Yesterday, Anita told me they needed to work from their home office and that I should work at the hotel. It was nice to have a day to work further on the Conserve India succession plan, and catch up on email and rest. I also spent part of the day moving rooms due to ants in the bathroom and a leaky shower.
Today, they were going to work from home again, and Anita encouraged me to go sightseeing. So, I booked a tour of the Taj Mahal. A driver picked me up at the hotel at 6:00 a.m., and we started out into the early morning Delhi fog. After a stop for gas, an unexplained stop in a neighborhood, and another twenty-minute stop only explained by “Okay, sir, paper check,” we were off into what I could only presume was the direction of Agra and the Taj Mahal. At home in a familiar environment, I feel like I’m in control or at least I hold to that illusion. But today, all I could think was “Ok God, I’m in your hands.” They could take this clueless American anywhere.
We traveled for the next few hours through farmland mostly being worked by hand, with the occasional use of a tractor, donkey, cow, or camel. I noticed the contrast in visibility from Colorado.
To illustrate, here is a typical Colorado sky.
And here is the Indian countryside.
I also noticed that many of the trucks have "horn please" painted on the back. Unlike in the US, apparently the polite thing to do is honk when you are passing someone. Mystery solved.
We picked up my tour guide in Agra, and made our way through the traffic to the Taj Mahal.
The Taj was truly magnificent and worthy of being one of the wonders of the world. My guide informed me that it was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during the birth of their 14th child. It took 20,000 workers 22 years to build it. Frankly, that seemed fast to me. It is made entirely of marble with precious stones inlaid into it. Here are some photos:
After the Taj, the tour continued with some unsolicited stops at local merchants. I learned more about how the Taj was built from the descendants of its workers.
Somewhat begrudgingly, I spent more than I had planned on some souvenirs knowing that I had paid way too much. But, I felt better after a nice lunch. The next pictures are for my daughter Sydney, who always asks me what I eat when I travel.
We took some quick stops at the Red Fort and “Baby Taj,” and then I was ready to head back to Delhi.
As we entered the city, I notice a girl walking in traffic at a stoplight. She looked about 11 years old, the same age as my oldest daughter. She wandered blankly from car to car to beg, and seemed almost too weak to raise her arm to tap on the glass. I was no longer concerned with how much I had spent on souvenirs.
This is amazing!
ReplyDeleteFascinating Darren. So glad you are experiencing this, and thanks for sharing it with us.
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