Agra

We arrived in Agra mid a.m. after a 2 hr train ride -- breakfast provided. Our driver was there to greet us -- he had left Delhi at 4 a.m. to get there before us. We went to the hotel where our travel agent had booked us. It was in a scruffy commercial district. Apparently a new building but built up to the edge of its lot and flanked by buildings on either side so that there was little light through the inoperable window in each room. We were then shifted to a room on the other side of the hall, the window of which was about 2 feet from the adjacent building -- admitted more light but was inoperable. We made do and took a much needed rest, having arisen at 4 a.m.

We then visited the Taj Mahal -- accompanied by a professional guide friend of the driver -- at no cost to us, we were assured.

The Taj was everything and more than we had anticipated. Gorgeous beyond belief. Its white marble sheathing glowed in the sunlight. The Taj is a mausoleum with no other function and is set in a large walled park on the river’s edge complemented by other smaller buildings. The interior of the Taj is decorated with semi-precious stones inlaid in marble -- otherwise not very interesting.

We were then taken to the obligatory shop -- apparently the guide’s payment. Tom spent $20.

The next day we drove to Jaipur, the third city of the golden triangle. The drive took about 5 hours but offered lots of entertainment. Many people were living next to or near the road and there were a number of local markets there as well. In one instance a wedding procession held up traffic for about 10 minutes, Farm carts drawn by camels were quite common plus herds of sheep and goats.

Our hotel was in a walkable neighborhood and designed to mimic the style of one of the Sikh temples - bright yellow exterior, with crenelations, concrete, but decorated to mimic wood. The rooms were large and colorful and the bath worked. We used the rooftop restaurant for our 2-day stay, from where we got clear views of the city.

The streets in Jaipur were in the worst repair than any large city I’ve been in -- except perhaps Tver in Russia some 15 years ago. The air pollution was as palpable as that of Delhi and the traffic also comparable.

The next day we went to the Pink City, a walled-in area of maybe 100+ acres. It was built in the 18th & 19th centuries by a Maharaja who apparently tolerated his use of treasure for a showy self aggrandizing city. Tom had found a walking tour outline in the Lonely Planet guidebook, and we immediately got lost looking for the beginning. We climbed into a bicycle powered rickshaw thinking that certainly the driver would know the landmark that marked the beginning of the walking tour. He spoke no English and either he didn’t know or it didn’t exist, so he started us off on the 10 Rp tours he offers all tourists. When we realized this, we asked him to stop, and paid him his money, but he was very upset that we wouldn’t allow him to finish the tour. We gave up on finding the walking tour and were able to identify the key sights, which included a large bazaar, a world heritage site of Matar ______, a park like setting full of 17th solar observation instruments -- and were able to enjoy the rest of the morning.

While walking through a bazaar in the Pink City, we struck up a conversation with a businessman who said he owned a jewelry company. He told us of a women’s co-op made up of widows living in the countryside. Social norms prevented them from working outside their homes, so they produced goods in their homes that were marketed in a store in Agra. Later that day, we asked our driver to take us to this place. We were taken to a place a couple of miles from the center of town that identified itself as a coop. This place produced hand-blocked print fabrics; the young man, who spoke excellent English, said that the factory was indeed a co-op of 450 rural families -- not widows -- that his father had organized about 30 years earlier. As has been our experience in India (and in China), the handicraft shops follow a standard sales routine -- showing off the factory where workers make the product, then the sales room, then the bargaining. It ended up with both of us making modest purchases.`

That night , the rooftop restaurant provided entertainment in the form of 2 “musicians" who played a drum and a squeeze box and sang loudly and off key - Ravi Shankar they weren’t.

The next morning our driver picked us up and we headed back to New Delhi. This turned out to be an experience I would gladly pay a lot to avoid ever doing again. In contrast to the drive from Agra, this was tiring and boring. The highway was being expanded and under construction the entire trip that lasted about 5 hours. The highway was crowded with heavy trucks -- literally thousands of them -- crowding the roads, polluting the air, and causing slow downs and backups the entire trip. Ugh.