Day 286: Agra > Khawal
As expected, wake up at 5 a. m. to hope to be in the first visiting Taj Mahal. We were lucky enough to have our CouchSurfer only 500 meters from the entrance, allowing us to walk quickly to the entrance. So we are queuing to get our tickets (1000 IND), but must wait until sunrise before they can open the doors and counters. Obviously they had to be late at that level, not allowing me to take the best pictures…
After a long queue, we are finally inside the monument! Not being the first ones, we decide to “zap” the first courtyard to go directly to the next one where we can take the best pictures of the monument.
We quickly take photos and continue our advance to tour the site, passing through the various buildings around, such as mosques and a museum.
We quickly finish the visit so that we can get out of here without wasting any time and have breakfast in a guest house present on the way back. After our lunch, it’s time to join our bikes, our host and leave!
We have calculated, to be able to arrive at our temple one day in advance, we have to cycle every day a minimum of 60 kilometers, which is easy for us!
For the evening, we find a person to host us, for the first time in India!
Result of the day: 86 km
Day 287: Khawal > Chandaus
After staying at our super host’s place until 1 p. m., with whom we were able to participate in a party, we unfortunately have to leave to be on time and not be late for our relaxation week.
For the evening we have planned camping, to change what we usually know.
Result of the day: 55 km
Day 288:andaus > Meerut
This day will have been the worst we have seen today, when we are starting to fall for the Indians, I will explain why, don’t worry.
So, to begin with, wake up in the early morning with the first sunshine. Barely gone yet, we are already berthed by bikers. Now I don’t have to make any more effort. Basically, you start talking to me in Hindi without even saying “hello” and knowing full well that I don’t speak your language, well, I speak to you in French and explain that we say “hello” when we start talking to someone.
So I have to repeat “namaste” (I make an effort to say it in their language) several times before it leaves me. The horn beats become as unbearable and if I see that I am honking my horn for nothing (I’m talking about the person being on a motorcycle and that he can pass widely on my right), I don’t care in the middle of the road and I’m kind of not hearing him saying that he understands that it’s no use and that it pisses everybody off.
In short, now we want to leave quickly from here, India by bike is a bad experience, people are constantly at your side no matter what you do like looking for food, drink or anything else. The worst part is that we try to rip you off at every moment, but obviously we don’t let that happen and most of the prices are indicated on the products.
No more village roads, to save time you only take the fast lanes to reach a point A to point B without taking the time to stop where there are people and without even taking the time to look at them. We end up simply being disgusted by this savage side, without any politeness and respect for the people present next to them. There are still “helpful” people who make you smile again, just like the tuk-tuk drivers who let you hang on to their vehicles.
In the evening, we decide to take a hotel, to recharge our batteries and be quiet, because to camp in India, you have to wait for the sunset and hide away in the fields. But of course it was still a mission, the one that made us fall apart.
Already, the GPS point where the hotel is marked is completely screwed up. Then, I was allowed to have a bastard who ran over me on a motorcycle without even saying forgiveness or anything else (we’ll say I was pretty pissed off). Then, I found a little bit of faith in this people when someone offered to guide us to the right place in the hotel (Spoil: The most rotten thing we had to do for the moment).
Arrived at the hotel, 2-3 kilometers from the supposed position, the hotel team has put us in all our states again, pissed us off as not possible all night long with our passports (send 40 times the same eVisa because they have trouble to receive it), write 15 times our coordinates while they have the photocopy of our passports, in short I will stop there and just say that this is the service.
Tomorrow we leave without knowing where we’re going, but far from here, that’s for sure.
Result of the day: 109 km
