Making Merry in Agra & Delhi
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
19
23
Trip End
Jul 30, 2008
Agra,
India
Monday, February 25, 2008
On the night of Sat., Dec. 22nd, I took the night train from Lucknow to Delhi. This was the first time I'd taken the train by myself, so I was a little nervous heading into my journey
Taj Mahal Entrance
. However, I lucked out and got a top-bunk at the end of the train car with no one sleeping across from me (and, as an added bonus, no one snoring during the night), so I slept almost the whole way to Delhi. Upon arriving in Delhi around 9am, I exited the station and went in search of the pre-paid auto stand, since I've been told that's the safest way of not getting ripped off by Delhi's always-eager-to-overcharge-a-foreigner auto rickshaw drivers. After looking around and not being able to locate the stand, I decided to ask at a snack shop out in the train station parking lot. I guess that the snack shop clerk and the few men standing around sipping chai were surprised to hear me speaking Hindi (either that, or they had trouble understanding what I was saying because of my terrible accent), since they first looked confused, but then eagerly gave me directions (both verbally and with lots of pointing) towards the pre-paid auto booth located on the other side of the parking lot.I waited in line and successfully secured a pre-paid auto (for the reasonable price of Rs 60) to take me to the youth hostel I planned to stay at during my 2 nights in Delhi.
I picked the hostel from my Lonely Planet book because it was located right near my friend's hotel, so it would be easy for me to meet them in the morning and get home at night
First glimpse of the Taj
. It was also, somewhat surprisingly for a youth hostel, located in the "posh" diplomatic area of Delhi where all the embassies are.I reached the hostel around 10am, checked in and dropped off my bag. My friend Elana and her two friends weren't arriving until around 2pm, so I had made a plan to grab lunch with my friend (and "fellow" AJWs fellow) Dan who is living/working in Delhi. After getting settled at the hostel, I called Dan and we planned to meet at a bus-stop that he suggested in a nearby neighborhood.
Apparently the bus stop isn't that well-known because my auto driver got lost and had to ask at least 3 people before dropping me off at a bus depot (that turned out not to be the bus stop after all). I called Dan and after exchanging some info. about where we each were (ie. Landmarks, geographical markers, etc.), we determined that we were in 2 different parts of Hauz Kaus and made a plan for me to come meet Dan at a nearby shopping complex that would hopefully be easy to spot. Trusting my feet more than the auto rickshaw drivers, I decided to walk up the street to the shopping complex, since I remembered passing it in the auto on the way to the bus depot. Luckily, my sense of distance and direction were right, and after about 10 minutes of walking, I reached the shopping complex where Dan was waiting.
We had lunch at a small restaurant nearby and caught up, exchanging stories on how things are going in our respective cities, and commiserating about some common frustrations we're facing at work. It was great to see Dan and find out about his life in Delhi so far. After lunch, I headed back to my hostel and took a short nap, since my stomach was "acting up" a bit (which, I was hoping, wasn't a sign of the impending onset of the infamous "Delhi Belly")
Second gimpse of the Taj
.I was feeling a bit better after my nap, and I went to meet Elana and her friends at their hotel around 3pm. I decided to walk over, since on the map their hotel looked relatively close to mine. It, in fact, was close, but after receiving some not-so-helpful advice from the doorman at my hostel, I took what I later learned was the "long route" and arrived after walking for about 40 minutes. When I reached the hotel lobby, a bit of apprehension crossed my mind - would Elana and I be able to even recognize each other? My worry quickly vanished, however, when a young Indian man approached me and asked if I was Ms. Rachel. I was a bit surprised that he knew my name, but then he told me that he was the travel liaison for Elana and her friends, and that Elana had asked him to tell me that they'd be down shortly. After a few minutes of waiting, Elana and her 2 friends came down, and although it had been quite a long time since we last saw each other, I was luckily able to recognize her right away and went over. Elana introduced me to her friends Alex and Ricki, we exchanged a few exclamations of "it's been way too long," and then we were shuttled out the door by the travel liaison to begin our afternoon sightseeing in Old Delhi.
Elana and her friends had hired a car and driver for their time in Delhi, so the car met us at the hotel and drove us to our first sightseeing destination, Delhi's famous Red Fort, one of Shah Jahan's many architectural (and tourist-magnet) gifts to India (To clarify, Shah Jahan constructed the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Red Fort, and Jama Masjid - the largest mosque in India, among other things).
I'd been to Red Fort back in August during the part of my fellowship orientation retreat that was held in Delhi
Almost there
. However, the last time I visited, the Fort was mostly empty, except for a few tourists. This time, the place was packed with both foreigners and Indians. I think the fact that it was a Sunday, at the peak of India's "Tourist Season" could help explain the crowds. We wandered through the fort and snapped some photos of the beautiful marble and stone architecture. I began feeling a bit woozy as we turned to head out of the fort and quickly considered my options. I could either stay and do more sightseeing, or I could go back to hostel to sleep so that I would hopefully feel better for tomorrow.As we left aRed Ford, the guide directed us towards our next stop, Jama Masjid. However, my stomach was talking to me once again, so I made the decision (which I later thanked myself for) to go back to my hostel and rest, not wanting to miss our next day's trip to Agra and the Taj. I'm happy to report that sleeping for almost 12 hours straight did the trick! The next day, I woke up at 5am (we were leaving for Agra at 6am) feeling MUCH better, with no objections from my stomach.
I took an auto over to Elana's hotel, and at 6am we were on the road for the 5 hour drive to Agra. Our journey was definitely a harrowing one, though it also taught us all a bit more about life in India (and what it's like being a white, American tourist here). The first "incident" took place a couple hours into our journey, as we were crossing the state border into Uttar Pradesh (that's my state!!). There was a big line-up of cars waiting to get through the border crossing, so our driver left us sitting in the car and went to pay the entrance tax. Of course, this Delhi-to-Agra route is frequented by tourists like us who visit the Taj as a day trip from Delhi
Taj Mahal...in all its glory
. So, I wasn't too surprised when, out of the window of our parked car, we saw a few men with monkeys on leashes doing flips and tricks (I mean the monkeys, not the men). Elana wanted to take a picture of the somersaulting monkeys. The three of us told her that she'd have to pay the men something if she took a picture, but she was fine with that and snapped a photo out of the rolled-down window. After Elana took the photo, two of the men approached our car demanding the exorbitant sum of Rs 500 (around $12.50) each. Although Elana gave them a generous amount, one of the men seemed to not be satisfied, and attempted to get more money from us by sticking his arm in through our car window. Despite our requests (mine in my limited Hindi), he would not budge his arm, even as we started trying to roll up the window. Even when his arm was about to be crushed by the window, he still refused to move, and only backed away from our car when our driver came back and yelled something at him in Hindi (I'll have to learn what he said!).Back on the road, we discussed the "money incident" for a good 30 minutes before calming down and settling back into the drive. Harrowing Incident #2 took place when we were about 2/3 the way towards Agra. I was sitting in the way back looking out the side window when, all of a sudden, our car screeched to a halt and it sounded and felt as if we had run over something
Me in front of Taj Mahal
. I didn't see what happened because the seat in front of me was blocking my view, but apparently we had hit a motorcycle with 2 riders, a man and a woman. As I was told, the motorcycle sped out in front of us from a side street without even looking and, upon collision, the two riders somersaulted off the bike and landed on the ground. They both got up, so it looked like they weren't too seriously injured, but I was still worried. Moments after the collision, a large crowd of mostly men had surrounded our car. Our driver got out of the car to talk to the other party, and I couldn't see what happened. The four of us in the car were pretty scared, thinking that we'd be blamed for causing the accident and repercussions would follow. The men surrounding our car kept staring through the window at us, and we couldn't tell whether they were just fascinated by us 4 white tourists, or if they had other ideas in mind. After a few tense minutes, the driver came back to the car, the crowd parted, and we drove off, still uncertain about what had taken place. We were all quite shaken up. I kept trying to ask the driver what happened and if everyone involved was ok, but the most I could get out of him with my basic Hindi was "sub tikay" (all's well). I'll tell you one thing...next time I go to Agra (if there is a next time), I'm definitely taking the train!
As all of our nerves calmed, the car got really quiet and we all spent a while taking in the roadside scenery through the car windows
Taj Mahal
. As we drove along, one of us noticed camels pulling wooden carts along the side of the road and we all turned to catch a glimpse. While this may come as a shock to some, there have not been camels in the Indian cities and towns I've been in so far, so this was my first time seeing a camel up close and personal (aside from in the zoo when I was little). What shocked me was the size of the camels...they were enormous! I guess I had always imagined that camels were a little larger than horses, but these camels looked like a throwback to prehistoric times.We arrived on the outskirts of Agra around 11am and stopped to pick up our tour guide along the side of the road (yeah, it does sound a little strange, but I guess it's common practice for tour companies in India). Our guide, a thin, older Indian man with relatively-understandable English, first took us to the place we had all come to see...the Taj Mahal.
Now, the joke in India, which is based in a truth, is that any job that could be satisfactorily completed by 1 person has at least a few middle men involved in order to "spread the wealth." There is no place where this is truer than in India's tourism industry. To demonstrate this point, I'll describe our Taj visiting experience.
Me and Taj
Our guide spent the drive up to the Taj Mahal explaining the logistics of getting in to see the famed tomb. He explained that because of pollution, cars were no longer allowed to drive all the way up to the Taj entrance, so we would have to park some distance away and take a "green powered" rickshaw to the rest of the way. The rickshaw, of course, would cost us an extra Rs 50 each. Since you're not allowed to bring any bags onto the Taj grounds, we left everything but our wallets and cameras in the car and boarded a "green-powered" rickshaw to take us to the entrance. It turned out that the distance between the car park and the entrance was walkable, though we didn't know that before handing over our money to the rickshaw driver. Our rickshaw ride wasn't a waste, though, since we did help support our rickshaw driver and his family with our generous payment.
We got out of the rickshaw and walked up to the Taj entrance, where we were greeted with metal detectors and guards...high security!! Surprisingly, though, there wasn't a long line of tourists waiting to get in, and that's kind of what I was expected since it was "prime tourist season." Our guide took money from us to buy us our tickets (Foreigners cost $20, Indians cost $1...quite unfair, but the Indian tourism industry can get away with it). After we passed through the security check, our guide led us into a beautiful red-brick courtyard
Me in front of Taj
. But where was the Taj Mahal? It was nowhere to be seen, but our guide quickly reassured us that this was just the entryway to the Taj. As we approached the large red-brick archway that would lead us in to see the Taj, Elana spotted a group of Indian women and kids wearing bright, colorful salwar suits. They were looking our direction, and we were looking theirs, so Elana finally approached them and asked if they would take a picture with her. They were more than thrilled to be asked, and after Elana took a series of shots, they took several shots of their own with Elana. It was a pretty funny scene, since it's the reverse of what usually happens in India (ie. Indians asking foreigners to take pictures with them). After the brief photo stop, we continued towards the entrance. As we approached, I caught glimpse a twinkle of white marble on the other side of the archway through which throngs of tourists, Indian and foreigner alike, were passing. And then I saw it...the Taj Mahal...white, glimmering in the sun, and exactly how it looks in all the pictures! I didn't think I'd be so impressed, since I'd seen many Taj photos, and often photos show an "enhanced" view of things. However, I can honestly say that seeing the Taj Mahal in person is SO MUCH better than in photos. And even though there were tons of tourists there with us, the place didn't feel packed-to-the-brim and there weren't random people's heads popping up in all my photos (which is usually one of my pet peeves about going somewhere really crowded with tourists). We all took lots of pictures before following our guide to the see the inside of the Taj. Now, in case you didn't know, the Taj Mahal is a tomb, or mausoleum, constructed by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (who also build Red Fort in Delhi, Jama Masjid, etc.) for his much-loved second wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to her 14th child in 1631 (NOTE: Maternal mortality seems to have been just as big a problem back then as it is today!)
Me, Elana, Ricki & Alex at Taj
. Shah Jahan is also buried in the Taj Mahal. If you already knew all that, then you might also know that the actual tombs are not visible to tourists since they are deep underground below the main chamber. The tomb that tourists can visit that sits right inside the main entrance under the big dome is an elaborate fake, with tons of inlaid stones arranged in beautiful mosaics.Before leading us up the steps to go inside the main chamber of the Taj, our guide gave us these shoe-coverings that looked like they came straight from a surgical unit of a hospital. At most holy sites in India (both Muslim and Hindu), you're required to take off your shoes before entering. However, I guess that in its effort to be "tourist friendly" and not turn away those tourists who have issues with going barefoot, they decided to permit people to wear these scrub-like coverings that go on over your shoes. We put on our new "footwear" and then followed our guide up the stairs towards the main chamber. Apparently our guide takes many groups of foreign tourists to the Taj, since he seemed to be good friends with the guards stationed at the chamber doors and definitely knew how to "maneuver" us through the cramped space packed with people, at times even shooing away other visitors to get us right up close to the intricate mosaic work on the false tomb.
The main chamber is really all there is to see inside the Taj (or at least, that's what our guide told us), so we quickly came back outside and strolled around the shiny white courtyard surrounding the structure
Me, Elana, Ricki & Alex at Taj
. After several more "photo ops," our guide ushered us towards the exit. I've heard that the Taj Mahal changes colors with different types of light at different times of the day, and it would have been fun to stay there for part of the day to see all the colors. But, unfortunately, we had too many other things to see, and too little time to spare, so I'll just have to come back another time (that is, if I want to fork over another $20).When we got back to our car, our guide told us that he was taking us to a special marble shop where we could buy things made by the same family of craftsmen that had worked on the Taj. I was a bit wary, since I had the feeling that this was just a "commission-making opportunity" for our guide and driver, and I wasn't that interested in buying marble work. However, the others seemed to want to go so we went along with the guide's plan. At the marble shop, we watched 2 artisans demonstrate the "mosaic" technique of inlaying tiny pieces of precious stones in patterns cut into marble slabs. It was pretty interesting, I must admit. Following the demonstration, the shop owner took us downstairs to a red-velvet-carpeted room stocked, wall-to-wall, with different stone and marble items...from coasters to coffee tables...and most of which were extremely costly. We looked around for a while and then Elana decided that she wanted to buy a small marble elephant as a souvenir, so we spent some time helping her pick a good one
Taj Mahal
. With our one purchase made, we thanked the shop owner and went out to the car.We were all hungry, so we decided that this would be a good time to make a stop for lunch. We asked the guide to take us somewhere he recommended, and he took us to what turned out to be a very good restaurant that, like most everything in Agra, was filled with toursits. The highlight of the restaurant, aside from the delicious food, was the music and dance performance going on outside. The dancer was a little boy who must have been about 10 years old, and who was wearing quite an elaborate Punjabi costume, complete with a turban and thick eye makeup. He was accompanied by an older man playing some musical instrument that I don't know the name of. Each time the restaurant door opened to let anyone in or out, the boy would break out into vigorous Punjabi dancing, bouncing shoulders up and down and jumping from one foot to the other while winking repeatedly at each passerby. While the little boy's show was great fun to watch, I couldn't help but feel a bit of guilt, since this boy probably wasn't thrilled about the fact that he had to stand outside a restaurant all day and dance for wealthy and often-aloof tourists who probably either view him as some "exotic Indian artifact" or ignore him completely. The situation was one more in a series of experiences I've had in India that reminded me of the tragic yet all-too-real stories in Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" which was the first book I read when I got to India and which has definitely influenced the things that I notice here (I recommend reading it if you have an interest in India).
After some discussion during lunch about our plans for the day, we realized that we probably wouldn't have time to see everything we wanted to see in Agra, so we asked the driver to take us straight to Fatehpur Sikri, the ancient abandoned palace of Mughal Emporer Akbar (Shah Jhan's granddad) and his three wives
Taj Mahal
. Fatehpur Sikri is located about an hours drive away from Agra, but we all really wanted to see it, so we decided to bypass the other Agra sites, like Agra Fort and the Mini Taj, and had to repeatedly tell our guide and driver that we were not interested in doing any more shopping (they tried several times to convince us to let them take us to other stores with "specialty items from Agra"...or, in other words, touristy stores where our driver and guide would have likely received a nice commission for bringing us by). Apparently, our guide was only hired to be with us for the Taj Mahal and Agra sites, so on our way out of town, we thanked him for his time, gave him a tip, and dropped him back off on the side of the road where he would most likely pick up his next tour group.It only took us about 45 minutes to reach Fatehpur Sikri. When we pulled into the area near the ruins, our driver was quick to call over a man to be our guide. I usually like to explore places myself, without a guide, especially when I don't know how knowledgeable the guide will be about the history of the site I'm seeing. However, we thought we should at least ask how much a guide would cost, and it turned out to be really inexpensive, so we ended up hiring the guide to lead us to the site and show us around. The guide told us that the ruins were quite a climb up the hill and so, he flagged down an auto to take us up the road (just one more example of how in India, people try to spread the wealth among as many others as possible)
Taj Mahal side view
. The auto ride took maybe 5 minutes, but it wasn't nearly as expensive as our 5-minute ride to the Taj Mahal, and it did save us from some uphill walking. When we entered the site, I was struck by the uniqueness and beauty of the red sandstone buildings which were in extremely good condition, especially considering that they were built almost 500 years ago. Our guide allowed us to look around for a few minutes before telling us a little about the site's history. He explained to us that Mughal Emporer Akbar was equally accepting of all religions (which in India, not to mention at that time in Indian history, was not so common) and thus, had 3 wives, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian (I guess there were not enough Jews in India at that time for him to fancy a Jewish wife too). At Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar built a palace for each wife, each one with a different architectural style and character. Our guide took us around to each of the palaces, and at some point during our visit, we decided to turn it into somewhat of a "photo shoot" with our guide as our "official" photographer.
After having fun posing with the ruins, we followed our guide to the Jama Masjid (it seems that most big mosques in India are called Jama Masjids) that was located next to the palace compound
Taj Mahal up close
. We had to take off our shoes to go inside, which was a new experience for Elana and her friends. I remember the first time I took off my shoes to walk barefoot through a temple...I admit that thoughts of foot infections, not to mention stepping on unnoticed sharp objects, definitely crossed my mind, but then I realized that everyone else was going to be barefoot too and I reasoned that the ground would have to be relatively clean/smooth. Anyway, after some deliberating, we all decided to "take the plunge" and go inside, shoeless. At the mosque, our guide took us into a "temple-like" structure where we were asked to make a donation to buy flowers and a prayer cloth to do some kind of puja. We were also given red and yellow strings that we were supposed to make wishes with as we tied them onto a particular window in the temple. We each waited in line to do our pujas and then tied our "wishing" strings onto two windows that were so covered in red and yellow that it was hard to find a spot to tie anything else. When we got back outside, we looked around the mosque's courtyard a bit more before deciding that we needed to head back to Agra in order to make it back in time for our Christmas Eve dinner reservation. We gave our guide a tip and thanked him for being such a good sport, and for standing in as our photographer during our "photo shoot." And then we hopped back in the car for the ride back to Agra.Based on a friend's recommendation, Elana, Alex and Ricki had made a dinner reservation at the classy Amar Villas Hotel in Agra. It was definitely one of the fanciest hotels I've seen in India so far, with 4 beautiful marble fountains in the courtyard and posh lounge areas inside. And because it was Christmas Eve, the hotel was all decked out, with everything from a huge Christmas tree with fake presents underneath to the Indian hotel staff singing Christmas carols on the staircase landing
Taj Mahal other side view
. All this, and especially the carol singers, seemed quite surreal and out of place to me. I think it felt so weird both because I've been here in India so long and have gotten more used to the Hindu and Muslim festivals' way of celebrating, and because I'd missed out on the Holiday Season preparations that take over everything in the U.S. starting the day after Thanksgiving. Anyway, the dinner was a delicious treat! I ordered an Indian dish, figuring that if they couldn't do it well here, where could they? The waiters also brought over a scrumptious bread basket (I hadn't seen seeded roles like this since I was back in the U.S.!) that they kept refilling as we gobbled up the bread. We finished dinner around 8:30pm and hurried out to the car for the long drive home. I think our driver was rightfully a little frustrated that he had to drive us back to Delhi at such a late hour, and I was hoping that he'd be able to stay awake in order to avoid any further accidents on the road (one for the day was quite enough!). Luckily, the ride was uneventful, and we reached the hotel around 1am. I said goodbye to Elana, Ricki and Alex and took a cab back to my hostel for some quick shut-eye.
The next morning (Christmas morning), we met at my friends' hotel at 8am. When we went out to the car, the driver told us that our guide for the day wouldn't arrive until 9am, so we had an hour to kill. We decided to check out email, and it's a good thing we did because by pure coincidence, I got an email from my friend Aditi who just happened to be in Delhi visiting her cousins. I knew Aditi had been planning a trip to India, and we tried to coordinate seeing each other, but it seemed like it wouldn't work, since she was supposed to attend weddings in South India and then leave from Mumbai
Elana, Ricki & Alex in Taj courtyard
. So I was happily surprised when I got her email telling me that her plans had changed and that she was currently in Delhi for a few days. I wrote her back that "coincidentally" I was in Delhi too and would love to see her before my train back to Lucknow that night.We went back out to the parking lot to meet our guide, who introduced himself as "Alan" and was quick to let us all know that he was a Brahmin. I know I haven't talked much about Caste in my blog entries so far. I think it's because I still don't know that much about the Caste System in India...probably because, like racism in the U.S., it's something that's so embedded and "taken for granted" in Indian society that most Indians choose not to discuss it, even though it plays a large role in determining how people live, what jobs they have, what opportunities are available to them, how much discrimination they face, how much power they hold in society...the list could go on for a while. Anyway, hearing Alan say "you know, I'm a Brahmin" made me kind of angry. It seemed like he really wanted us to know that he was from the Brahmin Caste and that being a Brahmin, he was, obviously, superior...at least that was my interpretation. It was also irritating because it's not like people usually go around introducing themselves by their Caste, though often Indians know what Caste others of from based on their last name or other defining characteristics
Taj courtyard
. Anyway, that was my first impression of Alan, and it probably colored my opinion of him for the rest of the day.The first place Alan took us was the famous Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, since it was closed on Sunday when they tried to go. This was my second trip to the Mosque, but it was still fun to climb to the top of the minaret for that amazing view of Delhi.
After visiting the mosque, we went to Rajghat, the memorial to and final resting place of Gandhi. Aside from the beautiful park surrounding the black marble memorial stone, there wasn't much else to see. However, when we were ready to go, our guide Alan was nowhere to be found. This turned out to be a theme throughout the day...he just kept wandering off and making "important " calls on in cell phone when he was supposed to be showing us around.
Upon leaving Rajghat, we went in search of a camera store where Ricki could buy a new memory card for her camera and ended up at Khan Market, the upscale market popular with expats that I've been to several times before. I remembered that Fab India, a nice, modern home and clothing store, had a shop in Khan Market. Based on Indian prices, Fab India is somewhat expensive, but they also have a huge variety of clothes that are generally well-made and stylish, so I thought that Elana, Ricky and Alex might like to check it out. I was right, they seemed to love Fab India and bought several things for themselves and friends. Then Alan took us to a restaurant that was owned by one of his friends. It was another "tourist-filled" spot, but nothing too remarkable. I ordered Chinese, for a change, hoping that it wouldn't be too spicy (since, as some of you may know, Chinese food in India is always spicy!)
View from Taj
. We headed to the National Museum next. The museum was huge, with room after room of archaeological artifacts, sculptures, paintings, etc. Although I'm usually a fan of museums, I get frustrated when there aren't labels on the items on display because then I have no context for what I'm looking at. While certain pieces in the museum were labeled and dated, most things weren't, so I didn't feel the need to spend too long in the galleries. While I was in the museum, my friend Aditi texted me with her Delhi phone number, so I went outside to call her and we made a plan to meet at her cousin's house after my day of sightseeing was over.
As we were about to leave the museum, we noticed a temporary exhibition space tucked away in a part of the museum we hadn't seen before. The exhibit was a wonderful collection of paintings and textiles depicting the blue Hindu god Krishna, and I'm glad we didn't miss it! And, next to the exhibit space, we discovered the museum shop. I love museum shops! They always have the most eclectic collection of things and are often reasonably priced. We all spent a while browsing in the shop, and while looking around, I noticed some pretty-looking boxes containing different series of tiny clay figures depicting important figures in India's history. Yes, they were totally touristy (though I guess they could also be considered folk art), but I liked them, so I bought the "revolutionary leaders of India" series, including figures of Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, etc. My only qualm was that all the figures were men, and I know that India had a least a couple female revolutionary leaders!
With our purchases in hand, we left the museum and went in search of Alan and our driver, both of who seemed to have vanished with the car
Taj Mahal
. After a good 15 minutes of searching, during which we found lots of cars that looked identical to ours, we spotted Alan, on the phone (as usual). Back in the car, the driver took us to Humayan's Tomb, something that I had wanted to see for a while! The Tomb was beautiful and looked much like the Taj Mahal, though in red. Alan led us around the tomb, not really telling us anything much about it, but telling us that we should "make enjoy" (I think he meant "enjoy yourselves") which sort of became the "theme word" for the rest of the day. We wandered around the tomb for a while, taking pictures and having fun talking to Alan about his family and other topics of interest.
We left the tomb around 5pm or so and headed back to Elana, Ricki and Alex's hotel. Tonight they were going to dinner at a famous Delhi hotel, and though I know it would have been fun to join them, I also really wanted to see Aditi. So, when we returned to the hotel, we settled our accounts with the driver (since Elana, Ricki and Alex were heading to Goa the next morning) and said goodbye.
Because it was late, I decided to hail an auto rickshaw to take me straight to Aditi's cousin's house, rather than going back to my hostel first to drop stuff off. One reason I'm glad I don't live in Delhi is that it's almost impossible to get an auto at certain times day. This was one of those times...around 5:30pm...the height of the after-work rush hour. After about 15 minutes of standing and flailing my arm desperately at any auto that passed, an empty one finally pulled up the curb. Although my driver didn't seem 100% certain of where he was going, I figured that it would be at least another 10 minutes before another auto came along, so I got in and hoped that I could call Aditi and have her help us navigate the way to her cousin's house
Taj courtyard
. On second thought, maybe I should have waited for another auto, since getting to where I was going (which looked pretty close on the map) ended up taking over an hour. First we got stuck in lots of traffic, then my auto driver said he had to stop for gas, and then I think we drove the wrong direction because my driver didn't understand the directions I was giving him (even though I was speaking what I knew to be correct Hindi). At one point, I called Aditi and her mom got on the phone with my auto driver to direct him...but that seemed to only do minimal good. Finally, I asked him to pull over and ask a few people, since I figured that we must be in the vicinity of where we were headed. I've learned that in India, asking multiple people and taking the directions that the majority of people give is kind of what you have to do, since everyone tries to be helpful and will point you in SOME direction, even if they have no idea where you're asking about. After pulling over a series of different times and asking several different people, we finally entered the neighborhood where Aditi's cousin lived and began looking at the house numbers. My driver seemed to be getting a bit exasperated and probably wanted to get rid of me, so I was especially glad when I spotted the house. I paid and thanked the driver, and then went in to meet Aditi.The house was beautiful inside, with lots of modern art hanging on the walls. Aditi was upstairs getting ready for a party for one of her relatives. When I arrived she quickly finished getting ready and then we had tea and talked for almost an hour! Since Aditi's family is from India, we had a common point of reference, and I was able to share things with her about my experiences that someone who hadn't been to India before wouldn't understand as well. It was fun to tell her about all the adventures I've been having in India, and to hear about her adventures back in my former city, Boston!! Seeing Aditi was great, though this brief connection to my life back in the U.S. also made me miss everyone back home!
When Aditi and her family had to leave for her relative's party, they arranged for the driver to drop me off near the train station, so I didn't have to risk exasperating another rickshaw driver . I sat in a coffee shop for a while and then headed over to the train station with plenty of time to spare. Like my ride to Delhi, the train ride home was fine and uneventful, and as usual, I slept the entire way back to Lucknow.
Comments
latest blog
At longggggg last words from Rach. So glad to hear about your visit with friends over holidays last year!!! Can't wait to hear your next installment about going to Thailand. Miss ya and wish you could see the twins, now six months old. Love, Joyce