An Outlet: Part 5

3 December, 2018.

I'm currently in the second city of our trip, Agra aka a prominent tourist destination in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Today's morning started out very early in Delhi and my family and I got ready to leave by 6:30AM. Our trip to Agra spans for two days and a night afterwhich we come back to Delhi. This is why our neighbors had booked us a cab for the entire duration.

It was a 4 hour road trip to reach near Agra. Sometime in the middle, we stopped along the highway to have some amazing parathas for breakfast. What surprised me was that we were expected to use up the entire butter sachet given to us! :o But to eat freshly made hot parathas in a very cold weather was pure bliss!

My cousins back in my city had met up to practice for the Sangeet ceremony yet again and they had changed the choreography a bit. WHYYYYYYYYYYY?! Anyways, we had a lot of time to kill and there wasn't much to see outside so I learnt and practiced the new steps in the car itself. The driver probably things I have gone nuts but you gotta do what you gotta do.

We reached Fatehpur Sikri and the driver warned us that there will be a lot of "official" guides trying to aggressively convince us to give us a tour of the entire place.

And the man wasn't lying.

As soon as we stepped out of the car, a lot of people attacked us with their persistence. My goodness! Not just the guides, there were store people as well who just stuck to us like creepers! They just weren't ready to leave even when we refused them a number of times. Seems like the sales tactic here is to chase and irritate the customer until he buys your product/ service. We didn't end up taking one but I must commend their persuasion skills.

The only thing I knew about Fatehpur Sikri was that it houses the huge 'Buland Darwaza'

Turns out it was a good choice not to take a guide with us because there was a provision made where visitors could sit and learn all about the place through the TV that was placed there. Fatehpur Sikri (with the name Fatehpur coined much later than Sikri) was Akbar's original capital base for 14 years before he abandoned it for Agra. We saw the Diwan-i-Aam (public enclosure), Daulat Khana (wealth storage), Diwan-i-Khas (jewel house),  Jodha's palace, Panch Mahal, Anup Talao, etc. Everything was made of red sandstone and the area was very spacious. We also went to the Jama Masjid which housed Tomb of Salim Chishti (made with white marble) but we didn't enter the tomb caused it looked like a time consuming process.

And ofcourse there was the big Buland Darwaaza. It is very huge and does look regal. In fact this was one the of the structures that I was looking forward to seeing.

Mom and I were shamelessly practicing our dances a bit while walking along the area and I swear Dad and Alex looked like they were about to disown us. Lol.

It was time for lunch so the driver took us to a good place he knew. Apparently this restaurant was popular among drivers driving for foreigners because we saw quite a lot of people from different countries. We opted for vegetarian lunch because we wanted a break from all that chicken. The food was really good however the flies hovering around us were threatening to kill the mood.

I couldn't help but sleep the entire way to our hotel at Agra. The hotel and the room everything looked really nice! My parents' room even had the view of the famous Taj Mahal! I checked out the room completely- something I always do- while Alex slept. I then tried making 'Darjeeling' tea for myself using the tea bag, milk and sugar packets. I had never had one before and now I know why. It tasted shit! Maybe I didn't prepare it properly..... yeah, that's the most possible reason.

We freshened up and then headed to the Agra Fort. Only, we weren't able to do so. We had checked the timings of the fort and it showed the closing time as 6PM. But we had reached at 5PM and were still not allowed.... We didn't have any back up plan so the driver took us to a handicraft area.

I don't know if it was the store plan/layout or the lightings, but everything looked really nice. However, I knew that they probably won't look good with our home decor, belongings and needs. Besides, I did see some items (that looked appealing at the shop) that I already possess and would readily give up if given a choice.

For the second time today, our driver seemed to have taken us to a place meant for foreigners. I say this because the store workers didn't seem to pay any attention to us. And it looked like everyone working there knew Mandarin and Korean. I was so surprised when I heard them converse with the Eastern foreigners with such ease. I'm pretty sure they knew more languages.

I was correct. This was indeed for the foreigners. No wonder the prices of the items were off the roof! The driver took us to another relatively affordable place and we bought some clothes and decor items there. Then we came back to the hotel where mom and I easily spent an hour or two practising our dances for the Sangeet. We even took each others' videos to send to the others.

Eventually, we left for dinner at 9PM. The driver took us to one restaurant but we left from there because there were no other diners and ambience was very off. Then we landed at another place but honestly, it was very sub par. Either Agra doesn't have any good restaurants to offer or the driver was useless in this department. I'm guessing the latter because Agra is supposed to be a tourist destination so the govt will definitely plan to build quality restaurants in this area.

Anyways, we came back home to the hotel where Alex and I bought some donuts and had that along with a can of beer that we had bought along the way. Now I absolutely hate beer but dad surprisingly got one for me as well. This was the first time Alex and I drank together. Only, I wasn't able to drink it at all. It was shit man. I don't think I'll ever develop a taste for beer. Alex had to drink mine as well when he realised I hadn't drunk more than 5 sips.

Anyways, the two of us had a good talk afterwhich I cleaned everything up, organised everything so I don't have to do much in the morning, took a nice hair bath, blow dried the wet hair and finally caught up on a lot of things I missed over the past few days.

I should have probably phased this out tho. Cause it's 2AM now and I'm supposed to wake up by 6AM!

Even though it's officially 4 Dec in India, I shall post my birthday message for Jin in the next chapter.

Jin Birthday Trends as on 10:30PM IST
#1 #OurEpiphanyJin
#2 #HAPPYJINDAY
#3 #ShiningAndPreciousJin
#4 #석진이는_온_세상의_빛
#6 Seokjin