Budget: 3640 Rupees/$70; Spent: 2765 Rupees/$53
We crawled out of bed around 11:30am this morning. It's fantastic not having anyone to rely on, or relying on us! I think we're both feeling a little weird now that we don't have someone else's schedule to follow.
We had decided last night that we were going to have breakfast at Yash Café, so we did. Patty had an excellent coconut french toast and I had a fantastic Masala Omelette. We met the manager of the cafe, Kamru, who we spoke to after breakfast. We asked him some questions about traveling and where to go shopping in Agra. After letting him know we wanted to buy me some kurta paijamas, he led us to a couple places to check them out. I ended up buying a pair from one of the stores he took us to. Kurta paijamas are an Indian-style outfit worn by men and women consisting of a longish shirt and often big, baggy pants. Kamru also showed us where a nearby post office is.
We wanted to ship some stuff home today, so we went back to our hotel to pick up the stuff. Although we could have walked, a rickshaw driver convinced us to take a ride to the post office for 40 rupees. The driver had only one hand, had to go uphill, and had to jump off the bike to push for a while, so we gave him 100 rupees, instead.
Unfortunately, this post office did not send large packages so we looked for another driver to take us to the main post office in Agra. We found another rickshaw driver and while we were negotiating a price, he was fighting over us with an auto-rickshaw driver. The post office was about 20 minutes away, and when we got there, we found out that it was about $27 to send 1 kg, which is ridiculous. We debated whether we would accept that price for a couple minutes, but in the end we decided to leave. We thought that maybe they were trying to screw us over, so we decided we'd try the post office in Jaipur.
After we dropped off our stuff back at our hotel, we went to the most expensive hotel in Agra for a tea and a lassi, which is a smoothie-like drink made with yogurt. The hotel is called Oberoi Amar Vilas and is 35,000 – 45,000 rupees per night. You do the math. We passed by three different security guards and a metal detector before entering. The hotel has an amazing view of the Taj Mahal from its restaurant, part of which is outside on a terrace. It was a little too cold outside by this time to sit there, but we could see it from inside anyway! We paid $16 for the drinks. We were given complementary chips and peanuts, and my tea came with some of the best cookies I've ever eaten. The shortbread cookie was actually to die for. I will never forget that cookie. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous. I can’t believe they even let us in.
After this we went back to the Yash Café to do some more planning. We booked an overnight bus to Jaisalmer from Jaipur, although we would have preferred a train. Unfortunately, this time of year seems to be even worse than normal for booking trains. Apparently many Indians go to Jaisalmer to celebrate new years on a camel safari.
Once we got back to the hotel, we packed our bags and got ready for our 5am train ride to Jaipur tomorrow morning.
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