I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
After getting out of the hospital I checked myself into a ridiculously expensive hotel room, $25!!! a night. After paying under $8 for the last couple of months, it's hard to shell over the cash. I needed a clean room with air conditioning, sans the cockroaches for my week of recovery. The temperature is over 100 degrees and it's filthy, crowded and crazy in Delhi. "It's gettin', it's gettin', it's gettin kinda hectic," goes through my mind all day long. We decided to get out of the city and head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The girls made plans to rent an air conditioned car instead of take the train or bus for the 3-5 hour trip so that I could avoid hard traveling for a while longer. Thank you Ariella and Kenna.
We are lucky to be alive. Close call after close call. There are no lanes, no laws, no concept of safety and no consideration. It's not that they drive fast, it's that they drive like complete assholes. They pull out in front of each other, cut each other off and try to ram each other. Cars, camels, buses, horses, cats, dogs, ox carts, trucks, motorbikes, rickshaws, cows, tractors, scooters, women and children, bicycles, vans, beggars, donkeys, push carts, monkeys, transvestites, hawkers, ice cream carts and wagons...all fighting for the same two lanes of pavement. Then throw in a dust storm, rain, high winds and lightening for good measure. You can close your eyes but I'm not sure what good it does. Fear was definitely a factor for me.
The drive to Agra took five hours. It was 110 degrees in the sun. There were several moments before we arrived when Ariella and I could care less whether we saw the Taj feakin' Mahal but I'm glad we did. Like all world renown sites, pictures just don't capture the magnificence. It was spectacular and grand. The marble mausoleum was built by emperor Shah Jahan from 1630 AD to 1648 AD for his beloved wife. The name Taj Mahal is usually translated as "Crown of the Palace" and is an abbreviation of her name, Mumtaz Mahal. Supposedly, her last wish was that her husband build a tomb in her memory such as the world had never seen before.
The site was packed with Indian tourists who obviously had never seen a white person. The first time someone approached me and asked for a photo I assumed they were asking if I could take theirs. When I went to take their camera they explained that they wanted my photo. In the first ten minutes at the Taj Mahal I had fifteen people ask if they could take a photo of me or a photo with me. Families, couples, teenagers all approaching me, but it was mostly young men. I might as well have been Britney Spears, okay Sharon Stone, wait...Charlize Theron :) They were more captured by the westerners than by one of the seven wonders of the world. At one point a tall, handsome man asked if he could have his photo taken with me. He put his arm around my shoulder and I could feel him actually shaking. It was unbelievable. Then I noticed three other guys who had taken my picture earlier and were following me around. I turned and said hello and they asked if they could speak with me. They explained they were very nervous to talk to me. They were from a small village about 300 kilometers away and had never seen a white person in real life before, only on television. What do you say? I just can't describe what a weird feeling it was to be stared at and fawned over. I noticed several times, people hovering around me waiting to muster up the courage to ask for a photo.
On the way out another tall, handsome man approached me and after talking with him I learned he was working on a masters degree in computer science at the university of California. He asked to take a picture with me as well? Why? You live in California bro! Haven't you seen enough Americans? The strangest part about it was that we really didn't get much time to take photos of the Taj Mahal because we were too busy posing with everyone else.
Strange day. Strange country. Strange world.
