Agra – days 3 and 4

Meaghan and I met up with Chelsea and Michel at there hotel in Delhi. Our first trip in an autorickshaw in India. It was a little terrifying but we arrived in one piece. We left in out hired car for Agra – a 4(ish) hour journey. At one point we stopped so our driver could pay a fare and were accosted by many sellers of things banging on the windows and trying to get into the car, and entertained by a man with a cobra in a wicker basket and man with a small rhesus macaque on a leash(well, I was entertained – Michel and Meaghan, who are afraid of snakes were not so much). On our way into Agra our driver exclained “the only thing that is beautiful in Agra is the Taj!”
Our hotel had given away our reservation so Meaghan and I settled on a dive of a hotel near to the Taj for about 15CAD a night. The sheets literally felt greasy and when we got up in the morning, several men (we assumed hotel staff) were sleeping in the foyer by the front door.

Sooo, it seemed to have eluded us that the Taj Mahal was closed on Fridays L but… we saw the Taj from the outside. To my surprise it was much larger than I had expected. Our next day started super early as we wanted to view the Taj at sunset so we arranged a morning Rickshaw and headed to meet Chelsea and Michel on a rooftop restaurant. Agra was so peaceful and serene at this time of day.

We spent the day driving around with a highly recommended rickshaw driver – Vijay. Our first impressions of Vijay is of this very friendly, happy and welcoming man. We were looking forward to our day. After some shopping and sight seeing, Vijay invited us to his home for tea and to meet his family. We were honoured and took him up on his offer. His home was modest and he his parents and 2 children were curious about us and watched us drink tea and eat crackers and cookies, in semidarkness I might add as the power was out. Oddly though, Vijay never introduced us to his wife who puttered about cleaning. After this mildly awkward experience we headed off again and Vijay requested that we stop to see a “programme”. Unsure of what a programme was exactly and feeling adventurous, we agreed. We entered said program and Vijay escorted us up to the front area that was blocked off for what appeared to be special guests. Up at the front was a man yelling out something in Hindi – this appeared to be a political rally. We took out seats near the stage in the VIP area. Our presence caused a bit of commotion as all the cameramen who were filming the speaker turned and came towards us and stood for what seemed like 10 minutes filming and photographing the four of us. We endured about 20 mins of this extremely awkward experience and then convinced Vijay that we needed to leave. After more stopping at Vijay’s favorite places so we could meet everyone he knew in town (“yes, we go to see … now, he is a very rich man”) we finally ended up at Chelsea and Michel’s hotel and quickly fell asleep. Vijay, who was supposed to return at nine to take us to the train, came at six requesting that we go meet his (rich) friends. We politely declined and went back to sleep. When he picked us up at nine we were unable to talk him out of a detour to this friend’s place. They were very nice and the owner brought out his German luger to show us, Vijay had us look at their many cars and then we left for the train.

The Agra train station was busy for so late at night. We got on the train and found our way to our beds, which were up top. Meaghan and I managed to make our upper bunk beds with the linen that was provided under the light of the overhead florescent without stepping on the man that was sleeping on the bottom bunk. We chained up our bags by our heads and fell asleep. It had been quite a long day.

Day 3

Woke up this morning to the sound of horns honking like crazy. I thought I was at home and we had just won a gold, lol.

Days 1 and 2: Chasing the sun around the planet

On Monday afternoon we left Vancouver and flew to Hong Kong for fourteen hours slash an eternity – without seeing nighttime. We arrived late evening at our hotel, a quaint(ish) hotel on a beach far out of the city. It’s probably a happening place in the summer, but not so much in the off season.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I willingly woke up at 6:30am. We ate breakfast (noodles and oatmeal), took a train to the city, ran around as if we were in The Amazing Race and saw as much as we could in a span of 4 hours. At 12:15pm we headed back to the airport to get on our flight to Bangkok. I mean, Delhi.
Unbeknownst to us, we had a short layover in Bangkok. I was so tempted to get off the plane; however, I resisted and we arrived in Delhi. Not before we were thoroughly disinfected however…
Apparently before you land in Delhi, the law states that the plane interior needs to be sprayed down with disinfectant… enough disinfectant to leave a thick haze on the plane and a glossy sheen in your hair. We were hopeful that this courtesy of disinfecting our plane/ourselves would be reciprocated by our destination city in anticipation of our arrival.
We were mildly, but not surprisingly, disappointed

All jests aside, 3 hours in Delhi so far and I love it already; colourful, cheerful, noisy, and hectic. Coming out of the airport, Meaghan and I were wide-eyed and grinning. Our hotel sent a driver for us who we instantly took a liking to. He kindly made fun of me when I went around to the driver’s side of the cab. I explained to him that in Canada the steering wheel is on the other side. He said, laughing “you’re not in Canada, you’re in India!” We think we may hire him to take us to Agra tomorrow.
Driving to our hotel it was dark and our first impressions are that bombs have gone off all over the city. The streets are strewn with rubble and dirt and it looks like they are in the middle of a big construction project on every block. And of course people drive as if, as Meaghan describes it, they are playing tetris. On the way to our hotel we saw two wedding processions – amazing! They looked like movie sets with bright colours and big spotlights. One procession had a man with a horse and carriage on the way to pick up his bride.
We arrived at our hotel situated in a skinny alley. Across the street is a building that I am pretty sure is falling down. In stark contrast our hotel has a sparkling clean giant window in front with marble floors and red leather couches, teak tables and blown glass light fixtures.
Tomorrow we meet up with Chelsea and Michel and we are on our way to see the Taj Mahal in Agra.
Coming up next: the Taj Mahal

Countdown: four days till departure

Leaving for India in four days. Thoroughly inoculated... but already sick with the flu :(

Hoping I am better on Monday when we leave.