The end of Delhi's chaos...

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Jason is not dead. Evidently Hep A is something worth administering to yourself, if you've got a little medical training. We saved the box, along with a postcard with my contact information on it, incase he drops somewhere along the way, but we've been nothing but lucky so far.

I'm physically in Agra, though the rest of my Delhi adventure remains undocumented, and that just feels wrong...

We rented a car for the whole day, and managed to get a driver who was not addicted to the horn, which was a nice reprive. We started at the furthest location of interest, the Baha'i Lotus temple, and worked our way back into the city. The temple was a marvel of modern archetecture- an immense, all faith meditation center constructed in the shape of an unfurling lotus flower. This was the first we'd encountered other tourists, really, and there were a ton of them. Barefoot and up the staircase, past the cool blue of the reflecting pools we entered the temple and chilled inside, in silence, in reprive from the cloudless sky. Definately worth the trip out.

Next, the train museum, on the recomendation of the receptionist at the hotel, who had never been... Lots of trains. Yep. Tons of them. All painted, some with signs, completely without shade. Trains trains trains.

The driver took us to a tasty (if expensive) restaraunt for lunch, and we soaked up as much AC and nan as possible before heading out to the bank and then Conaught Place, a huge mess of stores and vendors. We got some beautiful fabric, which will soon be a skirt, and some clothing for Jason who came to India with approximately four things to wear (but remarkably had a 60lb pack...). We ventured into the Tibetan market, and turned around pretty quickly as the combination of the noise and postcard-pushers and sun got old fast.

To be honest, I'm not sure what happened after that. I think we may have headed back to the hotel. I do know for sure that the combination of the heat and the dirt and the car ride had my hair standing on end (literally) and that the shower, if one feels generous enough to call it that, was a good friend to me for the rest of the evening.

We managed to get out of Delhi without taking very many photos (save one of the gnome, lovingly referred to as Joey Reginald, sitting on the shower in the hotel room, and a few from our day 2 excursion), and without getting completely scammed out of train tickets, though we were close. If you are ever considering India travel, the Lonely Planet guide is the way to go. They didn't miss a beat, as evidenced by the fact that when Jason came rushing back to the hotel room to tell me I had to come to Conaught Place with him to buy train tickets, I could spell out to him exactly what he was told at the train station- The foreign travellers office is closed for rennovations, here are directions to another place where you can get tickets. He was pissed, but it all worked out as the wonderful woman at Wongdhen House booked our train to Agra in five painfree minutes.

I think I will go ahead and write a separate entry for what we've experienced of Agra so far. Once we've taken enough pictures, we'll have a cd made and jam them all on here at once. Right now it's mostly the aforementioned shower pictures, some attempts at portraying the horror of traffic, a couple of some trains (yay!) and our sweaty faces in front of the back of the Taj Mahal.

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Photos

Jay and Ajay
Jason and his right hand man in Majnu ka Tilla. Ajay shined his shoes and kept the beggars at bay.

Looking
From the hotel in Majnu Ka Tilla

From the train
Passing between Delhi and Agra

Comments

[margaret clarke]

Happy birthday, Sunshine
Best wishes for a wonderful birthday. Reading your journal is very exciting, can not wait for the next installment. Stay safe and healthy, love to you both, Mom

[Adam]

WHAASSSSUUUUPPPP!
Hey Glad to see you guys are alright.And I love the travel Blog.So be safe.