April 28th: Agra, the Taj, the pollution
The funky bus trip over, we arrived in Agra, the city of Taj Mahal, the most famous place in India. I must say that the visit of the Taj would be a very nice thing. However, I was shocked by the price of the entry ticket (750 Rps). But I would not need to worry about that…
… Indeed, Friday is the day when the Taj is closed except for 2 hours at noon reserved to muslims for prayer. No more hesitation with entering or not the Taj then, this was a good occasion to head for the bank of river yamuna and get a view from the back side. The bank of the river is a place where life is everywhere: some wild life, the farmers cultivating vegetables on the wet land, kids playing, …
But the postcard picture does not go far, 500m upstream of the Taj you find yourself in an open-sky waste disposal. Plastic bags, garbage brought by the river, the villagers or the wind remind you that India is a country where population has not yet been educated to take care of their environment. The river is as well very polluted, colors of the mud make you feel worried about the next meal you will have, which will be cooked with those vegetables which grow a 100m downstream.
… to be continued