I did occasionally pick up my guidebook on the many long lonely nights. This one said that Agra wasn't safe. That there were so many scam artists. So, I took opted to take a day trip from Delhi. A tour organized by my hotel. The price was right. It was convenient. It was my hotel. They all knew me. So, off I went at 5 or 6 am. Stumbled on the bus. The first one on. It's India, so shortly thereafter it was mostly full. I slept off and on. Everyone else on the bus was Indian. I was the only westerner. Of course no one talked to me, no one smiled except one woman across the aisle from me who at the rest stop put her arm around me and teased me for being alone. Hours later we arrived in Agra. An employee, or so I thought, came up to me on the bus and told me that because I was the only English speaker, they arranged a special tour for me. We went around and around, I looked around helplessly for some assistance from my fellow passengers who were staring and watching but when I looked to them for help, they all looked away. So, I got off the bus with this guy, and immediately my alarms went off. I was in this run down part of town, the auto rickshaw driver who would be taking me around, looked homeless and spoke no English. The bus took off and I knew it wasn't right. So, I argued with him some more then I called the hotel on the cellphone. Thank god for cellphones. I would never travel without now. I talked to the owner; I put him on the phone with this guy. He walked around to the other side of the auto rickshaw, so I couldn't hear. Hear what? Hindi? Yeah, I speak Hindi. He hands the phone back to me and says. Ok, get in. I instead put my ear to the phone and speak to the owner, and he tells me it's a scam. So, I walk away. He says I should catch up with the bus. Where? I don't even really know what the bus looked like. So, I catch an auto rickshaw and tell them to take me to the Taj Mahal where the buses are. They take me to the entrance, no buses. I explain my situation further. By the way, they spoke very little English, and if you didn't catch the sarcasm earlier, I don't speak Hindi. They take me to the bus parking lot. We pull in and there are many buses. They some how know very quickly that my bus isn't there but will return in a moment. I am highly suspicious but sure enough in comes a bus. They tell me that is my bus. I talk to the bus driver whom I had never seen because he was upfront of the bus in an enclosure. I don't know this is my bus or driver. No one really speaks English and I am pissed so probably no one wanted to talk to me anyhow. I call the hotel again. They confirm that it is my bus and driver. I yelled at the huge bus driver who dismissed me. Then, as if I had never left that previous scenario, they send me off alone with a guide. It turned out fine but I didn't enjoy that trip that day at all. I was always on my guard and extremely suspicious of everyone and everything. Still no one talked to me and this point I didn't want to talk to them either. I had already learned they wouldn't help out. So, I had a long miserable, trip. Later at the hotel, I complained to the owner, who is actually a nice enough man. I felt like it was his fault, his bus, his employees, his responsibility. They refunded my money but that didn't change the bitterness I feel about Agra, Taj Mahal, Delhi, and India. That whole situation unnerved me in a way that I will never recover from. I realized how vulnerable I was, and that I always need to be on my guard, but that I already knew. What I didn't know or think, was that no one will aid you when you need help. They will all turn and look the other way. That really freaked me out. Is this how Indians are? That when your neighbor is being harmed, they look away, they don't get involved? Seems like the ground work for another holocaust.
