Breakfast of the Rich and Famous

When we reached Agra, about a week and a half into our trip, we were already incredibly sick of the intense heat in India and the touts everywhere trying to get you to buy something or come into their shop ("Just looking! Just looking! No pressure!"). We decided it might be nice to check out the "midrange" section of hotels in our guidebook and take a day off to just relax and watch movies away from the crowds and the heat. After our rickshaw driver getting lost for literally an hour and a half, we finally came across Hotel Taj Plaza. We were both impressed by the hotel. The room they showed us had an awesome view of the Taj, air conditioning (!!!), a big TV, a private bathroom, room service, and our own little "dining area," as we called it, which was just an extra table with two chairs. It was expensive, but Zach talked the very nice (slightly sketchy) guy at the front desk to give it to us for almost half price. We kind of abused the room service (ie. Zach kind of abused room service) and we never tipped, but we actually became pretty good friends with the hotel staff. The travel agent would give us free rides to the Taj Mahal on his motorbike, and we convinced the guy working at the front desk to let us take a free shower in an empty room after we had checked out.

Anyway this is all a tangent.
About 1000 feet away from Hotel Taj Plaza was a place called the Oberoi, which is the fanciest hotel in all of India, and was recently named the 28th best hotel in the world. Being so close to this place we knew we had to go and see what it was like. In the morning, after waking up at 4am to see the sunrise on the Taj Mahal, we decided we were hungry for breakfast, and what better place to eat breakfast than the Oberoi?

Upon arriving at the hotel, we were already impressed by its extensive fountains and decor.
We went in and everyone was dressed in traditional Indian clothing and spoke perfect English. We asked if we could eat breakfast there and they left us sitting in the lobby for about 10 minutes while they asked their manager if it would be ok. While sitting there, in the amazing air conditioned atmosphere, we enjoyed live mandolin music from a man sitting at the top of a grand staircase and a perfect view of the Taj Mahal from a picture window clearly designed for that sole purpose.
They came back and let us know that it was ok for us to eat breakfast in their hotel, and led us down the stairs to the most colorful, most amazing looking buffet of fresh fruit, cereal, yogurts, juices, jams, and rolls that I have ever seen. It would have cost us $15 each for the buffet, so we decided to take a look at the menu. A quick scan revealed that neither of us had enough money to pay for this meal! I took this picture while Zach had to run back to our hotel for more cash haha!


Anyway, when he came back, we both ordered the pancakes, and they were the most amazing pancakes I have ever had in my life.

We each got a small stack of pancakes, spiced orange butter, a bowl of weird but delicious berries as a spread, as well as real maple syrup imported from the United States! I also got a $5 glass of the best mango juice I had while I was in India, and Zach convinced our waiter to give us free toast. We enjoyed breakfast and the view and decided that we needed to know how much this place cost per night.

We had a whole plan. Zach told the woman at reception that this place was out of our price range, but our parents were coming in November and wanted to stay and were wondering what a room cost. The woman told us it was about $700 (!!!!) a night and then started asking us all these details about our parents visit. She ended up giving Zach her card and he promised to email and work out the details with her later. We thanked the entire hotel staff and went back to Taj Plaza, where we asked our friend at the front desk if he had ever been to the Oberoi. He laughed and said, "This hotel nothing compared to Oberoi. This hotel ant, that hotel elephant!"