Not possible Mr Douglas

Agra being a reasonably well connected city I was surprised at how few trains ran from the city to Delhi, well at least trains with seats on them. I found one seat myself but alas my booking abilities were limited to checking availability, leaving me to the mercy of the commission hungry travel agents. I stopped at a couple laughing at their charges and then realised I was in the depths of tourist India and there was no escaping over inflated commission. I quickly realised that I was going to have to stay the two nights I had originally planned but left one agent with the promise of a train early the next morning. After a couple hours I recieved a call saying it would not be possible Mr Douglas and I would have to wait another day to get a train, the thought of a third night sent a chill down my spine and I hung up. Against my judgement I went down to see the grinning thief that was my hotel owner, he was happy I had finally relented to his offers of bus tickets which I had previously been snubbing. I opted for the early morning bus and went back to my cell to pack my bag.

In the morning I recieved a knock at the door, I opened it to find my tear drop clad jailor on the other side with a grin on his face. The bus I was due to get on in an hour had been cancelled and it was only possible now to get the 8pm bus which would arrive somewhere in the early morning. This not particularly appealing I declined and went in search of yet more travel touts but was met by the all to familiar head wobble of ambiguity.

I relented in the end after too many "Not possible Mr Douglas"'s and returned to my hotel. Again I was greeted by a large grin, I reluctantly agreed to spending another night and he charged me 200 rupees for the train ticket, having recieved only a fraction of the value of my bus ticket and his commission being non refundable this was turning out to be an expensive venture.

That night I was the proud owner of a 60 rupee second class train ticket that had cost me well over 500 and inumerable hours of discontent. However as I slummed it once again in my cell I was just glad to be leaving in the morning.