Visiting India's Most Famous Building

After a night of limited sleep, we groggily got into our car that drove us 3 1/2 hours from Delhi to Agra. There was a lot of honking and traffic rules are not necessarily existent. Our driver was very skilled, however. He maneuvered around buses, trucks, tuk tuks, and even a cow or two. I read an Indian newspaper enroute. Given our issues yesterday, it was interesting to read numerous articles on India's issues with respecting women. Upon arrival in Agra, a guide met us and helped us take care of the tickets and everything before entering the grounds of the famous Taj Mahal.

Perhaps it was our tiredness or the long drive, but it was all very surreal. This was such a famous site in front of us, that we almost couldn't believe we were there. This time of year is notorious for fog, so we were fortunate to be able to see it clearly. I could have done without the crowds, but since we are not British royalty or the president of Israel, it didn't seem likely that they would close the place down for us, even though we are Bricole, everyone's favorite celebrity couple.

The guide was very informative about the building, art, and architecture of the temple. At one point, we also walked inside the mausoleum where Shah Jahan and his wife (the reason the Taj Mahal was built to begin with) were laid to rest. Inside, workers would yell at people taking pictures because, as signs put it, "No photography allowed out of respect for the site". But apparently blowing whistles really loud to get people to keep moving is fair game.

In any event, we finished up by walking around and taking a few more pictures, including this one, which might be my favorite. I liked the colors of the women walking toward the monument. With thousands of people at the site, taking the exact same pictures, it was hard to get a photograph that stood out.

We could have visited other sites in Agra, but we both decided to hop in the car and head back to Delhi. Every bank or ATM we drove past had a line at least 20 people deep. This whole demonetization thing is making things complicated. A month or so ago, some of the most commonly used currency denominations were removed from circulation under the pretense that it would combat so called "black money," but it seems to be creating a lot of new problems.

Luckily they took credit card because currency is hard to come by. We literally pulled over in the middle of a back street where a man walked up with a card machine. I was reminded of a scene in Million Dollar Arm where they do a major business transaction in the middle of the street. It is called bypassing the system in the movie. "Indians love to honk and bypass the system" according to the film. Eventually we found ourselves back in smoggy Delhi. And to address some of my concerns in the previous post, Nicole was treated much better today.

Maybe everyone is just grouchier at 2am. Hopefully our airport experience tomorrow goes a bit smoother. We have a 5am flight down to Kochi/Cochin in southern India.

So until then, we will try and get a decent night's rest. The bed is very comfortable and our room probably three times the size as our Tokyo hotel. You will, however, note that the walls of our bathroom are transparent. There is evidently a shade to rectify this issue, but it doesn't work, so now it's just rectums.