Tīkamgarh

Woke early, packed bags and brought downstairs (stored in staff room while we go out) and paid for accommodation. Went to see temple on hill, doors closed, too early. Went to first temple - beautiful and barely anyone around! Many narrow stairs that open up to massive rooms/paths. Walked to No-Mads for breakfast, mixed veg paratha brekky x2 - great chat w Udeshya. Got leftovers for takeaway snacks on train journey later. Went to fort to get ticket giving us access to all other temples. Explored fort. Construction going on outside but inside the architecture was beautiful inside. It was a shame however because there was rubbish everywhere, plastic wrappers, tobacco spit, people carving their names on this historic building, paintings poorly preserved. Next went to temple near guesthouse. Had two young boys who approached us asking for selfies, but we could see they were obviously touts so said no. They seemed to report to a guy pretending to be an attendant of the temple, and sent these boys to us again to give it another try and so they kept following us and repeatedly asked for selfies. When we refused and walked away, the boss told us we had to take off our shoes as it was a temple (no one else had shoes off). At this point we were no longer able to enjoy this temple without being followed by these two boys so decided to head out. On the way out, the boss ran after us and told us never mind about the shoes cause we can explore upstairs where we didn’t need to remove them for that. Said we had to pay to get up there - told him that was bullshit as the ticket we bought allowed for unlimited access to all temples in town. He grabbed hold of our ticket and said “okay okay okay” and ripped off a corner pretending he was allowing us to proceed. We said forget it and walked out. He sent the two boys to follow us down the stairs to ask for selfies again, told these boys to leave us alone. As we walked down, a vendor saw what was happening and yelled at these boys to stop bothering us. Told us to let him know if this happens again and he would call the tourist police for us. Now disheartened with this experience, we reluctantly visited the closed temple we visited this morning. Barely anyone there. Not as grand as the fort but underlying architecture was beautiful- again rubbish, spit and carvings everywhere, very poorly kept. Headed back to guesthouse to book our guesthouse in Agra and wait for our tuktuk to arrive at 1:30pm. Guesthouse booked at cc YOGA Homestay in Agra as well be arriving late. Tuktuk to Jhansi train station 250INR. 3pm train delayed 2 hrs. Got on 2S class, we had reserved seats for this 5 hour journey. More ppl arrive on train w unreserved seats so they jussi stand where they can - gets packed, people sitting on tables and overhead baggage compartment. 3hrs into journey hear a man behind us asking something and getting denied/ignored, makes his way to us where people are sat on a table in front of us. Man asks ppl on table if he could please rest his toddler child on the table so he can sleep. People just stare at him and ignore him. M&Z shocked at the lack of empathy..He starts to walk back and M gets up to give seat but ppl weren’t moving - when we started calling for him to come back he had just put his toddler son on overhead baggage compartment. Managed to call him over, M gave his seat, man very thankful. Ppl start praising Marty and one man shakes his hand and says loudly “you’re a good man”. M tells him not to call him a good man because this is simply what you should do for your fellow ppl, he tells them anyone could have done it, starts pointing and says “you could’ve given their seat, those ladies on the table could’ve done it, you all could’ve done it and been a good person but you chose not to do it”. Ppl now wanting to talk to Marty and shake his hand. Father very thankful, 3yo boy very tired. Arrived in Agra, got tuktuk to moustache Agra and walked to cc Yoga Guesthouse. Host was not there and paper saying to call him on WhatsApp. Called on WhatsApp, couldn’t hear so hung up & texted. Host says he is at wedding and will be back in 30mins, Z&M can enter their room. Man not there (didn’t message) so went to bed. Will spend one day tmrw then leave the next morning.Read more