Almost about to leave India: Delhi and Agra

DELHI

The air pollution is so extremely high! First I thought it would be a shame not to have an exterior window in the hotel but to the staircase. Then I was just happy about it - at least it wasn’t dusty in my room! Just after leaving the hotel immediately my throat started rasping and my skin was soooo itchy! So I mostly put my scarf in front of my mouth. In the morning time during having on the rooftop I couldn’t see clearly the sun and not very far... too much smog! I remembered the pictures of Beijing at the Olympic Games.

It was nice to notice that I’m finally used to the chaos - no how it works.


AGRA

I had a nice day with a Polish group that I met at morning time having a cup of chai tea on the other side of the river to see the Taj Mahal during the sunrise. We waited a long time - they asked me to join them as there was one seat free in their car. As we couldn’t see the Taj Mahal very clearly (waiting for 2 hours if the smog/ fog would go away) we went to the Baby Taj - it was built before the "real" Taj Mahal, is smaller and less crowded. To entrance to the Taj Mahal we had to queue up for a looooong time - then we had a big discussion with a police women in the entrance as we were told by another police man to overtake the Indian women. Her boss let us entrance without queuing one more time but told us not to make waves - ah, (Indian?) police! By the way: Indians pay 2 Euros entrance, foreigners 12 Euros! It was so foggy (not only in the morning when we wanted to see the Taj during sunrise). The plan is to remove some very closed factories to protect and save the Taj Mahal.


DELHI again

In my last days I went shopping like crazy as it was the end of my journey - also Delhi is the cheapest place to go shopping because there’s a lot of competition (in the main shopping street for Indian products and gifts called "Main Bazaar" there’s one shop next to the other - and mostly with lots of plants above those shops. So I got the products for the best prices in whole India - or maybe I simply optimized my way of bargaining...:)

Finally I decided to visit the biggest mosque of whole India - I was a little bit scared because of the recently bomb blasts I usually avoided to go to crowded places. But as it wasn’t a Friday (main praying day for Muslims) I finally decided to go there.

The last day I wanted to see a Bollywood Movie for the last time in India - so I went to Connaught Place, a nice place where you can find all the Western shops, cinemas etc. - very nice and clean place!

On the way back from the cinema to the hostel in Delhi it was kind of scary in the rickshaw … not because of the huge amount of dogs (some people have fear that they come inside of the rickshaw and byte you - most of the dogs in Delhi have rubies, precautionary I got vaccinated before my trip) but because of the bad looking beggars in the street - you just couldn’t escape fast if they would try to touch you (I saw skin diseases and body shapes I never ever saw before). But still getting around in rickshaws in one of the cheapest ways to move and you actually feel India at the closest range possible.

Goodbye India! I had a great time, will integrate and remember a lot I experienced there in my daily life! Thank you so much - especially to its lovely and warm-hearted people!!!

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