The joys of being a tourist in India

(The first of an occasional series, this a special guest post from "Mr Reney".)

From pushy autorickshaw drivers, to the aggressive souvenir sellers at every tourist attraction and those all-too-helpful "officials" at train stations, being a tourist in India is hard work.

But the rewards make it all worthwhile.

Let's start from the beginning. Having enjoyed the delights of Christmas in a lovely Kolkata home, we hit the road for the well-trodden triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.

The flight to Delhi was uneventful, and we counted five separate ID checks between the entrance to the terminal building (No.1) to the security guard standing just before the aerobridge for one last look after you scan your boarding pass.

Red Fort, Delhi

Streets of Old Delhi

Red Fort is simply stunning, and a joy to behold after walking through the busy nearby streets with the sounds of the car horns blaring. We also dined at the same restaurant Bill Clinton did, visited the excellent Indira Gandhi museum and learned about trains at national railway museum ahead of our ride to Agra.

Snack tray, train from Delhi to Agra

We were repeatedly warned not to talk to anyone at the station ("there are plenty of cheater men at the station," the taxi man cautioned us). Despite this, when went to New Delhi Railway Station to find our train delayed a man in an official looking blue coat told us to go to another station to take an earlier train and buy a ticket at the local tourist office on the way. He would even bargain the autorickshaw driver down to 20 Rupees. Why did I follow him towards the rickshaw as part of a well-known scam? Who knows? Thankfully, sanity, in the form of Reney, prevailed and we went to the international tourist office at the station to sort out new tickets for an earlier train. It sure felt better to be on the train rather than hanging around the station with the word "target" on our heads.

There are inflated prices for just about everything - taxis, souvenirs, even beer. The bottle shop owner tried to convince us the Maximum Retail Price on the bottle was not the actual price because it "doesn't include duties". A local we spoke to described it as the "skin tax" - the lighter your skin colour the more they charge you. While you can put it down to just part of being a tourist, it does wear you down.

However, when you wake up at the dawn of a new year and, after a cup of hot masala tea, walk through the gates into one of the world's most majestic structures you can't help but feel it is all worth it. Travelling in India may not be the smoothest of journeys, but it is one we will always treasure.

The Taj Mahal (almost)

And there it is!