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Postcard shot
You've seen this before... Our bus from Ajmer to Agra was ghetto. Mexicans illegally crossing the border would have looked at it and said, “Damn, that is ghetto.” And we road it, over night, over some of the bumpiest road I’ve been on. Laying in the back there were several times my body was at least a foot in the air, parallel to the floor. It was one of the worst rides of my life. However, we avoided the Gujjars, so that was a positive. If any of you aren’t familiar with the strikes going on in this part of the world, there is a minority group that shut down all transportation from the state of Rajasthan (where we were) to Agra and Delhi (where we were going). So, the private bus we took was our only option, and it successfully avoided the angry protesters, so I guess you can only complain so much…
Anyway, we made it to Agra tattered and torn, so we decided to chill out for a day. We found a great hotel (Sai Palace, for anyone coming this way) and figured it would be worth just kicking back. We wasted the day just walking around the city in the
Minaret and the Taj in morning light
We got to the Taj early in the morning and the light on the marble was amazing. shadow of the Taj getting our feet back under ourselves. The next day we woke up plenty early to see the Taj Mahal. I will admit, it is rather stunning. For those unfamiliar, it was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife that passed away during her fourteenth child birth. Yeah, 14! Pull out, right? Humor would have it that eventually one of those fourteen lil’ buggers would lock his father up in Agra Fort so he couldn’t even enjoy the Taj once it was done; he had to admire it from his prison cell across the city. Wouldn’t that suck? And my dad calls me an ungrateful prick.
Anyway, the Taj was pretty amazing. The architecture is just fantastic, the pure white marble makes amazing reflections on the morning sun, and the stone inlays show amazing craftsmanship. Darren said it was easy to see how it is considered the peak of human architectural achievement. I’m not sure I could say I’ve seen better. I’ll spare you any other trivial flatteries of the building, check out the pictures (as if you don’t know what it looks like).
We checked out Agra Fort in the afternoon, another
impressive building, but after seeing the Taj a few hours earlier, it didn’t exactly get my gears moving. Huge building, huge walls, nice stonework inside, but in general it was kind of worn down and wasn’t awe-inspiring.
The next morning we headed an hour outside of Agra to Fatehpur Sikri. This was the capital of the Mughals during Akbar’s reign, back in the 1500’s. It was around the same time period as Hampi (which we saw a month ago), so the Muslim inspired architecture of the north was interesting to contrast with the Hindu architecture further south. It was much more austere, less flamboyant, and, as the Muslims were the victors in that history, it was much more preserved. Also, we had a heavy cloud cover, so it was incredibly relaxing being able to stroll the ruins at our leisure without seeking shade every few minutes. The ruins covered an immense area and were really well taken care of, so the three of us really enjoyed the site. However, there were quite a few extremely pushy touts. And, oddly, they were fifteen years behind on pop-culture.
"Which country good friend?"
"U.S."
"OH! Michael Jordan! Michael Jackson!" Um, okay!?!
Maybe fifteen years ago those would have been the two to mention. But now?
"Okay."
"Last night I was in U.S. with Michael Jackson. In my dreams, I was with Michael Jackson in my dreams last night." Um, really!?! Where do you go with that one?
On top of pederasses dreaming of sleeping with Micheal, getting back was a headache. As we were leaving the ruins about three we saw the bus to Agra taking off. We could have flagged it down, but we were hungry and, since the buses run every thirty minutes, we figured it wouldn’t be a problem. We forgot we were in India. Two and a half hours later we were still sitting at the bus station when we saw the last of the Indians waiting with us give up hope. Somehow they seem to have an ESP on when the situation is completely hopeless, they communicate it to one another, and everyone leaves at once. We started searching for a taxi, gathering our things, and completely abandoned hope when we finally heard the distinct horn of an Indian bus. Suddenly the place was swarming with Indians again. Their ESP went off and it was
Minaret
For whatever reason, I loved the minarets at the Taj. like moths to a flame cramming to get on the bus as those on the bus were pushing to get off. An hour later we were arguing with rickshaw touts in Agra, and around eight o’clock, five hours after we set out for the one hour journey, we finally made it back to our hotel completely defeated, again, by traveling in India.
That night the power went out several times, our hotel room became unbearably hot, the Chai sellers were incredibly loud at sunrise the next morning, and the family that lives next to our hotel decided to have a game of cricket at six a.m. We didn’t sleep well and we weren’t happy about it. And, after yesterday’s events, we weren’t feeling so hot on Indian transportation. So, instead of waiting around on train platforms or sitting on a hot, dirty government bus, we grabbed a private car to drive us up to Delhi. We set our stuff down in the nearest Subway (Darren and I had a horrible western food craving) and searched out a nice hotel for us to splurge and spoil ourselves.
We will be back in Delhi in a month for our flight
The Photo Spot
This is where all those postcard pics of the Taj are taken, in case you've ever been curious. to Dar Es Salaam, so we haven't been in rush to see everything. We've spent quite a bit of time just wandering around the downtown area, checking out a few random sites, doing some shopping, but mainly living in the luxury of the nice hotel. We (again really Darren and I) have also been getting our Western food fix satisfied; after being on the road for the last five months, I have no problem filling my face on non-local food. So, Delhi has been a nice fix of the normal Western comforts as we were beginning to feel the crunch and frustrations from traveling in India. Tomorrow night we plan on heading up to Dharamsala for a few weeks. We'll do a few hikes into the mountains to get some fresh air, do a little volunteering to give back what we can, and generally unwind in the smaller, slower, remote hill station. (We are also starting to get to the time when we need to be in shape as we climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in a month!)
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Ryan (Alias: Brother not Bumming around India)
non-member comment
Getting in shape for Kili.
Glad to here you are getting in shape for the climb, I am looking forward to it. (I'd better get on the eliptical for a few hours a today.) No better way to train for the altitude adjustment then a visit to the Himalaya's. Enjoy your time hanging with the llamma's, and see you in a months time.