Delhi & The Taj

So our trip to Delhi & the Taj was great. It was awesome to spend the better part of 4 days with Apoorva. We have not been able to have that kind of time together because of all the traveling he's been doing. So not only did I get to visit an amazing national monument, I also got to spend some quality time with my hubby.

So on Thursday we got up early and caught our flight into Delhi. We checked into our hotel and I spent a few hours in the room using the high-speed internet and ordering room service while Apoorva went to a meeting. He came back early and we did some sight seeing. We saw was is called the India Gate, which is a memorial to all the soldiers from India who fought for the British in WWI.

Later that evening we met up with Apoorva's aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Delhi and went to dinner. They were all really nice and I'm happy that I got to meet them before we leave in January.

The next day Apoorva was supposed to have more meetings, but they were canceled, so we did more sight-seeing instead. We hired a rickshaw driver for the day and he took us around to all the major points. One of them was called the Red Fort. It's was huge with massive grounds. It has not been kept up very well, but you could still imagine what it must have looked like back when it was first build and used.

Here's a really funny picture. Outside the Fort where there were a bunch of small stands selling all sorts of stuff, there was a boy and his goat... with a coat! :-)


Later that evening we headed to the train station to catch the train we were taking to Agra. The train was 2 hours late, so we had to wait for awhile. The station itself was so dirty. There were stray dogs and rats picking at all the trash on the tracks. And there wasn't really a place to sit. That, along with the fact that everyone was staring at me, made for an uncomfortable 2 hours. But it was interesting anyway.

The train itself was ok. It was dirty, but we had our own sleeper room and it had AC. It was lucky we had a place to lay down because the train got in 4 hours late at 1:30 in the morning. All in all it was an ok experience. It probably would have been easier to get driven there, but since India is famous for it's trains I thought we had to do it at least once while we were here.


The hotel we stayed in was really nice. It was modeled after a palace, so it had a lot of gardens and fountains. Very beautiful. We slept in on Saturday, since we didn't get to sleep until 3 in the morning. We got to the Taj around noon. The Taj is amazing. Huge and gorgeous!!! The only thing I was disappointed in was that it was really foggy, so the pictures are not very clear. But it was an amazing experience.


What was really funny was that the entire time I was there random people were asking to take pictures with me, and one guy even asked for my autograph. Apoorva explained to me that a lot of the Indian tourists at the Taj are people from very rural parts of the country. This may be their one vacation that they take in their entire lives. Being from such rural areas means that they usually don't see white people, except on TV. So any white person becomes a celebrity. And since I was with Apoorva, they probably thought I was more accessible than other Western tourists.

After the Taj our guide took us to see the Agra Fort, which is very similar to the Red Fort, except this one has amazing palaces on the inside. On the way I saw my first elephant. After that we went back to the hotel. In the basement of the hotel they had a game room, complete with two bowling lanes, pool, and an arcade. We spent about 2 hours there, then went to bed. The next day we drove back to Delhi. On the way to the airport we stopped at his sister's house for "tea". We caught our flight and made it back to our place around midnight. It was such an amazing trip. I'm so happy we were able to do it before we left to go back to the states.

Here is my favorite picture from the trip of Apoorva and I in front of the Taj: