Agra is a better maintained city than Kanpur, better roads, lesser pollution better discipline on the roads.. maybe we were exposed to the better part of Agra? aybe so because it has more tourist inflow?
Speaking to a few businessmen here the general feeling I get is that the Taj Mahal is more a bane than a fortune, the ban of polluting industries many Kms radius of Taj to protect the monument has not gained favour with them. When they are questioned about the Taj bringing in the tourist, the answer is that thanks to Agra's proximity to Delhi Agra is only a day tour and not a tourist destination, most tourists come from Delhi to Agra stay here for a few hours and then go back, so it is Delhi which rakes it in ad not Agra. Why I asked did the UP Govt not project Agra as a tourist destination, why have the other tourist interest monuments and events not improved or built, the Yamuna river can be developed for water sports? The Govt could have a dialogue with the military to vacate Agra fort and the army could be given alternate accommodation?
The signages on the roads are in Hindi and they are not strategically placed so a driver without a GPS may find it difficult to move around. We got onto the road to Mathura (NH2) as we wanted to go to see Krishnas Janma Bhoomi and then to Brindavan to the Banke Bhari temple.
We managed to get into Mathura and to the Janma Bhoomi, we were accosted by the many touts there promising moksha if we used their services to visit the temple, we in desperatation as there were not enough signages to show us the way or to give instructions on how to get into the temple(?) asked one of the touts to help, he said that the main gate was closed but would take us to the other gate and take us in, the other gate was very crowded and he said he would take us to yet another gate not feeling good we inquired with a policeman who told us that entry was not difficult and we do not need a tout. We walked from there towards the car thinking that we were not going to be able to make it inside. On the way out we noticed that the Main gate had opened and they were allowing visitors inside, we packed our mobile phones, car keys etc in my handkerchief and handed it over at the safe keep counter and charged in. In about 20 minutes we had seen the prison in whcih Krishna was supposed to have been born and were out. No tout.
However, we were late for Brindavan and therefore decided that lunch at a referred
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