decisions, decisions...

[mercurialdawn]

Here's a q for those of you who've been to India:

I effectively only have one free weekend here, because next weekend my team is taking me on a white water rafting and camping excursion in Rishikesh...  So I'm trying to figure out what to do.  The options are:

See Agra and the Taj Mahal on Saturday, Explore New Delhi on Sunday
See Jaipur on Saturday,

Comments

[griffjon]

What's your transportation situation? do you have a private driver or are counting on the trains to take you places? Trains can be (and often are) delayed, really mucking up your time.

Agra can be Agra-vating (hah! get it? Agra? Agravating! I kill me.) because of the heavy tourist loads and the general scum that thrives off of tourists. Nevertheless, the Taj is worth an afternoon of your time, and the Agra market is a very pleasant escape from the tourist throngs.

Jaipur as a city wasn't that exciting. It has a huge market in the old "pink city" part; but it's more scams mostly. The Jaipur fort is nowhere near as well maintained as the other forts you can see, but it is a nice place to have a beer, though difficult to get up to.

New Delhi is a trip, and possibly worthwhile. If you need a local guide we had an awesome rickshaw driver who's cell I can pass along if I can find it.

My India experiences are archived here : http://www.griffjon.com/travel/MT/archives/india/ with some good stories about scams to watch out for, and some pics of the various cities/sites.