India - The first 2 days

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Arrive New Delhi - Dec 2nd

Coming back to India for the 2nd time, the first thing you remember is what you hate or the things that cause you grief such as the hawkers.

THe opening line as you come onto the street seems to be "You want taxi? rickshaw? come see my shop, blah blah"
Having one eye on the ground to avoid the 20 different varieties of poo.

But then you remember how too handle these minor inconveniences and everything becomes good again. Seeing the Taj with my own eyes was all it was cracked up to be and more...

Anyway will hand it over to Leith now.

Delhi

Argh. Delhi was difficult. I don't think it helped that our guesthouse was down a narrow, winding alley that had a public (open) toilet at the beginning of it. Also, learnt another rule - never get a room on the ground floor of a guesthouse...I am pretty sure that I heard everything that narrow little alley had to offer in terms of sounds...from dogs barking and cows pooing to men hoiking over their toothbrushes. At least they brush their teeth.....

Ben and I decided to get out of Delhi immediately. With Agra impending and the rip-off stories that abound about the place we were keen to get it out of the way. Its quite funny though, I guess because it's got such a bad reputation the tourist operators here are actually trying to improve the image now. We have had mostly pleasant experiences - even from the hawkers outside the Fort and the Taj. We even got to the guesthouse we requested from the train station - which anyone who has travelled to India will know is a virtual non-event. Normally you are dropped somewhere completely different to where you ask to go as taxi drivers get commission.
So we arrived yesterday afternoon on the train. We shared a seat with Indian counterparts and a small mouse that kept running over Ben's feet. Ah the luxury of second class.

And this morning we got up at 5am to see the grandest monument to Love. It's hard not to be cynical about that...but it really is all for a woman. She takes pride of place (well her casket does) in the centre of the mausoleum while poor old Shah Jahan was shunted to the side. Apparently he was going to build himself a black one but got deposed and imprisoned in Agra Fort by his own son and died there. I'm guessing that he wasn't the nicest father in the world.
Anyway, it is beautiful and it does live up to expectations. And it has invoked the drive to see more of this awesome country.

Next stop...Pushkar baby.

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Photos

The Taj Mahal
A promise is fulfilled

Comments

[Daniel]

Phoenix
Hammered 6 -1 by adelaide last night.... back to the early season stuff - arggghhh its hard to be a Wellington supporter