The coolness of the Taj

On 9th January, we did not very much in Chennai, just having a look at the High Court Building and surfing on the net.





Before returning to our hotel to pick up our luggage, we spent an hour with Indian bureaucracy: we tried to get an reimbursement for Susi's train ticket. On the first counter, we waited 10 min for the clerk to come back from lunch break. As our arrival was more than 24 h ago, we had to go to the reservation building and see the supervisor on shift. After another queue, we were waved into the office, where we waited for the supervisor to handle our case. In the meantime, we filled out a cancellation sheet (nearly the same as the reservation sheet that you need to fill in to book a train). The supervisor told us to wait 10 min in the reservation hall. After 20 min I walked back in and after 5 more minutes on the supervisor's desk, he sent us back down together with a clerk. This guy still took some time before we finally received the tremendous refund of 88 Rs (less than 2 Euros).

From the hotel, we took the local train to the airport and flew with Kingfisher to Delhi. The "Kingfisher Experience" was a very good one. We got something to eat and drin, had on bord entertainment and enough space. Not compareable to other Indian airlines where you might feel as in sardine-tin.


Landed in Delhi we mad our way to the hotel, also it was not the one we initially booked. But that's a story of its own. The 2000 km to the north also changed the weather deeply. During the day temperature is around 20 degrees, but the nights get quite cold, especially if you are speeding along in an open auto-rickshaw. I caught a cold and my nose is now always running ahead of me.

Next morning 4:30 the alarm rang for our trip to Agra. Our Shabadti Express (that should have taken 2 hours) arrived 2,5 hours late. Then we hired an auto for the whole day and started our tour:

Baby Taj



Agra Fort


Taj Mahal



Amar Vilas - 5 star hotel set in a Mughal atmosphere is the place where we took our dinner and made a visit to the splendid toilet which alone is worth a visit:). We ranked it a 10 on our Indian toilet list.

Hotel Sheela Inn - where I lived more than four weeks in 2005. I said hello to the owner and Mr Bophal, who was happy to see me again.


On the return, the train was still 2 hours late, so that we got quite a good impression on the nightlife at a train station. People come with blankets and accomodate themselves on the platform as they wait for their trains.