hotel that the rest of the group in the taxi was staying at which we thought was called Ashish Alice Hotel. Once on the road (not even two minutes) he pulled over to ask for directions. Then five minutes later he asked again. Another five minutes he asked again... oh and it was getting hotter and hotter out and we were moving very slow... just peachy. This went on for about an hour until he was pointed in somewhat of the right direction and at one point Katie and I got fed up with it and jumped out of the carriage thing and said we would find a rickshaw to take us. At this point we were going in circles (literally we took 3 left turns in a big loop) but he told us to get back in and we were only 2 minutes away. Well we got back in but we didn't get to the hotel for another 10 or 15 minutes. Once we pulled up we found that the hotel was called Ashish PALACE Hotel.... lost in translation of a cell phone call Palace had turned to Alice and we had been unnecessarily lost for over an hour and a half on this stupid bicycle thing! The best part was when we got out we asked how much and he said 200 Rps. so Katie handed him that amount and then he said "No for both". This just sent me over the edge and I had a little bit of a hissy fit and said that this whole thing was ridiculous and just threw the money at him... what a scam...

Once in the hotel things settled down a little, we took showers, a nap for me, a run for Katie, and then we were off to get some lunch at our favorite cafe... Cafe Coffee Day. Post lunch we went with a friend in the group to the Taj Mahal.

The Taj was everything I expected it to be, huge, symmetrical, and a land mark of India. The funny thing about the Taj is that for Indians it only costs 20 Rps. when for foreigners it costs 750 Rps. (over $15 in the US), the difference is just astounding, but hey they get our money... We did get a guide but he was useless because none of us were listening, he did come in handy for taking group pics of us however. We stayed at the Taj for about and hour and a half and while there we had our picture taken by almost every Indian person there... well it felt like it. People would even try to take our picture secretly... they weren't very good at it. I was also very surprised the lack of Westerners at the Taj, I thought there would be a ton, but it ended up being only a few and a ton of Indian tourists! We then went to the Red Fort. This was another wonderful Agra landmark and you could see the Taj from a far, which is almost more impressive than actually standing in front of it. When coming out of the Fort we got accosted by "sales men" trying to sell us peacock feather fans, post cards, and other excessive touristy things. (This also happened coming out of the Taj with a group of little boys that were selling snow globe key chains of the Taj Mahal... We felt bad for them because we knew they were working for someone else and they chased our rickshaw down the road for a good while!).

Katie and I had also been trying to get a bus home, but we were getting a lot of mixed answers from people saying that we had to stay and there was no room and that you couldn't book it in advance... this was extremely frustrating! The driver that we had to the Taj said it was not possible to go back to Dehradun for a few days, but this is because (we found out later) that he wanted us to go to a marble store (of which he would get commission if he brought people there and they spend money). What a dream! Scams galore! Instead we decided to stay with our friends at the hotel and went to a roof top restaurant and had a pretty good meal of chow mien (yes I miss noodles and am sick of rice).

That night Katie and I got our own room, which was the best 1000 Rps I've spent in India because I got such a good night's sleep and we watched Friends (the tv show in English) and ordered room service in the morning.

We had time to spare so we decided to waste our afternoon at the Internet cafe near the hotel where we spent about two hours (where I updated my blog) and then we went into shop mode because attached to the Internet cafe there was an awesome (touristy) store where we bought clothes and presents for peeps back home (oh and myself). This shopping experience was the best I'd had in India... low stress, the man was very good at customer service and helped us with everything, plus he had a great selection of things (anything you could think of). This place was called Amin Art Gallery and is featured in the Lonely Planet... I would def. recommend it!

After this Katie and I HAD to eat before going to I.S.B.T. to get on another 12 hour bus back to Dehradun so we ate at Pizza Hut... again I really am sick of rice and miss home.

Once we got to I.S.B.T. we got our tickets for the bus... however we did not get beds this time, so we were going to be below the beds in seats (and in the back of the bus) but we were still thrilled to get seats and get the heck out of Agra. This is where my confidence in the sleeper bus falters because of the horrific ride we had back to Dehradun...

First, the bus had horrible shocks in the back and we bounced around and at time were sent flying into the air. Second, our driver hit a railing about 10 minutes into the drive. Third, we got a flat tire around 3 in the morning. The worst I haven't even told you about...

At about 10pm two very creepy guys got on the bus, they were def. drunk by the way they were acting and walking. They sat right in front of Katie and me. For the next hour Katie and I were on edge because these men kept looking back at us (and we were only feet away). We could tell they were only waiting for us to fall asleep so they could rob us because every few minutes one of the men would light up his cell phone and the other would look back to see if we were awake or not. Well we stayed awake the whole time. We were so on edge that I got out my handy dandy rape whistle that Bates gave me at the start of my freshman year and I was ready to blow that thing if these men tried anything, I was prepared to wake that whole bus up! Katie and I had also borrowed our friend Sarah's mace for the ride... Katie was manning that, armed and ready, fight or flight... I had way too much adrenaline running through me during this hour. The staring finally go to Katie and she tried to sarcastically and meanly say "hi"... more like go away hi... but it didn't come off that way so I growled at them through clenched teeth saying "Stop, Turn Around" which helped for a few minutes because they stopped looking back at us. Eventually they got off the bus around 11pm and I collapsed, started crying, but recovered quickly because we still had many hours left on that bus.

The next great thing to happen that night was after the bus got the flat a man came back and sat right behind us in the last seat (we really were at the back of the bus and the darkest part). Katie and I got the creeps from him (we were already on edge) but when he started creeping over our seats Katie whipped around and gave him the death stare, after which he moved to the other side of the back seat and then I glared at him and he went back to the front of the bus. I watched where he went and saw him put a button up shirt on at the very front... then I realized he was the conductor of the bus, AND HE TRIED TO ROB US TOO!!!!!! No one else on the bus was bothered or even got a second glance by any of these 3 guys even though their luggage was all over the isle and could have EASILY been stolen. We had definitely been targeted because of our white skin and being female... just great... this is when our new term came in handy... Ideal India... which is what Katie and I have been using for the past week to write off all the ridiculous things that happen here.

But we survived the sleeper bus to Agra and back!

We got back to Dehradun around 9 am and were so happy to see Dehradun... and then we were off to Mussoorie, the Queen of the Hills city for the next few days to stay at Landour Community Hospital and finish our rotations.

Ideal India

Namaste