We were pushed for time leaving Pushkar – there was more to see than first met the eye, charm in the gentleness of the old city and the cows visiting the shops and the colorful saris of the pilgrims and the rooftop restaurants serving falafels and hummus. Nonetheless we hired a taxi to take us to the next city – Ajmer where we had train reservations for the afternoon train that would get us into Agra the next morning. I booked ahead in Agra – the only city I had as I knew we were going to be tired and I also had read of the serious tout action there. The last thing one wants to do when tired and cranky is get into a fight with a rickshaw/tuk tuk driver who is jacking you around and holding your bags hostage. Better just to have a place identified and at least you can fake some knowledge. So…….Carrie tells me the train will leave at 3 pm, we get to the station at 2:30 as it is our first Indian train experience and we have all seen Slum dog Millionaire and wondered how you can get that many people into one train car….. we wanted to have some extra time to get sorted.

The station seems a little quiet – very hot, but quiet. Doesn't look like crowds will be an issue as we are the only ones there who don't have a broom or a uniform of some kind. We raise the interest of same – two blondes with big bags…..hmmmm. Long story….the train left at 3 am. Twelve hours late seems to make a difference in the lineups. Now we have a huge dilemma – the train people are not helpful at all, interested in napping – won’t tell us what other trains might come through today – don’t tell us if we can get on tomorrow’s train ( we had prebooked a week prior in Jodhpur as most trains are fully booked weeks in advance). So…….thankfully the station had a left luggage place with two brutal Nazi types running it – Laurel and Hardy with authority!!!! We left our bags and wandered aimlessly out into the heat and the dirty city of Ajmer. We were followed by a guy who saw us at the luggage place and he insisted we go with him to a bus office. They gave us a hard sell on taking a 24 or 30 hour or something really bad, sleeper bus of which they only had pictures of the one guy and another guy together in a bunk……really close and happy photo but I kind of wanted to see what the bus looked like. We got out of there and I figured we should walk with purpose as we were creating quite a high level of awareness – this is a rough city with a bad reputation. A few blocks in we saw a poster for a travel agency, asked the mechanics who were stripping an engine out front and they pointed down the alley around the corner. We stumbled into a tiny office and were relieved the guy spoke English. We explained our dilemma, told him we didn’t care where we went; we just wanted to get out of town. He found us the last two seats – yup, seats, on the 3am train to Agra the next morning. We bought them and then proceeded to find a hotel for the night. Not an easy task. Thankfully our new friend was committed to the task – as nearly every Indian person we have met: They are truly the most helpful people. He had little experience with western tourists and was struggling to come up with a place that would a) be clean enough for us, b) be close enough for us to get to the train station by 2:30 am, c) accept unaccompanied women and d) be cheap enough to make it worthwhile for only a few hours of rest.

He called one place and sent us off, on foot, with his man servant. When we got there the price had increased exponentially after seeing us. It was clear they wanted no part of two Blondes and a manservant. It was a creepy, creepy dirty place. So, back through the hot dusty streets to the poor guy’s office. He decided to take matters into his own hands and drove us to a hotel farther out. In the car he tried to talk us into doing some sightseeing with him. It was a tough sell as we were really beat from the day and also the only two sights he could come up with to see in Ajmer were a dried up lake and a statue of some guy that had been built on marble but the marble had been stolen…..kind of sums up Ajmer. If you are going to screw up and miss a train, pick somewhere else other than Ajmer.

We checked in to a crappy expensive room for the few hours and at 2:30 am made our way into the Ajmer night – walking to the train station, scaring the few locals out at that time. Thankfully the left luggage was open (after waking up the guard) and we retrieved our bags and finally got out of Ajmer headed for the Taj Mahal.
The Train? One word – freezing. We had been told about air conditioning but this was just plain ridiculous. I was sick from eating a bag of raw peas in the Hotel room. Guess I now can add peas to peanuts, apples and tortilla chips as food I cannot digest. Duh…..you know after you do something so stupid…..it seems so clear – like reading 0300 as 1500 Hrs (Carrie) , or buying unshelled peas and potato chips and eating them while watching Indian soap operas in the middle of the night because you can’t sleep because you are afraid you will miss the train again if you fall asleep? No large intestine??? Not a good idea to eat most anything raw….anyway, I was getting sicker and sicker as the train made its way north. Not puke sick, thank god, just feeling really badly and hoping not to replicate previous blockages……ahhhhhh……not on a train, not in India!!!!! My good Karma saved me, again, and I just was able to sit, freezing cold with most of my clothes on – pulled out of my pack and listen to the others in the rail car snore away. It was a long night/ morning and by the time we got to Agra I was pretty sick. We decided to head to the nice Hotel I had booked – and paid for – the previous night to see if, by chance they would honor our reservations and take pity on two blonde idiots. Nope – no room at the Inn. Big festival on the street and everything booked. Again – such nice people, the hotel guy felt my pain – Carrie was holding down the Cab with our cheating cab driver who was trying to scam us with lie after lie……, and walked me about half a km down the road to a little tiny hotel (7 rooms) which had space.

So nice of him to do that for us. He whispered to me that this was a better place than his – his hotel only looked nice from the lobby – the rooms were actually old and ugly!

And so it was that we found Arayans Hotel and the Green View Restaurant – a true Oasis in the shadow of the Taj.


The train?