We finally circled back around 17h, Taj time! The entrance ticket was truthfully the most expensive activity I paid through, the intense tourist surcharge compared to the local price. Inside, we realized that the best view of the Taj is NOT actually from in it but from the other side of the lake far from the people. With this, we went picture crazy, snapping and running to see the entire monument, spent 5 seconds in awe of the beautiful crafting and ran outside to hail a tuk-tuk which sped like no other tuk-tuk we have ever been on.
We sat there by the dry river side (it was drought period), far away from the people, until the sun finally set. On the right river bank, a holy cremation took place and the smoke remained high even after darkness took over. We decided to take our tuk-tuk driver to dinner and called it a night.
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I have to say, taking the train in India became one of the best experiences throughout our stay. The train ride from Delhi to Agra took 4hrs that dawn(instead of the normal 2 - India!) and I found myself unable to catch extra hours of sleep from the excitement. I embarrassingly admit the feeling of being a kid in a train looking around in wonders.
Talk about sophistication.
I would look around, see someone asleep in this Sleeper compartment and go like woooow. I would turn, seeing someone ordering chai and go like wooooow. In front of me someone was sneezing from the morning cold and I would go like wooow. Finally, after everything settled, I put on my headscarf that I have grown accustomed to, opened my journal and decided to write.
I realized, sitting here in a non-a/c, Sleeper class train, that concur I must on the widespread opinion that nothing is truly like the experience of a journey by train in India. Most people are vastly asleep from their long journeys, some refer to their mobile phones for amusement. It is chilly at this time, perhaps I should close my window but I prefer not to for I enjoy looking out and seeing the city wakes up. The sun shyly rose as we pass through settlements and slums, people romantically started squatting everywhere to take their first dump of the day. We passed through some fields, with people practicing yoga on the little fields next to the tracks. Women are carrying water. Children playing crickets. A sighting of horses running in the fields was one of my highlights. It feels like being here yet invisible, taking part in a moment of intimate peak into their lives.
Halfway through the journey, a shift in the seating arrangements have taken place in this carriage. The boy who sat facing the sun rising from the East moved above me to sleep, giving space for me to sit on his place and see the scenery from the other side. It is so beautiful here... The misty morning through the rice fields. The sun is so orange, so light. Sounds began to emerge as the passengers began to wake from their slumbers, Hindi was spoke and accompanied by the chirps. The teenage boy sitting next to me seems to be highly fascinated by me taking pictures of the fields he seems to be so accustomed to. He smiles, always a smile while looking at me.
And all these time, the chai sellers remained our only faithful companion.
