Passage to India

Despite the fact that India is only a short 2 hour plane ride away from us, it took us almost two years to get ourselves over there, but we finally did it! So you are probably asking . . ."What did I think?" Well . . . hmmmm . . . it was . . . ummm . . . interesting. There aren't very many places where you can see some of the things that we saw. I mean . . . how many places can you drive down streets where cars, scooters, bicycles, 30 year old tractors, elephants, and camels are all perfectly normal forms of transportation. And cows, water buffalo, and warthogs just meander around without a care in the world. Our intent of this trip was to see the "Golden Triangle," which is a common tourist trip that people seem to take. It is called the Golden Triangle because you essentially visit 3 historical cities, Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra, thereby making your visit a triangle. We decided to skip Delhi, so I guess we just did a golden straight line, but whatever. So we began the trip in the small city of Jaipur (only 1 million people), and stayed at an old palace that used to belong to the Maharajah of the region. It was absolutely beautiful. It was a nice place to start, allowing us some R&R (because we arrived at about 4 in the morning!) and to see the local sights, including the palace. Which, of course, provided a blog-worthy picture with the guards! Nightly, the hotel had shows with some native dancing, and really . . . how many of you can balance that many ceramic bowls on your head! The food was excellent . . .well, er um . . . maybe not so much. I'm sure most of you have heard of Mexico's infamous "Montezuma's Revenge." Well, India has "Delhi Belly." And guess what! It found us! So after spending a couple days in Jaipur, we woke up to an unfortunate surprise (ugh!), and the inevitable fact that we were about to spend 5 hours in a car ride to Agra to go see the Taj Mahal. We figured how many times were we going to be in India and have the opportunity to see the Taj Mahal. And how bad could this drive be, right? So we hopped in the car with fingers crossed. Well, we were overly optimistic, I would say. Ok, just envision our condition at this point and 5 hours worth of roads in horrible condition, not a freeway in sight. Doesn't sound pretty. Does it? Well, we finally made it to Agra in one piece, and fortunately, our hotel overlooked the Taj Mahal. It was absolutely beautiful and provided an out if one or both of us couldn't physically make it to see the grounds. At least, we could legitimately say we saw the Taj Mahal, right? Well, Jason woke up the next day in fairly good condition. And I am proud to say that I put on a happy face (at least for the pictures anyway) and made it to the grounds of the Taj Mahal. Mind you, we just had to stop at every park bench we walked by, but I did it! We were supposed to see a bunch more forts that same day, but I had done about all I could do. So that was the extent of our trip to Agra. The next day, we woke up, and headed back to Jaipur for the flight back home. On the drive back, Jason got a priceless photo of how you get a free bus ride in India. You just wait until the bus starts moving. Then, hop on and ride on top of it! Go figure. So now that I am back in Oman, still with my stomach not completely back to 100%, let me get back to that question of "What did I think?" I must say that I am glad that I have checked that box, and I can from here on out say that I have actually been to the Taj Mahal. But in hindsight, would I do it all over again . . . probably not. Oh, well. Live and learn, right? If you want to see more pictures of our trip, feel free to go visit http://picasaweb.google.com/dakleinsinoman/IndiaJaipurAndAgra?authkey=Y1jnYcK9ofU