Day 5

Agra completely wiped us out. We didn’t wake up until 10 a.m. the next day. Since it was rather late for us, we quickly packed to meet the 12 p.m. check out time and get to the new hotel the school had reserved for us. I guess we are here for class after all. To think we thought school was over ?!?! Didn’t Krys, Hilary, and Becky just graduate? Whatever…

After checking into Hotel Singh Sahib we jumped in rickshaws to eat at the very well-know restaurant, The Original Karim’s Seehk Kebabs in Old Delhi. The food was absolutely delicious. The wait staff was super nice and attentive and even winked at a few of us. We ate it up.

The hijras were also entertaining. They were sitting behind us and asked if we were “Muslim or Christian.” Sherry said “Christian” and they seemed satisfied with her answer. That was the end of that conversation. They continued to watch us as we secretly stared at them.

After lunch, we decided to wander around Old Delhi. We bought some perfume, gold and plastic bangles, and pondered buying “real” gold. To ensure our trip here is full of nonstop excitement, Becky had a brilliant idea to take cycle-rickshaws back to the hotel. A cycle-rickshaw is built for 2 people. Apparently, one driver thought he could haul 3 of us. So, Becky, Krys, and Hillary shared a ride. Hilary initially rode on Becky’s lap which was particularly scary for us all. Then the driver had the brilliant idea of putting Hilary in back like a small child!

The first 10 minutes or so of the trip was fun. We were laughing, waving at strangers/new friends, and just chilling. It didn’t become sad and particularly heart wrenching until we traveled uphill. Krys, Mari, and I had to get off of the rickshaws and walk alongside the drivers during these repeated episodes. Just when we thought we were up our last hill, another one would arise out of a crowded corner of traffic. Poor Hilary was stuck in back and couldn’t get off. So, she looked like the queen of our rickshaw. She is our deity.

Unfortunately, our ride home was longer than expected. It took us 45+ minutes to reach the right neighborhood, Karol Bagh. The cyclists didn’t quite know where they were going nor did anyone else. We were “lost” in our neighborhood for a while. Oh well… when in India… So, we smiled at the locals and waved because we looked absolutely RIDICULOUS on rickshaws. Imagine two rickshaws of crazy foreigners trying to cross a large city… not such a good idea. We were quite a sight. I think we stopped the already slow traffic… oh well..

When we finally reached our destination, the price of our trip exploded. We had originally agreed upon giving the cyclists 50 rupees each ($2.50 U.S. Dollars) but once we saw how difficult the trip was, we decided double the fair or our payment ($5.00 U.S. Dollars per rupee). But once we reached our destination the head cyclist demanded we pay ten times our original price. He demanded 500 rupees. Hillary put a finger in his face and said something like.. Apre mughe thaga d’iya! (You have deceived me!) But, he would not back down. Out of our American guilt, we broke down and paid the man the entire 500 rupees, if anything we ensured positive karma for our ENTIRE trip and then some.

Day 4 Continued

On our way back to Delhi from Agra, we encountered a protest by the villagers in Agra. They had blocked the main road with large rocks and tree branches, leaving their community because a boy had recently been killed by a hit and run accident and they wanted the police to do something about it. Our driver tried to take detours on country roads in order to bypass the blockade. He was unsuccessful and led us right into the heart of the protest. Fortunately, the villagers were made up of very nice men and boys who were more interested in seeing the “foreigners” in the cab than being an angry mob. The boys were so enamored with Becky that they opened her unlocked door to get closer to her. After several attempts, Becky finally got her door to lock. The driver got out of the cab to plead with the elders of the community to let us through since we were foreigners and we had nothing to do with the death of the little boy. Thankfully, the elders agreed and they let us pass. Because of the chaos, it took 4 or 5 hours to get back to Delhi. We were too exhausted to go out, so Becky and Hillary offered to go out and get some kebabs and of course try to find cold water for Sherry. Thanks again Becky for your diligence! Becky replied, “Hilary, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

More Photos of the Taj Mahal

Day 4

We had a great driver on the trip to Agra, who played us music throughout the day, and Sherry and the driver kept each other entertained really well. Sherry also created a new Hindi word “chaakaa”, which apparently means “hole” or something like it. First we went to Fatahpur Sikri, which was a beautiful old city made of stone buildings. We had a fight with the annoying guide we didn’t want, and stormed off until the security guard came to get us. We walked around the buildings which housed Akbar’s wives and his treasury, and then headed to the main mosque which contained the tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti, the two most notable things were the enormous amount of people that “worked there”, and the intricate marble screens where women tied red strings in order to pray for children and fertility. Sherry was offered one to tie, which she quickly and respectfully declined. We then headed back to the car, chatting with some locals on the way. We hit the road to Agra, and stopped to get lunch at a delicious restaurant with South Indian thalis before heading to the Taj Mahal. Getting into the Taj Mahal was feat in itself, with a 15 minute walk through vendors to the gate, where we discovered half of India was also there to see the Taj. After paying 18 US Dollars at the entrance, we received tickets, bottled water, and socks, then ventured into the female line where we were frisked and went through a miraculous wooden “metal detector”. The initial courtyard does not have a view of the Taj Mahal, until we went through a large archway where we impressed by the distant memorable sight of the tomb of Mumtaz Begum and Shah Jahan. The white marble structure is larger and more magnificent than any picture or video can accurately describe. The sight evoked the sense of enduring love that we all hope one day to receive. The close up experience of the Taj Mahal is intense due to the size of it and the intense heat radiating from the white marble. It was so hot that average Indians were taking naps in the shade inside of the tomb, which was dark and somewhat cool. In the midst of the commotion from all the people we admired the marble screens with gemstone inlays, and near perfect symmetry. But at the same time we felt an intense sadness because of the loneliness felt by Shah Jahan.

Day 3

We took it easy, went to Café Coffee Day for some intense sweet Nescafe-ish drinks, then headed to the Hanuman temple for the first temple venture. We ditched our shoes and went through the temple gate, into the main chamber with Hanuman, the monkey god who is holy for saving the god Rama’s wife from the evil demon Ravana. We did the circle of the temple and looked at the various idols of deities, as well as the large Shiva linga being washed with holy water. We then left the temple and got henna painted our our hands (mendhi) and feet (except Sherry). Chilaryji got to bargain in Hindi for the first time, and we got badgered for a while by a few beggars while we waited for the henna to dry to we could head to lunch. In spite of it being morning, the plaza was still crowded and had a lot of vendors out there. Sherry was particularly popular with local kids and beggars, they can tell she’s “surprisingly loaded” and a big softie. We left the increasing heat to go eat masala dosas in the yummy South Indian restaurant near our hotel, then went to our first Bollywood movie in India, where we first discovered that Krys’ calculator was a weapon of some kind. We saw “Bhootnath”, a movie about a little kid who befriends a ghost…. And who knows what else. It had a couple fun songs and dances, but sadly no romance. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, ate in the restaurant downstairs, and then some of us went to have a cocktail in the hotel bar, where we discovered alcohol has three sin taxes on it… needless to say that was the last cocktail we’ve had. We crashed early to get ready for the Agra trip in the morning. Sherry had earlier proved herself an expert travel planner and negotiator when she found a private car to Agra for much less than the expensive car the hotel wanted to book for us.

Day 2

In spite of the heat, we headed to the Lotus temple, built for the B’hai faith in Delhi. We tried to visit the visitor’s center before we were turned away and told to visit the temple first. We walked the 500 yards to the temple, where we removed our shoes and hopped across the hot stone floor. We went into the temple interior, which was much simpler given the complex design of the exterior, and where you could pray to any God. After paying our homage to whomever we chose, we exited admiring the pooling system surrounding the temple and forming the lotus. However the ground was so hot we quickly retrieved our shoes and went to the visitor’s center where we watched a movie with excessive detail about the temple construction. Rapidly losing attention, we loaded back into the car and hung the white flag because we were not getting out of that car again. We had our driver take us down Rajpath, seeing the Parliament, the Ministry of Defense, and Presidential Palace, as well as India Gate. Our driver tried to take us to DilliHaat to go shopping, and wasn’t too pleased when we refused to get out of the car. He did finally let us go home to Hotel Alka, where we all crashed out for a little bit before heading out to dinner at a posh sizzler restaurant where we ordered about five times the amount of food we could actually eat. Which, according to Sherry, was good but waaaay too spicey. Becky also noticed the Mafioso out front. On the way home we got some yummy ice cream and chai at the South Indian restaurant by our hotel.

Back To Day 1

After a difficult night’s rest, we emerge from Hotel Alka to take a driving tour of very hot Delhi… the tour of death (dum dum dum). First we went by the historic Jama Masjid mosque in Old Delhi. We reluctantly trusted a gentleman to watch our shoes while we entered a mosque for the first time. We climbed a huge flight of steps to enter mosque courtyard. The building can hold 25,000 people, but instead we saw thousands of pigeons and a few people seeking refuge in the shade. After burning our feet on the hot stones we decided it was time to allow the Muslims to enjoy the mosque and headed to the next stop, Humayan’s Tomb. We climbed a huge flight of stairs (again) and baked in the intense heat while pretending not to notice the bats right over our heads in the tomb stairwell. Next on the tour was the RajGhat, where Gandhi was cremated after his assassination. His cremation platform was a large slab of onyx, now decorated with oil lamps and marigolds, as well as the words “hare ram”, Gandhi’s last words of praise meaning “oh God”. Next we went to lunch, which was kindly chosen by our driver as one of the probably most expensive restaurants in Delhi, but which also had the coldest water in Delhi according to Sherry. The waiter wasn’t a fan of us sharing our dishes, but we enjoyed the expensive food and the air-conditioned facilities. After lunch we headed to the Q’tab Minnar, the first Islamic constructions in India which marked the beginning of Mughal reign. We were impressed with the enormous size of the pillar but were unimpressed with the metal minaret in the courtyard. We posed for a large amount of photos with locals and enjoyed wandering around the ancient remains.