Back to Delhi

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Well, if nothing else, the last couple of days will leave us with stories to tell. I'm sure one day we'll laugh about it, but right now, we're so tired... So, here's what happened.

The plan was to go to Agra, home of the Taj, for Wednesday and Thursday, and on Thursday evening hop a train to Jaipur for some more touring and the elephants, staying there until Saturday evening, when we'd come back to Delhi.

We woke up uber-early on Wednesday morning and made the train - a very comfortable, air conditioned car, with more leg room than most planes. 2 hours later, we were picked up and dropped off at our hotel, which, to our delight, was a mere 2 blocks from a McDonalds & a mall!!! That afternoon was spent shopping, people watching, and suntanning in the hotel's back garden. In the evening, we discovered another mall which had a massive department store in the basement (kind of a Wal-Mart/Superstore/Ikea mix), where we couldn't resist the urge to stock up on chocolate.

The next morning, we again woke early to meet our driver for the day. We toured the Taj Mahal (incredible - we can't wait for you to see the pics) with its astounding marble work, Agra Fort, and some local shops (most of the jewelry we're finding is all precious jewels and diamonds - not quite what we had in mind, so a little disappointing), as well as we got some henna done - Robyn on one hand and one arm, mine on a foot. Around 1 PM, the temperature was a stifling 43 degrees, although it's a fairly dry heat, so not so bad - no sunburns yet!! During the course of the day, we discovered that, because of some local conflict regarding class structures, the rail lines to Jaipur had been blocked by villagers, and so our train would not be running. Luckily, we were able to book a later train to Delhi. This, however, means no elephant rides (for now, at least). Unfortunately, the train that we were supposed to be on at 8:30 did not arrive until 12:00. Although this allowed us to make some friends at the train station, including two people from Scotland who are going to CAMP in northern India, and a couple from Sweden, as well as some stray dogs and a mouse for Robyn.

After all that, we didn't arrive at the hotel until about 2:30 this morning, hence the exhaustion. When we get home, we'll tell you all the details, but that's all you need to know for now.

The fighting (what has basically turned in to a civil war) is a good 5 hour train ride away, and is not affecting Delhi (aside from train service), and we most definately won't be going to any affected area if we do decide to venture out of Delhi again.

So, today we're going to veg and sleep and order lots of room service. Tomorrow, we may consider leaving the hotel, but we'll talk about that tomorrow 😊.

Hope all is well, lots of love,

Bethany & Robyn

PS: Haven't found a computer in India where we can load pictures yet - will do this if possible.

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Comments

[Amanda]

That's too bad....
It sucks that you didn't get to go to Jaipur to ride the elephants, that sounded really exciting. As for the Wal-mart/Superstore/Ikea......What's the address? I'm movin' in!!!!!! That's like my three favorite stores all rolled into one, oh yeah!!!! Keep your gaurd up, fighting like this makes people crazy. Keep each other safe and have fun for the rest of us!!!!!!! Miss Ya Lot's!!!!!