Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Golden Triangle - Agra

Delhi - Agra:

After we overslept (our alarm clock didn't go off) and having almost all off the staff at the hotel (Hotel Grand Park Inn - Delhi) trying to wake us as we almost missed breakfast, we got ready and met our driver, Bhanu and our travel companion, Rajesh (or Raj in short) in the lobby.  They were understanding as we apologized and at long last we were on the road to Agra.  Raj was a blessing to have in the car with us as Bhanu's English was "slowly, slowly" as he described it.  I had a long line of questions Raj could answer and he explained a lot about religion, marriages, women's roles in India, the driving habits in India, the strange decorations in and around or under all the cars and trucks and a bit of the politics and history of the Singhs and Maharajas which fascinated me immediately.  But later about all the facts.

Halfway to Agra we were told the road is blocked, but Bhanu took a chance and we drove on.  Big message boards across the very neat and quiet highway displayed messages that we didn't fully understood:  "Villagers something something the road." Blocking the road it seemed.  Raj and Bhanu also wasn't keen to explain even though Rajesh's English was very good.  The rest of the highway was dead empty as all other vehicles weren't taking the chance and left us with a deserted, almost ghostly clean road.  As we came to the blockade, the soldiers let us through.   Women in beautiful, bright saris were huddled together, in a circle, in the middle of the road.   Rajesh then explained  that someone was run over and all the villagers came to the road to pay their respects (and to show their dismay).  It was beautiful and sad to see at the same time.  Beautiful because of all the bright, beautiful saris, sad because of the death surrounding them.

We saw a lot of women walking barefoot in the road and Raj explained that the day we arrived in India was the last day of one of the Hindu festivals where pilgrimage to the temples takes place. 

Agra

Agra is situated on the banks of the river Yamuna.  Nothing seemed to be completed.  Agra seemed like a pile of rubble but with a twist.  Waiting in traffic I got a chance to take some pictures of the locals:
















The Agra Fort, one of the three UNESCO world heritage sites in Agra: 





With a beautiful view of the Taj Mahal:


Next stop the Taj Mahal...

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