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Published: June 16th 2011
Q: What do you get when you take millions of Muslims, millions of Hindis, and two white people?
A: Northern India in the off-travel season.
Sorry for the late post. We've been super busy and not all of our wireless internet connections have been very good. The trip has been nuts so far, in a very good way.
This post is of Delhi and Agra. We were able to rent a car and driver for the entire stay in Delhi, and took a train on our day trip to Agra, which is about three hours from Delhi. We went to the largest Mosque in India, the Taj Mahal, Hindu temples, and lots more.
It's funny to look around this place and think about how we Americans daydream about winning the lottery, because each of us HAVE already won the lottery; lots of poverty here. It's sad, but also really cool to see how great most of the people are. We've seen a few small tent cities leaving Delhi. Maybe 100 to 200 people living in tents made of cloth and branches. People do the same thing in the city, but not in such condensed numbers.
This overcrowded
metropolis is a symphony of colors, smells, and sounds. On the way to Agra, we were waiting for a train in a massive station in Delhi. The station was a circus. Allison left her credit card in the ATM just outside of the main entrance. We had left the ATM box, were more than twenty yards away, and a man came running after us to give it back. He didn't speak English, just yelling "card," and gave it to her. I know that there are good people everywhere you go, but it's amazing to see people maintain their decency when they need the money.
Being a driver in Delhi, if you're deaf, you may as well also be blind. The drivers use their horns ALL OF THE TIME, and it's considered polite, because you're telling everyone that you're an inch from their car, bike, cow, etc.
The people's reaction to us has been surprising. Not everyone, but lots of people stare at us; mostly Allison. The women quickly look away from Ammaron. It's considered poor manners for women to look at men in the eye in this religious state. Ammaron was naively staring at the men for staring
at him. Now we realize that they're just curious. Some of the Indians, and some travelers from the Middle East ask to take pictures with us. It's usually little girls that want pictures with Allison, but today it was all sexes and ages of people asking for pictures with us at the Amher Palace, starting with a middle aged man asking for a picture with Ammaron.
The temperature in Delhi has been somewhere between 95 and 115 degrees the entire time we've been here (it was 93 degrees at 3 AM the day we arrived). In Delhi we went to Emperor Humayan's tomb, a couple of forts (with moats), saw where Ghandi was cremated, and went to this place called Akshardam that's sort of a Disneyland for followers of a particular guru. We were in a few of the pre monsoon showers, but the true monsoon hasn't begun yet.
Well, we can't write about everything, and you don't want to hear every detail, so just let me say that Delhi and Rajasthan are sensory overload. It's all what we hoped for.
Allison is amazing; in India for 2 days and she's telling the taxi drivers where to
turn.....
We're safe enough, no one is sick yet, and having a great time.
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Nancy Hartsock
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Trip
Have a great trip, stay healthy and be safe. Nancy