Wednesday, December 15, 2010

So begins one of the worst and best days of my entire life. Today we left Delhi at 6:30 AM to head for Agra, which is the site of the Taj Mahal, by car. The trip there was pure hell, and there have been few times that I have been that miserable in my life. I’m not sure I can possibly explain it in words, my pictures and video might do it justice. There was endless traffic and people. Everywhere you look, there are people. Imagine driving through west Texas, and every possible nook or cranny or horizon or random place you think someone cannot possibly be, there are people standing there. The distance is equivalent to driving from Houston to Austin, except there are people and cars and camels and carts and tractors literally on the highway, in your way. There is no such thing as right of way here. The fastest we went was probably 40 mph, and that only lasted 10 minutes or so. 

Half horse half cow animal

Looking out the window

We had to go through a tollbooth early on in the trip. I have never seen so much selfishness and cut-throat driving in my life. There were about 5 lines to go through the toll, and it was going slow but moving. A man driving a cement truck was waiting in the middle line. To his left, he saw that a car had not scooted up all the way to the next car, and saw an opening. Rather than wait an extra minute to get through his own line, he took his truck and wedged it in the opening, his back end still blocking his original line. Once he did that he realized his truck was too big to fit through, and the man he cut off became angry and scooted up so he couldn’t back up. The man behind him in his original line, which was the line we were in, did the same. Now, even after all this, someone could have gotten out and helped everyone back into their original spots. But instead, the drivers in the farthest left line started pulling in front of the cement truck because he could not move forward to the toll and he created an opening. This kept going for about ten minutes, with each driver trying to be the first through the tolls. Finally the cement truck driver was able to pull through the opening and we moved again. I was so angry and frustrated I nearly screamed. I mentioned to Anup I had never seen such selfishness in my life, and he said that in New York it’s exactly the same. That’s why I love Texas.

Halfway there, we came to a temple that thousands of people were trying to get into. It caused a traffic jam of Biblical proportions, and it lasted 2 hours. Our driver tried to take a shortcut around it, and we ended up in worse traffic than before because everyone tried to take the same shortcut. Then we had to wait in traffic to get back to our original traffic. A car got into a wreck, and a crane had to lift him out because nobody could get to him. A man in the crowd going to the temple died from exhaustion, literally right in front of us. By this time I had begun to zone myself out and had my hat over my eyes, but Anup saw the whole thing. He died and then the people just picked him up like a doll and took him away.

Temple traffic

When we got out of the traffic jam, we had to stop at another toll booth. This was probably the lowest point of the whole trip to India for both Anup and I. Our driver pulled off to the side of the road near the tollbooth, in order to go make change. None of us had the correct change for the toll, and apparently they won’t make any change for you. In India, a common scam is that a person you are paying or buying something from will claim that they do not have change for your larger bill. Since obviously you cannot pay for less than the asking price, they will say that they will have to just keep the extra money since they cannot make change. Do not believe people who say this, and if they still insist on not having change, just walk away. If they actually do not have any change they will not pursue you, if they do they will come after you and act like they suddenly found some money. 

Anyway, our driver got out of the car to go find someone with smaller bills. After he had walked a good distance from our car, a group of men approached our vehicle. They looked very suspicious and did not seem to have good intentions. One of the men had a monkey tied to a leash, and as he walked up to the car, the monkey jumped on top of our car. Anup was so amazed that he took a picture of it. Big mistake. As soon as he did that the guy began banging on the windows of our car demanding money for the picture we took of his monkey. When I say banging, I mean he was literally hitting the windows hard enough to bust the glass. We locked all the doors and ignored him, which made him even more angry and he began hitting the windows harder. Anup started screaming at him in Hindi, and then deleted the photo in front of him so he could see we did not want to keep it (I found out later Anup actually did not delete the photo). At this point the man tried to open Anup’s door. When that happened, I saw Anup start to make a fist because I think he had made the decision these guys were going to jump us, and our driver was nowhere to be seen. I just wanted to close my eyes and be home in Texas, I was fed up with India at this point and had reached my “wall”. A situation like this is so much different in the U.S. than in India. In the states I can dial 911 to get police help, I would probably have some sort of weapon on me, and I would not have to worry about being dragged away to some Indian torture camp to never be heard of again (I don’t mean to scare anyone, but these places exist). Nobody will find you if you disappear off the side of some remote Indian highway. Thankfully, our driver finally returned, the men dispersed, and we continued on our way. I would like to apologize in advance as this is the only video that I have posted in which I have cursed.

After this ordeal, we went to a diner off the highway that is known to be safe for foreigners. We were shell shocked from the previous experience, and needed to regroup. We ordered vegetable sandwiches and chai teas, and Anup called his dad. He did not tell him what had just happened because he did not want him to be worried.

We left the diner and continued on our way. The “3 hour” trip to Agra took almost 7 hours. It was the most terrible car ride I have ever been on. I reached a point closer to Agra where I just let go. I had no fight left in me to keep battling against this place. I put Bob Marley on my iPod, pulled my hat over my eyes, relaxed myself and I closed my eyes. When I woke up we were in Agra. It was a very powerful experience to go from feeling so incredibly overwhelmed, homesick, and just sick of everything around me to feeling this overwhelming sense of peace and acceptance. I think every foreigner who comes to India will agree that once you reach the “wall”, you either have to go home, or you have to let go and change as a person. I would love to say that this was the only “wall” I hit in India, but there were at least 2 or 3 times during my trip that I experienced this, each time having to go through the same process.

As hellish as the ride to Agra was, the Taj Mahal made the whole thing worth it in my mind. The sheer size, beauty, and intricacy of the Taj Mahal cannot be justly described in words. Everything you see has some sort of symmetrical counterpart, everything is built out of beautiful white stone with mosaic designs carved into them and filled with beautiful gemstones. Honestly there are just not words, so I will not spend much time on the place. All I can say is, if you go to India, please go to this place. I found out that there is a train that goes from Delhi to Agra, so as long as you can get a first class ticket, I highly recommend this over driving. No traffic to worry about when you are on a train, and it’s much more comfortable.

Entrance gate to Taj Mahal

Passing through the gate

Me and Anup

Money shot

Close up

Looking up at one of the 4 towers

Behind the Taj Mahal

Entrance to the Taj Mahal

After spending a few hours at the Taj Mahal, we left to go to the workshop where the original stones for the Taj Mahal were made, and where the same stones are still made for private sale. The place was amazing and we videotaped one of the workers carving out the white stone called Macrana and cutting the gemstones to match. Afterwards the factory owner gave us a tour of his adjacent shop where they sold the items they were producing in the factory. They had an amazing, but overpriced selection. While the prices were too high in my opinion, I knew that I would never again have a chance to buy carvings of that level of skill or authenticity in my lifetime. I bought a bird carving for my mom. The shop owner was incredibly pushy, first acting like our best friend, then all of a sudden asking us to buy things incessantly. As I said, I only bought due to the once in lifetime opportunity. Anup also bought a carving. We bargained down the price quite a bit before agreeing to buy.

We went to 2 other shops after the stone factory, our tour guide took us there. We did not buy anything else, the shops were extremely touristy. I had read before coming to India that tour guides work with shop owners, they take tourists to certain shops to get the foreigners to spend their money, and in return they get a cut from the shop owners. This was obviously happening to us, so we said we had no interest in buying anything else in Agra. We tipped our tour guide, grabbed some food, and left Agra. On the way out we saw another dead person being carried through the streets. This man was wrapped in cloth and was carried on a stretcher, I’m guessing it was a funeral service.

The trip back to Delhi took about 5 hours and was much less eventful than the trip to Agra. I slept and/or zoned out almost the entire way back. Zoning out is quite an amazing skill I’ve learned here, almost meditative in nature. I can literally make my brain lose track of time by focusing on nothing. It really became a necessary skill for my sanity. The sheer number of people and the bustling activity around me is mind boggling.

When we got back to the hotel I took one of the best showers of my life, and passed out cold. My video reflection of the day is below (warning, I am very tired and unshaven....aka not at my best)