There sure were some experiences over this short 2-day period. Some funny, some sad, and of course the sight/story of the Taj.
So on with the stories; we'll start with the funny ones.
My driver picked me up at the New Delhi airport. We were driving down to Agra and it was lunch time. He dropped me off at this nice restaurant and went somewhere else to eat. So after we leave there, we're on the road and he yawns. Just making conversation, I said, "No falling asleep on me!" And then he smiled and made the gesture with his hand that we attribute to drinking where you make a fist, but your thumb and pinky fingers are extended. And I said, "What?? Did you have a couple of King Fisher's at lunch?" There was some confusion in the conversation that ensued, but best we could communicate with each other, that hand gesture just means that you're tired. His English wasn't great, but we could at least communicate.
Then, we're driving around Agra and I'm reading, not watching the road, and he slams on his brakes and starts yelling. I look up and we almost hit a guy on a bicycle, which is strange that he would get so mad because that's a VERY common occurrence with the way these loonies drive over here. And we go about 30 yards down the road and he pulls over and says, "Just a second." He gets out of the car and as that bicycler is passing us, he's shaking his fist at him and yelling at him in Hindi. With millions of people around, I was in such a helpless situation and all I did was just laugh at what a bad deal could ensue from this. Here's the whitest person in probably a 1 mile radius sitting in this car with a driver who's trying to start a fight.
Speaking of the driving, volumes could be written about how messed up it is over here. I'll just touch on it. When I first got here, it was immediately apparent that the lane markers are more suggestions than for traffic control. As time goes on, I don't think that they can be even considered suggestions. And, generally, they drive on the left side of the road. But as more and more time goes on, it seems like that's not really a hard-and-fast rule. It's like, "Ehh, left side, right side, whatever you prefer." Lots of times there are motorcycles (called two-wheelers over here) driving on the "wrong" side of the road going down what would be a shoulder. And if a car doesn't want to go a long distance to do a turn-around, they'll just drive the wrong direction on the side of the road. The Delhi/Agra trip driver said, "There are 3 things that you need to drive in India: a good horn, good brakes, and good luck!" One of those things where it's funny because it's true...
Back to the trip to Agra. It wasn't all funny stuff. On the highway, we pulled over because (I think) we were crossing a state line and he had to pay some tax. He says, "Stay in car; keep windows up; lots of cheating here." So there are people trying to sell me crap, have me pay money to take a picture of their monkey, all that normal stuff. But I look over to the side of the road and there's a guy who's walking on his hands. I think that his knee caps were busted. He was just dragging his legs around like they were dead weight. But it looked like he could slightly maneuver his thighs; gosh it was sad. By the time the driver got back to the car, he had made his way over to the car and was tapping on the window, but the driver just took off.
And when I was in Agra, I was settled in my hotel room and all so I decided to just see what was outside the hotel. There was a yard across from it where a bunch of probably 10 year olds were playing cricket, so I just sat on the side and was watching them. Then a boy came up to me (probably 10 years old also) who didn't have a right hand. And he also had a bone sticking out from his chest that ran vertically from about his neck to his rib cage. It hadn't broken the skin, but it was just bulging out. At first, I thought it was his sternum, but it was about 4 inches off center, so I'm not real sure what it was. But it was pretty sad because it seemed like he wasn't let in on the cricket game because of his hand situation.
Well this post is a pretty accurate representation of my trip here. Lots of good stuff, funny stuff, different stuff, and a lot of sobering sights.
I'm heading out at 1:50 in the morning tonight for Frankfurt, which will be 3:20 pm. on Saturday, Texas time. I'll spend the night there, then it's onto the Eternal City Monday morning. I need to look up just a little bit of German, I guess. I wonder if "sausage and sour kraut" is a universal phrase :).
I will probably keep this blog going through mine and Holly's trip to Rome; it seems like this will be a good place to share pictures with everyone.
Hope everyone is doing good and I'm ready to get back. I wonder when we're flying from New York to Texas if my heart will skip a beat when we cross the Red River!!!
Quite the surprise. Lots of black buck roaming the grounds at a tomb that I visited when I got to Agra, the city where the Taj is. I could decorate a house inside this place with a single box of ammo...
In the hotel bar that I stayed at. I tried and tried to get the bartender to give me the story on this. With the most English that we had in common, he told me that this was an ash tray. So the interpretation of this is left as an exercise to the reader.
The gate outside the Taj. There are 11 domes on top of this gate and 11 on top of the backside of the gate. The 22 domes represent the 22 years it took to build the Taj, from 1631 - 1655.
There it is!
The inside edge of the gate
Pretty neat. It's 143 meters from the ground to the top.
The "magic photo" as my guide called it.
One of the most fascinating things about the Taj, and maybe what makes it one of the Seven Wonders, is the intricacy of the art work. This entire side is made out of white marble and the flowers and such are raised from the surface. The flowers that make up the edge aren't painted on. There are inlets cut into the marble and the flowers are different types of stones put into the inlets.
From a side garden.
The inside where the two tombs are. The lady the Taj was built for is at the center of it, and the king who built it is just west of her.
My chariot that got me to the entrance gate. They say that the Taj was turning black because of pollution and cars aren't allowed within some distance of it. The more I thought about it, I was convinced it was just a racketeering scheme to get more money out of people. The actual Taj is a good distance away from the gate where you go in.
"Chug a lug a lug at 5 miles an hour... on my international harvester"I don't really like that song, but it was stuck in my head after seeing this.
Oops.
A toll booth on a dirt road? What is this? Blazing saddles?
India Gate. This is in New Delhi and is a tribute to the fallen soldiers of India. My driver told me that it was just for soldiers from the World Wars, but the inscription on the top says it's for lots of wars.
The guard. After taking this picture he asked me where I was from, and when I said, "America," he goes, "Oh, America!! Yes!" and gave me a firm handshake, which is hard to find around here. Lots of dead fish handshakes...
I was quite the tourist attraction at India Gate. I had 3 different groups want to take their picture with me. With these kids, I also had them take a picture with my camera.
Quite the diplomat I am. The handshake was their idea and I liked it, so I went with it.
Parliament. I recognized this when I saw it on the back of a 50 rupee bill.
Smack dab at the gates of the presidential palace. This would be the equivalent of taking a picture right in front of the white house. Pretty neat.
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