Delhi (11 - 12 January 2008)
Let me just congratulate Indian Airlines for a surprisingly pleasant flight - the food was good, the plane was in a very good condition and we had more than enough leg space.
Arriving in Delhi was also not as painful as we had expected. And before we knew it, we were in the arrival area where we spotted our diver, Jaspal, holding a sign with ‘Eon Alers’ written on it. We walked straight to our taxi and drove out of the airport. A total different experience from the one we had in Mumbai just over a month ago. Unfortunately, the Delhi traffic is no different from the Mumbai traffic and we were stuck for about two hours. We arrived in Delhi at about 21:00.
Call us sissies, but we decided to get a driver to take us through India this time - the first India experience had shaken us and we had only two weeks left to travel through the whole of Rajastan! Eon organised this driver for us over the internet from Kathmandu. Knowing India, we were expecting the worst - the driver not showing up at the airport or him taking us to some dodgy place to be scammed a million times over. But this time, luck was on our side! Jaspal took us to the office, where his boss, a young and hip guy, talked us through the deal. After a little bit of negotiation, we had a driver for the two weeks in India.
We had already worked out a two-week circular route through Rajasthan province:
Delhi - Agra - Jaipur - Pushkar - Udaipur - Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Bikaner - Mandawa - Delhi
The driver took us to Paranganj, the tourist area in New Delhi, where we quickly picked a hotel, checked in and went straight to bed. We had to be ready at 8:00am the next morning to start our trip.
Agra (12 - 13 January 2008)
En route to Agra, we stopped in Sikandra at Akbar’s Mausoleum - very impressive pink and white sandstone and marble fort. This was our first fort on the trip and we were amazed at the architecture.
The ride from Delhi to Agra took about 4 hours, not because of the distance, but due to the traffic and road conditions. But our driver knows his stuff and we arrived safely, in one piece and with a McDonald’s (chicken) meal in our bellies.
We visited the Agra fort, again a breathtakingly beautiful site also made from red sandstone and inlaid with white marble. From here we asked Jaspal to drive us to the back side of the Taj Mahal, where we had a beautiful sunset reflected on the river with the Taj in the backdrop.
The next morning (happy birthday Rudolph!!), we got up at 5:30 to catch sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Us luck would have it, the Delhi Belly had sneaked its way into my system. I popped a Valoid and decided to carry a plastic bag with me to the Taj - nothing was going to keep me from seeing this wonderful building. And it was worth it!
The Taj Mahal has full right to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It has to be the most striking building I have ever laid eyes on - perfect in geometry, colour and texture. I remember saying to Eon that when Emperor Shah Jahan must have loved his wife dearly to have built this building in her memory. It was just a pity that there were so many tourists, it was impossible to get a picture with no one in it.
Then back to the chaotic streets of Agra. There are millions of Indians trying to get money from you in some or other way. The rickshaws nearly run you over, saying: “Yes?” to which I reply “No”. And then they just carry on… “Madam, only 20 Rupees…pleeeeassseee madam…no?” I figured out that the best way to get rid of anyone trying to sell something to you, is not to say ‘no thank you’ but to rather just ignore them as though you don’t even see them. A ‘no thank you’ seems to mean ‘please carry on asking me if I want to do business with you and if you don’t mind, please follow me for another kilometre nagging as hard as you can’.
Something sweet which I have noticed about our driver, is that he does not even start the car up without saying a prayer for our safety (one really needs this on India’s roads). I am quite impressed with his openness about his religion.
Click on image to view our Sikandra and Taj Mahal gallery: