north of india: two pearls - rishikesh & agra
RISHIKESH
One of the most peaceful places in the world, surrounded by
the mountains and its fresh local instrumental music, turquoise river of Ganges
is Rishikesh, a town in North India. The views there can’t be equal to anything
else you have seen in the pictures of other parts of the country. A birthplace
of yoga and meditation, dry area as they call it (you will not be able to get
alcohol anywhere around unless it is sold under the counter) with kindly locals
brought even The Beatles to rest and recover in Rishikesh for a while almost
half a century ago – there’s still a monument for them in the national park,
unfortunately the price is too high. Daily relaxation can bring you for a walk
nearby picturesque banks of the river, many temples (of course, it wouldn’t be
India without a temple on every single corner), praying locals who take holy
Ganges water into the tanks and bring to their families back home; flower sellers
(there is a ritual that you have to light a fire on those flowers and let them
in the water to flow, unfortunately we did not get explanation why it is like
this); touristic markets, kayaking points, restaurants and cafes both with
Indian and Western food for always reasonable prices. There are many more
things to do in this peaceful land – depends on how much you are willing to
spend in order to get a full experience of Rishikesh. Mainly all of the hotels
and homestays can arrange yoga, meditation, even jewellery classes.
Rishikesh has amazing waterfalls only an hour away by walk –
it’s definitely worth walking since the road towards them is through the mist
of mountains. If it is warm enough, the water is perfectly clean for swimming
and has a tiny ‘bathtub’ where it is possible to go for a dip.
The town itself has an amazing vibe of true peace, cooler in
wintertime, but definitely not too cold. A very happy, full of joy and
picturesque views place.
AGRA
The main reason why masses of people come to visit Agra is,
of course, the famous Taj Mahal. The beautiful idea of this building is spread all
over the world within its legends on how a king asked to build this
gorgeous palace for his wife, who died giving a birth to his 14th child,
in order to express the love for her. The architect got his arms cut afterwards to
he wouldn’t be able to build anything similar to Taj Mahal.
We came here from Delhi after some massive scamming in the
train station (fortunately we did not get caught on their lies). Getting tickets is
easy, but finding the right train is a task to do since no one spoke English
and could not tell us which is the right platform – luckily we
just went to a random train and found tourists going to the same direction.
Then again, because of the massive fog trains were delayed from three hours up
to nineteen! Reaching Agra was an adventure! But definitely worth everything to see the famous palace in
the early morning, surrounded by the fog that caused so many delays. In order
to experience Taj Mahal the fullest, you need to take time, walk around it
couple of times, admire the calligraphy on the walls and the different colours
of it. Imagine how many people know about the palace and dream unconsciously about visiting it one day and here we found ourselves actually living it! The experience is truly amazing, especially you would not see anything similar in Europe.
It was really hard to avoid all those Indians who come to you for a selfie and reject them every single time – I get when small girls ask for it, but grown men? Seriously? I have heard that the palace is different every time the weather is different, so the colours change couple of times a day.
It was really hard to avoid all those Indians who come to you for a selfie and reject them every single time – I get when small girls ask for it, but grown men? Seriously? I have heard that the palace is different every time the weather is different, so the colours change couple of times a day.
The city of Agra is amazingly beautiful as well, within its architecture and forts. This what fascinated me the most about India - it's dirty but everyone follows the traditions - that's why colours in the shops and on every single lady in the street gives vibrancy and covers the dirt; it has messy markets, streets and scams but more than half people who you run into are helpful and friendly; it has amazingly expensive mansions lived by politicians on one side of the road and slums soaked by poverty on another. Great country to travel to! I keep running out of words how to describe it!
