Sunday, August 16, 2009

August 15th - Road Trip to Taj Mahal






























































On Saturday the 15th we checked out of our lovely hotel in Jaipur and hired a cab to drive us to Agra, which is where the Taj is and then on to Delhi in the same night. We wanted to use our hotel driver that we had grown fond of, but the hotel quoted us a price of $400 US for the trip, and I found a cab agency in Jaipur that quoted us $100 US.

Our driver was a tiny, tiny little man that can fit in the palm of your hand. He has a tiny voice, and his very timid. I was sort of second guessing my choice to go for the cheap option when he picked us up. The suv we had been riding around in was replaced with a stinky, dirty, tiny car. Our driver didn't speak a drop of English, which made communication impossible considering we don't speak hindi! His boss had told him we wanted to go to Taj Mahal in Agra and then on to Delhi, so that is what we got.

The journey to Agra was 4 and a half hours by car. We saw the countryside of India and the small towns. I have never had such an interesting drive before. Normally a 4 hour drive makes me fall asleep, but not on this drive. Driving through India is like driving through people's houses. Since people live outside and by the road, and I mean all up and down the roads, you see people living. I can't count the times we've seen men peeing, naked children playing by the road, women washing up the pans, people putting out their beds to sleep, etc. India is truly a 3rd world country, and I honestly can't imagine a dirtier or poorer place on Earth. You just don't drive out of the poverty, homelessness, and trash. It's always there. It's everywhere. Seeing women carrying everything they own on their head, children playing games with nothing more than sticks, body deformities, and naked babies is not something you drive to see, it's just everywhere.

On our way out of Jaipur we stopped at McDonalds. I left Daniel with our luggage and went in on my own. Imagine going to McDonalds and walking through trashy, muddy, water that you know is full of pee and poop. Imagine having 20 children begging you for money by putting their hands to their mouths when you walk in. Imagine people living on the sidewalks in front of it. I saw two little girls begging for food at the window when I was standing in line. The security guard ran them off. I bought a large fry to give to them on my way out because they were close to our car. On my way to the car those two girls along with a few other were on my feet and surrounding me begging for food. I knew to wait until I got our food and drinks in the car and myself first or else I would have been mobbed. Once I got in I handed the fries out the window to the two little girls. They snatched them up and ran. I looked out and 4 little girls had a death grip on the fries and no one would let go. They were screaming and fighting and the fries were being destroyed. Then a mother or woman came over and grabbed the fries from the kids. Then the tiniest little girl with only one eye started crying hysterically. She was so broken hearted and didn't get one fry out of the deal. I got so mad that the woman took them from her that I lost my better judgement and opened the car and told her to come back to the car. I then gave her a handfull of my fries to put in her mouth. Then the others were beating at the window, so I gave each girl a handfull at a time. They were ripping them out of my hands and stuffing them in their mouths. Then the mean woman came and stuck her hand in the car and things got out of control and the driver scolded me and told roll up the window. Someone had already yanked the fries out of my hand at that point anyway. At least that poor little girl got a few fries. This is what makes it hard to help anyone. If I could just go in and get a shake to hand to a couple of kids that would be great, but it's impossible. It will cause a riot. You just can't help everyone and therefore you can't really help anyone.

Anyway back to our day trip. We arrived in Agra to see the Taj Mahal and upon parking were swamped with people trying to hustle us for business. We were told we needed a driver to get us from the parking lot to the enrance to Taj. A young man told us that he would need to be our guide and help us, and he seemed to be helpful so we allowed it. As we got out of the cab 3 men were yelling "Take this one!" The guide said that we would need to pick between the camel and cart, the rickshaw, and the buggy. They were all so desperate and were yelling over and over again... "Pick me! Pick me!" They had desperate looks in their eyes. I didn't want to make this decision. You would think that a place like the Taj Mahal would be far away from this, but the Taj is right in the middle of the same poverty that covers the rest of India. Only the gates separate it. We didn't need any of the drivers to get us from the cab to the gate, but it only cost about $2 US regardless of which one we chose. I was starting to panic and told Daniel to make the decision and he chose the buggy. The buggy drove us about one football field's distance, LOL, before we had to get out and walk the rest of the way to the gate. Now this stretch of walk was grueling because we were surrounded on all sides by people begging us to buy t-shirts, souveniers, etc. They litterally surround you and talk non stop. It doesn't matter that you ignore them or say no. Finally we bought our tickets and made it inside the gates and away from the crazyness!!!

I regretted the decision to allow the guide to follow us around because he talked too much and wanted to tell us every piece of history and detail of the building, and on and on and on and on. And then every time I tried to take a picture he grabbed the camera and wanted to take it for me. He wasn't even very good, and I like to set my camera up on self timer and take my own pictures of Daniel and me. I do it best, and I don't like to rely on other people. He kept grabbing it and because of him, I don't have any really good pictures of Daniel and me together at the Taj.

Now that I'm finished complaining I will say that when we walked through the arch and got the first glimpse of the Taj Mahal in person it was like walking into Heaven. It literally looked as if it were floating in the blue sky. It's so majestic and beautiful! Because the 15th is India's Independence Day it was the busiest day of the year at the Taj. I finally told the tour guide to just go away for a little bit and let us take it in and enjoy it for awhile. He said he needed to tell me some more stuff first, and I had to be rude and tell him that I really didn't care to know anymore. I tried dropping hints for 30 minutes, so enough was enough already! Then we got to sit together and enjoy our moment at the Taj Mahal:)

After finishing our tour and buying a not so good picture from a photographer that hit us up, we were off to Delhi. The first couple of hours were eventful. Since it is monsoon season there were some detours that made me very nervous for a few moments. We went off road and drove through places that I though we would get stuck in. We were driving through places that seemed dangerous in the way that it would be easy for the town people to hijack us. On that note, I must say that the one thing that fascinates me most is how well behaved the poor are here. It's like there is an understood boundary. The only people that ever touch you while begging are children, but the adults never cross the line. I also want to add that while poor and homeless people are everwhere and beggers are everywhere, the majority of the poor and homeless are not out begging in the street. The majority of them seem accept their way of life and smile at us as we pass, even though we are rich in their eyes and they are eating scraps off the ground, they still have pleasant looks for us.

I don't know if I wrote about Kharma and Dharma yet. The hindus believe in Kharma, meaning if they are poor they believe it is because of the actions of their life or of their past lives and therefore they deserve whatever they get and have no way of getting any better of a life. If you believe you can't have better because you don't deserve and are not allowed it, then you aren't going to try to change anything. Dharma is the belief that you have to accept your Kharma and fate without complaining. If you are to have a better life next time then you have to accept your status in the current one and be good. This is why they don't steal much or fight much or mug much. I'm sure all of these exists, but I have walked down many a street with a purse full of cash looking like the rich in their eyes and they have never made me feel threatened.

Back to the drive... We had to stop on the side of the highway once to pay some sort of state tax. I didn't understand it, but the cab driver was the one that went to the booth to pay. Meanwhile I made a kind of bad decision. An old Indian man that was dressed like a shephard came up and knocked on our window. I looked out and he had two monkeys. I love monkeys! I knew what he wanted. He wanted money in exchange for a pictures. One of the monkeys had a baby on it too. So I got out of the car and went to sit by the monkey, but one of the other poor Indian men told me to get off the road and go to the other side where it was safer. Then I kneeled down and the monkey hit me! Luckily I was wearing sleeves because her claws would have broke skin if I hadn't. This could have been a very bad thing! The cab driver saw what happened and yelled at me to get back in the car. It wasn't that big of a deal really, it's just that once I payed the monkey man, swarms of others came running. I learned my lesson... stay in the car when the cab driver tells you to.
Once when we went through a toll booth our driver tried to cut in front of a huge bus and the bus told him no. The driver tried anyway and the bus ran over us. Fortunately it only smashed in the front right fender and spared the tire.

Now it was getting dark, and the drive became boring and I fell asleep. Then I woke up to loud Indian music, people yelling, cars surrounding us on every side for a long way. We had drove into an Indendence Day festival. The streets were lined with people for as far as you could see and they were all so happy. No matter how poor they were, they were there and they were celebrating! The funny thing is there was nothing going on but people being together and happy. No fireworks, no big shows, just music, horns, laughter, and smiles!

We drove past the festival in a matter of minutes and the rest of the night was misery! It took hours and hours to get to Delhi, and once we finally made it our driver wasn't familiar with Delhi and couldn't find our hotel. He drove around for at least an hour asking one person on the street after another, and even though everyone gave him directions, I don't think anyone really knew. I was about to lose my mind as it was 1:30 am and I hadn't eaten since that morning when we left Jaipur. We had him stop at a McDonalds (for directions, not food) and Daniel went in and got help. We made it to our hotel, and sent our tiny little drive on his way.

Delhi made a terrible first impression because the part of town we were in last night smelled like sewer so badly. When we got to our hotel my heart sank because the lobby smelled like sewer too. We got to our room and my heart sank again. It was tiny, dingy, dirty, and the air conditioning was a window unit. I wouldn't even take a shower without wearing flip flops, so I told Daniel we wouldn't unpack and we'd sleep here and leave first thing in the morning. He wasn't upset like me and was fine with it all, but I wasn't having it. I couldn't get the internet to work in the room and neither could the hotel staff, so I had to use their computer downstairs to book a new hotel for our next two nights in Delhi. I went with a 5 star this time, which is where I am tonight!!!!!!!! WooHoo, it's awesome here:)

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