Delhi to Agra and Back Again

Delhi was to be the final stop on our country-crossing tour. A base for getting first to the Taj Mahal and, then, back home. And, as a reward for the hard work of traveling in a foreign land, we were booked into the luxurious Taj Palace hotel for two nights.

After some initial trepidation about the warnings of violence around Independence Day (and a chat with the director of security for the US Embassy there), we decided to stick with the plan, but lay a little lower while in Delhi. After almost two weeks and four cities, we were grateful for the opportunity to recharge the batteries.

After enjoying the extravagant Sunday brunch in the hotel (not since the Leela back in Bangalore...), we set out for a little Delhi sightseeing. The India Arch was was practically inaccessible due to the heightened security, as, literally, was Red Fort. But we enjoyed Humayan's tomb - a preview of what waited in Agra both chronologically for us and historically. We also walked in a throng of pilgrims and gawkers towards the beautifully styled Baha'i temple.

The next days was given over to Agra and the Taj Mahal. And it proved to be a magnificent site. Despite the squalor and crowding of Agra, the Taj Mahal is magnificent. Walls and beautiful gateways hide it from view until you are right upon it. And when it bursts into view, all the pictures you have seen fail to do it justice. All white marble pillars and domes reaching skyward. A humbling monument to love and faith. Though the guidebooks suggest arriving at dawn or dusk, I quite liked the puffy-cloud mid-day viewing we were treated to. We passed the rest of our time in Agra visiting a different Red Fort (complete with warring packs of monkeys), where Shah Jahan spent the last years of his life imprisoned and gazing across the river at his architectural masterpiece.

Our transit to and from Agra was as hellish as the sightseeing was wonderful. I had booked train tickets a month earlier (2nd class a/c), but we found ourselves departing Delhi in an un-airconditioned and overcrowded car. After too many confusing discussions with unhelpful railway and ticket agents (all of whom, conveniently, spoke only a very little English), one of our fellow passengers explained that the particular car we were all supposed to ride had broken and was replaced with this significantly less comfortable substitute (how a single car in the middle of a train breaks was never fully explained). We were, of course, entitled to a refund of the cost difference between our original tickets and the class we ended up taking. It would be well spent on non-sweat-soaked clothes when we arrived.

Wary now, of the vagaries of the Indian rail system, we arrived an hour early for our return trip...to deal with any car substitutions. Instead, our train was delayed. And then delayed further. And then again. Until we had spent four hours on a platform being continually harassed by beggars, unruly children, and rats. Without an end to the waiting in sight, and with Independence Day and its threatened violence fast approaching, we convinced the tourist office to wake up a taxi driver to drive us the four hours back to Delhi on the more reliable highways.

After the excitement and terror of Agra, we spent our last day in India relaxing. Each of us took advantage of the hotel spa to enjoy some massage therapy, a cool swim in the pool, to lounge around in bathrobes, reflect on the journey, and pack for the long flight back to California.