Agra and Taj Mahal

Sure enough, our driver, Rajeev, was there to get us in the morning. We loaded up our stuff and started driving to Agra, which would take about 4 hrs. It took almost an hour just to get out of Delhi. Slumdog Millionaire is pretty accurate when it shows the little kids coming to beg at the car window when they see that you’re a tourist. It’s sad but you have to just ignore them. One time when we pulled over to pay a tax or something, there were a couple guys with monkeys that would do tricks. We took a picture and they got pretty mad when we didn’t want to tip them as much as they wanted. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful and went by fast because there is so much to look at.

But just as I was thinking that all of the stray dogs do a really job of staying out of the street, the car in front of us hit one. Rajeev must have seem the traumatized look on my face, because he said “that’s why I don’t speed.” After that I started seeing a lot of dead dogs on the road. Sad.

Besides the dogs, a lot of times there will be cows on the highway…either in the median, walking in a lane, or crossing all 4 of them. Same thing with pigs and goats. I haven’t seen one single cat since I’ve been here though.

After we checked into our hotel, our first stop was Akbar’s Mausoleum, a giant sandstone and marble tomb that honors the greatest of the Mughal emperors. It was pretty but really hot so we didn’t stay long. We went on to the real reason anyone goes to Agra, the Taj Mahal. Our trip included a guide, so we picked him up and went to the Taj. It was kind of surreal to be there and it’s even more impressive in person. It’s made entirely of marble and has gem stones set in designs in the walls. Our guide was unenthusiastic but informative and took good pictures of us. He kept making Katy do this weird crossed arms pose but he never made me do it and we’re not sure why. I was glad though, haha. I don’t want all my Taj pictures looking like school yearbook pictures.

Since that took up most of the afternoon, we went back to the hotel for dinner. Before dinner we went up to the roof to look at the view. We thought we heard and saw people shooting off fireworks but they were pretty crappy. The next day we found out it wasn’t fireworks.