Delhi and Agra

On Day 2 in India I began my trek to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located. We woke up at 6:00 am and didn’t reach our final destination until 11:30 pm. The trip consisted of multiple van rides, a plane ride, and a train ride. The traveling alone was an experience all on its own. At airport security there are two separate lines for women and men. After going through the metal detector, the women are sent behind a curtain to get patted down, whereas the men are checked out in the open. The plane took us to Delhi where we ate lunch and saw the Ghandi Memorial, then we hopped on the train to Agra. The train ride was intense. We were in a first class car with AC but you wouldn’t have known that unless you looked at our ticket. The car had an awful stench and with fifty SAS students in it, it felt hotter than outside. The distance we travelled was only 200 kilometers (roughly 125 miles) but it took us five hours. It is quite frustrating knowing that in the U.S. the same distance would have taken us under two hours. It was a unique experience.

We arrived at our hotel in Agra at 11:30 pm and the staff had dinner waiting for us. It was a feast. There were tables of food and I’m pretty sure I tried everything. I love Indian food, although I think they dumbed down some of the flavor for us. We were warned that Indian food can be very spicy so we should be careful, but I didn’t have anything that required drinking water immediately after. I was told that the staff prepared the food less spicy for us wimpy Americans. The hotel was incredibly nice. We had a TV in our room, so I watched a show for the first time in 2 months – Seinfeld. After Seinfeld was over, you’ll never guess what movie came on next…ATL! I jumped out of bed I was so excited. How random is that? We’re in a hotel in the middle of India, with only a couple of stations in English, and a movie about my hometown comes on. There are several scenes with the Atlanta skyline so I got to show Emma were I had my senior prom. It made me a tad homesick.

The next day we woke up at 5:30 and went straight to the Taj Mahal for sunrise. It was one of the most breath-taking images I have ever seen. There is no way to describe my initial impression when I made that turn through the gate and saw the Taj Mahal for the first time. It is so massive and beautiful that I didn’t even know how to take pictures of it. By the way – I had no idea why the Taj Mahal was built until this trip and it is a really great story so I’ll share it with you. In the early 1600s there was a Mughal Emperor Shahjahan and his wife, with a family of 14 children. The wife had a premonition of her own death and made her husband promise to never remarry and to build her the most beautiful tomb anyone had ever seen. The wife did in fact die and the Emperor held true to his word. He never remarried and he built her the Taj Mahal, which is now a symbol for eternal love. Their bodies lie next to each other just inside the main hall.

Later in the day we saw the Agra Fort and the Abandoned City, both were beautiful. That night we took another train ride back to Delhi. The train stations in India are quite an experience. We were warned not to wear any open-toed shoes, yet there are people barely clothed sleeping on the ground with rats, barefooted children asking you for money, and people with deformities that I had never seen before. I’m not sure what it is about the train stations, but people just congregate and seemingly live there. This time the ride only took 2 hours. We stayed at another incredible hotel in Delhi. In the morning I flipped on the TV and caught game 5 of the ALCS. Unfortunately I had to leave as the score was 7-7 in the bottom of the 9th. For the next few hours we got a city orientation of Delhi, ate lunch and then caught our flight back to Chennai.

We are now 12 hours ahead of Atlanta time. I haven’t adjusted the time or date on my computer so I am often wrong about what day it actually is. We’ll be arriving in Penang, Malaysia on Wednesday. My tentative plans are to spend a couple days in Kuala Lumpur (the capital city) and a couple days on the beach. Time is going to start flying by as we go through Asia since we only have 2-3 days at sea in between ports.

Love and miss you all.