India: Spicy and colorful

Well, we've done it. We've become the obnoxious American tourist. We've tried so hard to be good travelers, but then India happened...

Sunrise at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India

First off, we only scheduled three days in India. Terrible! For such a large country with such a rich culture, we should have spent much longer there. Granted, I (Kenzi) spent a summer there in college, but that was now 17 years ago, and so much has changed. But it turns out that three days in India will equal weeks in another country in terms of excitement. 

I was concerned about getting to Nepal in time for trekking during October, which is supposed to be the best time of year weather-wise (turns out I didn't need to be quite so concerned). Bill really wanted to see the Taj Mahal, and I wasn't able to see it during my college visit, so we planned a quick 3-day trip to India to see the infamous Taj before heading on to Nepal. 

We took an overnight flight from Cairo on Oman Air, so we had a middle-of-the-night layover in Muscat, Oman which was interesting. We stuck out like sore thumbs, but in spite of getting no sleep on our flights, it was a pretty pleasant travel experience. We landed in New Delhi at about 7:00am. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the New Delhi airport was rated the best in the world last year, and in fact, we found it to be very nice. For example, the airport is a "silence zone", which means they don't do PA announcements, which makes for a much quieter, saner airport experience. Also, we breezed through Customs, which normally requires waiting in LONG lines. Also, a pleasant surprise. We dropped off some luggage so we wouldn't have to lug everything to Agra for our brief stay, then took the Metro from the airport to the train station. Agra is several hours south of Delhi, so we'd need to take a train south. Again, the Metro was super clean and air conditioned, a pleasant surprise. And that's about where the pleasant surprises ended... 

The super clean and nicely air conditioned Metro in Delhi

We emerged from the Metro, sleep deprived, but nonetheless ready to take on India. But India immediately overpowered us, first with the heat and humidity. We came from Egypt which was no less hot, but it was a dry heat.  India felt like putting on a nice warm, wet and sweaty blanket. Then India overwhelmed us with smells. Having been there before, I found many of the smells familiar, but I vividly remember my college self being completely blown over by all the new smells. Next, India overwhelmed us with its traffic. Egypt traffic was crazy, but it's really not that bad compared to India. However, just as in Egypt, every kind of vehicle you can imagine is on the roads, and it is all super chaotic and so loud (constant honking). Not to mention, they drive on the left side of the road, a holdover from British occupation. We could see the train station and just needed to cross a few roads to get there, but it felt like playing dodgeball with traffic. Luckily, we survived. Then, India overwhelmed us with its confusing ticket process. Even though many signs were in English, it wasn't clear at all where to buy tickets, where to go, what the train options, times, prices were, etc, and the people we spoke to only added to the confusion. And before long, India overwhelmed us with its hustlers. 

Tuk-Tuks abound in India

So we started to go to the platform, via a security checkpoint, and immediately a guy who spoke good English started "helping" us by telling us that we needed to go to a nearby Government office to purchase our tickets. He even walked us out to the Tuk-Tuk parking lot and negotiated a ride for us. This didn't sit quite right with us (a little too good to be true), but we went for it anyway. (Travel is a long series of decisions, sometimes good, sometimes bad.) So after a longer drive than we were expecting, our driver dropped us off at the "Government office". It was more like a tourist agency, and the guy there spoke good English too, but tried to tell us that all the trains and buses to Agra were full, completely booked. He even went so far as to call the "bus station", and whoever was on the phone told Bill that all the buses were booked. He suggested we hire a private car for $150. This made no sense to us, so we decided to head back to the train station. But our Tuk-Tuk driver seemed to have some trouble getting back to the train station because of blocked roads. He ended up taking us to another tourist agency, where we got the same spiel about all the trains and buses being booked. So, now we were feeling very suspicious that this whole thing was a giant scam. And we just wanted to go back to the train station, but our driver insisted that he had a friend who could drive us to Agra and he insisted we go with this friend. Finally, we just got out of the Tuk-Tuk, and Bill had to yell at the driver that we were done with him. We're not normally yellers, but these people were VERY aggressive. It was all very awkward and uncomfortable. So, now we're in the middle of Delhi somewhere and need to get back to the train station (did I mention that it's 95 degrees with 100% humidity?). We considered walking but by now we were quite far from the train station, so we caught a taxi, which thankfully went ok. 

When we arrived back at the train station, there was a wall of guys blocking our way, saying that we couldn't pass without a ticket. By now, we were understanding how things were working in India, so we just marched right through them and ignored them. We think they may have also been part of the big scam to get people to go to tourist offices that they called "government offices", and convince them that public transportation was completely booked so they would be forced to book an expensive taxi all the way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. 

Anyway, we persisted and paid only $18 to ride the train to Agra. We lost about an hour of time, $1 in tuk-tuk rides, and maybe our tempers, but in the end we saved a lot of money. We were in a compartment with six other people, but our train car had some A/C, which helped a ton. The train took a couple hours, and we zonked out on the train from utter exhaustion. 

Crazy driving with all the protection of a tin can...

We were able to catch a Tuk-Tuk from the train station to our hotel in Agra fairly easily. Keep in mind that every ride in India is a loud, scary, heart-racing, eye-opening experience. Near misses abound. We walked into our clean, cool, hotel lobby and breathed a huge sigh of relief that we had finally arrived. Until...

At check in, they asked for our passports which is normal, but we could only find mine. Bill's passport was missing. After all our adventures overnight and that morning, this was the straw that broke the camel's back and one of us (me!) may have broken into tears at this point. We have lost a few not important and somewhat important things on this trip (I used to be so responsible - what happened?), but nothing as important as a passport. Not a passport! Our last 24 hours were such a blur, I was completely useless in attempting to retrace our steps. A very nice hotel lady brought me some water and tried to convince me to calm down and that everything would be ok. I was too tired to argue with her that losing a passport is not ok. 

Anyway, after getting showers and naps, Bill was able to piece together our steps and remember that the luggage storage office at the Delhi airport had asked for his passport, but not returned it. He called them and they confirmed that they had it. Whew - such a relief! 

When I was in India during college, we always had a driver or an escort, but this time, we were fending for ourselves, and it was much more difficult. However, many more people speak some English now and we had some limited cell phone data access to help us navigate a bit. 

The next morning after catching up on some sleep, we woke up super early to go directly to the Taj Mahal in an effort to beat the heat and the crowds and leave enough time to return to Delhi. We had a really nice time seeing the Taj in the early morning light. It was really lovely. Shah Jahan had it built as a mausoleum for his favorite wife in the mid-1600s, who sadly died in labor with their 14th child. It is covered in white marble, has beautiful details, and is satisfyingly symmetrical. Not to mention, there are pools nearby in which the Taj can be perfectly reflected. It is surrounded by several gardens and buildings, including a mosque, all laid out in perfect symmetry. The Shah was Muslim, which is interesting because as you may know, India is 80% Hindu. 

Sunrise at the Great Gate entrance to the Taj Mahal  

The Great Gate to the Taj Mahal

The lovely Taj Mahal, built in the 1600s

The Mosque to the West of the Taj, there was an identical building on the East side. 

Selfie with the beautiful Taj

Looking up at the Taj Mahal

Looking back at the Great Gate from the Taj Mahal

The Taj is covered with intricate details

Our Tuk-Tuk driver that day spoke good enough English and willingly stuck with us all day as we went from place to place, which was really nice. We went back to our hotel for breakfast and some A/C, then headed back out to see the Agra Fort, which is a large fort, but is more accurately a walled city. It has a long history reaching back to the 1400s, and is mostly red brick. But Shah Jahan (of Taj Mahal fame) added some white marble structures during his time. The fort was the seat of Mughal power for many centuries. Like the Taj Mahal, it is next to the Yamuna River.  

Entrance to the red fort

A small section of the Agra Fort

Bill standing in one of many long hallways in the Agra Fort

Scalloped archways in Agra Fort

After the Agra Fort, we did a bit of shopping. We haven't purchased any souveniers on this trip, because as backpackers, we have to carry everything. Plus, we're not big souvenir people anyway. But I was tempted by India's bright colors. One thing I love about India is all the bright colors. The women wear saris and punjabis, all with the brightest, most beautiful colors. So I decided I wanted a pair of brightly colored pants. Our Tuk-Tuk driver took us to a shop he knew. In typical fashion, I suckered in for two pairs when I really only wanted one, but at least I avoided buying all the other stuff the lady was persistently urging me to buy. We'll call that a success. 

The Agra train station 

Finally, our Tuk-Tuk driver dropped us off at the Agra train station, so we could head back to Delhi. Again, we spoke to several people but only got very confusing answers about train schedules and prices.  But we finally ended up buying very cheap unreserved tickets, and then once we were on the train, we paid the conductor so we could get seats in the nice air conditioned section. Whew! We had a long conversation (of which we understood about 50% because of the thick accent) with a medical professor from Assam, the little section of India way to the East that seems like it was tacked on as an afterthought. 

The friendly medical professor from Assam that we spoke to on the train

Once back in Delhi, we took the Metro immediately back to the airport luggage drop off place to retrieve the prodigal passport and our bag. Boy, did we feel good to have that passport back in our sweaty hands! Then, we took an Uber to our Delhi hotel. Given that there was absolutely no sign on the building for this hotel, we think it might have been operating illegally. Nonetheless, they had some A/C, and that's really all we cared about at that point. They offered to have some food delivered for us, which we gladly took them up on. So, at 10:00pm, we had a very spicy meal, that has been upsetting our tummies for days since (aka Delhi Belly). 

The late night super spicy Indian food which has led to several days of Delhi Belly

So, it was a short visit to India, but filled with enough action and adventure that it really felt like a week. We enjoyed the Taj, and the brilliant colors, and someday will come back for a much longer visit (but perhaps with a driver or guide.)

Next up: Nepal!