We awoke for our first, and only morning in Agra. While Agra has a few amazing sites, such as the Taj, and the Fort, I must say it is a draining place to visit, and the hotel, while beautiful, is a financially draining place to remain in for any period of time. The city is extremely cramped, very dirty, and in the summer heat has a permeating smell to it of sulfurous sewage. The taj however is an oasis amidst the chaos of humanity outside its gate. There is in fact even a buffer zone around the Taj Mahal grounds where no gas powered vehicles are allowed, which causes all these negative aspects to be muted substantially.
Allie was unfortunately once again not quite up to trekking out in the heat. I felt terrible that she trekked this far, to come so close to the Taj, and not be able to see it in person. That will bother me for years to come. I imagine at some point when she is feeling better that may be a source of disappointment for her as well. She was able to see it from the car from a few miles away, but that was her closest glimpse. I don’t blame her, if I was ill, a comfortable bed would be the most desirable thing, and hot weather doesn’t make it any easier. Having gone through it in Thailand four years ago, I remember feeling similarly terrible and spent most of my time there sleeping either in the hotel room, or on a bench in a temple.
Kalyssa and Natalie and I however, made it out to our driver and our guide, Ashish who met us again this morning, and headed over to the Taj. Ashish, who has two children of his own (12 and 7 I believe), had genuine concern for us and offered to bring us to a good doctor if needed. Tracking the symptoms however, Allie seemed to be moving in the right direction, and at this point we didn’t think this to be necessary. We figured we’d give the antibiotic the time to run its course, and some food and water for her to regain her strength, and if she doesn’t continue improving then we’d look for one in Mumbai tomorrow. (note, highly developed doctors and hospitals are available in Mumbai of similar quality to the US.)
Wandering the Taj with my family was a different experience than being here last time. Whereas last time, having been here with coworkers, I marveled at the engineering-see my post from 2008- and beautiful design, this time, with Natalie and Kalyssa with me, I focused on the story of Shah Jahan and his favorite wife (again you must cast aside the aversion to polygamy). She died giving birth to his child, and he was so upset by her death that he spent 22 years building her mausoleum. The sorrow is difficult to imagine. The mood was solidified when at one point, Kalyssa was a ways away by our guide, and Natalie turned to me and said, “if we weren’t in India, I’d really like to kiss you right now.” (kissing in public is socially-and maybe legally- unacceptable here, as it is considered part of foreplay) . It was also difficult for both of us to be experiencing this with one of our girls a kilometer away at the hotel not feeling well, and absent from all the pictures.
Kalyssa, on the other hand, was given a swelled ego, as she became quite the novelty from some of the rural Indian families that had travelled here. About 3 families with many small children came up to the three of us, and asked if we’d pose in their family photo with them. At one point, we were admiring part of the Taj, and Kalyssa was sitting on the steps 25 feet away. As we watched, 5 separate families asked her if they could take pictures of their kids with her. It was pretty neat. We joked to our guide, that we should start asking for 5 rupees. The guide said, are you kidding, you need at least 10 or 15, even the beggars won’t take 5 rupees. As I watched the various families come up to her, I remarked to our guide, that one of the things that has always impressed me here is that even with how dusty it is here, and with most people travelling in open rickshaws, or as a family on a motorcycle, the women, and even the very young girls, always have beautiful saris of many colors, and shiny trim, that look as if they just came off of the rack at a store.
Once we got into the city of Gurgaon, (which is a southern “suburb” of Delhi and is a hub for business process outsourcing companies) we made our way through the maze of corporate highrises, chic multistory shopping malls, intermixed with townhouses, condos, and roadside shanties (peppered with the occasional roaming dog or pig). At one point, he began looking around a little lost, and said to me “I’ve gotten a little confused.” He stopped and jumped out of the car to ask directions. In the meantime I pulled out my iPhone, and checked the directions, and found that we were only 1 kilometer away, and that the hotel was just about directly in front of us, and we arrived only minutes later.
Once we checked back into the hotel, and retrieved the majority of our luggage (which we had stowed there during our trip to Agra), we headed upstairs, Alexandra went to bed, and Natalie and I organized all the luggage to try and consolidate things as much as possible, while Kalyssa enjoyed Ratatouille on the TV.
After getting everything organized, Natalie and I headed down to the lobby bar for a couple drinks to relax before turning in for the evening.
Allie was unfortunately once again not quite up to trekking out in the heat. I felt terrible that she trekked this far, to come so close to the Taj, and not be able to see it in person. That will bother me for years to come. I imagine at some point when she is feeling better that may be a source of disappointment for her as well. She was able to see it from the car from a few miles away, but that was her closest glimpse. I don’t blame her, if I was ill, a comfortable bed would be the most desirable thing, and hot weather doesn’t make it any easier. Having gone through it in Thailand four years ago, I remember feeling similarly terrible and spent most of my time there sleeping either in the hotel room, or on a bench in a temple.
Kalyssa and Natalie and I however, made it out to our driver and our guide, Ashish who met us again this morning, and headed over to the Taj. Ashish, who has two children of his own (12 and 7 I believe), had genuine concern for us and offered to bring us to a good doctor if needed. Tracking the symptoms however, Allie seemed to be moving in the right direction, and at this point we didn’t think this to be necessary. We figured we’d give the antibiotic the time to run its course, and some food and water for her to regain her strength, and if she doesn’t continue improving then we’d look for one in Mumbai tomorrow. (note, highly developed doctors and hospitals are available in Mumbai of similar quality to the US.)
Wandering the Taj with my family was a different experience than being here last time. Whereas last time, having been here with coworkers, I marveled at the engineering-see my post from 2008- and beautiful design, this time, with Natalie and Kalyssa with me, I focused on the story of Shah Jahan and his favorite wife (again you must cast aside the aversion to polygamy). She died giving birth to his child, and he was so upset by her death that he spent 22 years building her mausoleum. The sorrow is difficult to imagine. The mood was solidified when at one point, Kalyssa was a ways away by our guide, and Natalie turned to me and said, “if we weren’t in India, I’d really like to kiss you right now.” (kissing in public is socially-and maybe legally- unacceptable here, as it is considered part of foreplay) . It was also difficult for both of us to be experiencing this with one of our girls a kilometer away at the hotel not feeling well, and absent from all the pictures. 
Kalyssa, on the other hand, was given a swelled ego, as she became quite the novelty from some of the rural Indian families that had travelled here. About 3 families with many small children came up to the three of us, and asked if we’d pose in their family photo with them. At one point, we were admiring part of the Taj, and Kalyssa was sitting on the steps 25 feet away. As we watched, 5 separate families asked her if they could take pictures of their kids with her. It was pretty neat. We joked to our guide, that we should start asking for 5 rupees. The guide said, are you kidding, you need at least 10 or 15, even the beggars won’t take 5 rupees. As I watched the various families come up to her, I remarked to our guide, that one of the things that has always impressed me here is that even with how dusty it is here, and with most people travelling in open rickshaws, or as a family on a motorcycle, the women, and even the very young girls, always have beautiful saris of many colors, and shiny trim, that look as if they just came off of the rack at a store. 
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| Kalyssa Posing, Upon Reuquest With Random Family |
As we walked back to the exit, and took the electric rickshaw to the car, Natalie turned to me and said “Build me one of those.” I said. “OK. But you do realize you have to die first.”
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| Semi-Precious Gem Inlay |
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| Mumtaz Mahal Tomb |
For lunch we decided to do something a little less expensive than yesterday. We asked our driver if he knew of anywere. “Pizza Hut?” he suggested. We kind of laughed, but thought, hmm that’s not a bad idea. We weren’t quite clear that we had agreed, and he pulled us into a more formal Indian restaurant, but we then clarified, and went a little further down the road to Pizza Hut.
This Pizza Hut, only 1-2 kilometers from the Taj was very large, and had 2 floors. The lower level was quite full (with Indians, not westerners in case you’re curious). The service wasn’t entirely quick, and an elderly gentleman sitting with his family a table over from us, was apparently trying to make it known that he was waiting to be served by clanking his heavy metal knife on the glass plates at the table creating a painfully loud noise. The women at this table protested, but he continued for several minutes. Finally our pizza came. Not exactly the same as in the US (and a lot of Indian options for toppings, though we went with just cheese, but still pretty good. (for pizza hut standards).
We then finally jumped back in the car to make the long return trip to Delhi. Not too far into the trip, the skies started to darken, and the wind began blowing pretty fiercely. We are at the very end of the dry season, and the monsoon season is about to start. A bit of a storm blew in, and some heavy rain came down for a little bit. Suddenly, the busy highway came to a standstill for a period of time. The ground on the side of the road started flooding quite a bit. Traffic itself in India generally flows as does water, it will continue where it belongs until there is an obstacle, and at that point, traffic will find its way around the obstacle, whether that is through oncoming traffic, the shoulder, what have you. (fortunately, we have a very conservative driver, and he has commented a few times on these dangerous moves from other drivers. Several vehicles pulled onto the shoulder on what can best be described to Americans as a “frontage” road. Several large trucks, had done this ahead of us, and dozens of motorcycles. The trucks could be seen in the distance not moving, but smaller vehicles were going around them and didn’t seem to be back tracking. So we followed. We came to an intersection where a car had tried to come out a bit, and we were stuck. We motioned them back, and they yielded, and we then had to squeeze between a row of very large trucks not moving and a canopy of a local shop, this open section was covered in water. We slowly began driving through the shop keeper’s porch, through the water, when another vehicle came at us head on. Now we were stuck nose to nose. A man walking buy told our driver that the way was blocked ahead. After a few minutes the row of trucks moved just enough for us to pull between two of them, and for the other car to pass. Now, the traffic on the main road began moving, though we couldn’t get over there easily. As we moved forward, we saw the issue. A tree had collapsed on an electric line, and stretched it to the ground. On the road we were on, there was a small section of mud under where the wires angled back up to the compromised pole, and we were able squeak through (rather frightening and dangerous though. Our driver asked one of the villagers outside to confirm we had enough room from our roof rack (which we had probably 4 feet or so at the lowest point, and our car crawled under. At the same time, there was a wire that had gone slack over the main road, and I watched as an overloaded truck brushed that wire. Definitely a scary situation.
We stopped a couple hours later at the same rest stop that we had on the way down, and after grabbing some more water, using the facilities, and handing over the obligatory tip to the attendants, we saw the same musician and little girl dancer that we took a picture of yesterday. Our driver had taken a brief walk so we had to wait, and they began performing. I protested, but ultimately gave in to giving them another tip. We then talked to them a bit. They knew very very little English, so it was more pointing and gesturing than anything. Natalie asked him to show her how to play the instrument he had. He showed her how to place her fingers and move the bow. It was called a sarangi and is a Rajasthani instrument.
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| Natalie Learning Rajasthani Sarangi |
As we made our way down the final stretch of highway, our driver had noticed that I had been typing feverishly for quite some time. He looked at me quizzically and said, “You are studying quite a bit in there?” I told him that I was writing the story of our trip for our friends and family back home. He then asked “What you say about car and driver,” and he mimicked typing movements on his steering wheel as he asked. I told him that I said my car and driver was a very good and safe driver, and was very nice, and patient when we were late. He added “and quiet-talks only a little” with a smile. I said “Yes” and returned it.
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| Traditional Gobar Storage Hut-Indian Countryside |
Once we got into the city of Gurgaon, (which is a southern “suburb” of Delhi and is a hub for business process outsourcing companies) we made our way through the maze of corporate highrises, chic multistory shopping malls, intermixed with townhouses, condos, and roadside shanties (peppered with the occasional roaming dog or pig). At one point, he began looking around a little lost, and said to me “I’ve gotten a little confused.” He stopped and jumped out of the car to ask directions. In the meantime I pulled out my iPhone, and checked the directions, and found that we were only 1 kilometer away, and that the hotel was just about directly in front of us, and we arrived only minutes later.
Once we checked back into the hotel, and retrieved the majority of our luggage (which we had stowed there during our trip to Agra), we headed upstairs, Alexandra went to bed, and Natalie and I organized all the luggage to try and consolidate things as much as possible, while Kalyssa enjoyed Ratatouille on the TV.
After getting everything organized, Natalie and I headed down to the lobby bar for a couple drinks to relax before turning in for the evening.
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