Day 7 through 8 of My Trip Through North India

The very last post about my days in North India. I know, this is a very long, long time in coming. This will also be a shorter post as we only have a full day in Agra and a half day in Delhi. So, onwards we go!

Day 7 - Agra

The entrance to the bounds at the Taj Mahal

We woke up early today, at about 6:00 a.m., to go and see the Taj Mahal! Whoo! It's the one thing most people think of when they think about visiting India, seeing this beautiful place. And I was able to do this! I loved visiting this place, and I'm really glad that, even though this wasn't specifically on my bucket list, it did happen!

Anyway, once we got there, we all had to pay to get in. It was actually kind of funny because I had several native Indians tell me to go stand in the citizens line. I really do seem to look like an Indian. :) When we paid for our tickets, we headed inside. The dawn was just starting to break, enough that we could see, but it was still slightly cool. Well, cool for India at least. Now, just be warned, all of my photos after this will have scores and scores of people in them, even at early in the morning.

This was one of the first photos that I took once we got in. This was at about 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. And yes, there are that many people there already. But the Taj. Just look at the Taj Mahal. It's beautiful! What's most interesting though, is that I never really know what it was. I never really knew what the Taj Mahal was, I just kind of assumed that it was a palace of some sort. It's not! It was actually built as a place of burial for a favourite wife of a Mogul Emperor. It's kind of  a romantic story. But it's actually pretty cool. Also, another random fact, the pillars that you see around the main building? They were built with a two degree lean outwards so that if something like an earthquake ever caused the pillars to fall, they wouldn't fall of the actual building. They would fall outwards. That's pretty cool.

So, the majority of our day was spent wander around the Taj Mahal, as well as just relaxing in the hotel room once we were done. So, I'm going to spam pictures now.

We wandered around everywhere while looking at all of building. It really is a magnificent building, and it was just so cool to go and be able to walk around the Taj Mahal as well as inside. You know how I told you earlier that it is the burial place for the favourite queen of a Mogul Emperor? Well, this guy loved symmetry, which is why it's all symmetrical like it is. But, when he died, his son, who was kind of pissed at him for spending all of the money on this building as well as on wars and other things, also buried his father with the wife, and now it's not symmetrical. At least on the inside it isn't. You go inside, and you look at the sarcophagi, one is right in the middle, and that one belongs to the wife. But you look to the side, and there is another one. It makes the inside completely unsymmetrical. It doesn't look bad, I just think that it's funny that the son would be so petty.

The Red Fort in Agra, India

So, yeah, once we were done at the Taj Mahal, and were making our way out, the line just to get it, snaked out and around the outside perimitter. It was kind of scary how many people were there after just a few short hours of us inside. And it was only about 10:00 in the morning. I kind of wish I had taken a picture, but it was still pretty awe-inspiring to see. When we got outside, we split into groups again. Steve, Jeannie, Kendra, Westen, and Jamie all went to explore the Red Fort, while Lizzie and Taylor went off somewhere else. I have no idea.

The Moonlight Gardens

Once we were done walking around, we headed back to the hotel. And basically just sat and vegged for the rest of the day in bed and with the TV on. That was great! Once we were all done resting of the day, those of us who went to the Red Fort headed back out. We were then headed to the Moonlight Gardens, which is a ground of gardens across the river from the back of the Taj Mahal. That was a pretty cool sight as well.

Jamie, myself, Kendra, and Jeannie all in our bed :)

After that we explored the gardens, we all headed out to dinner. It was a pretty damn good dinner as well. I normally wasn't much of a fan of the Indian food that we had while on this trip, both in South India and North India, but what we had that night at dinner was excellent! I loved it! If I could have any other kind of food from India again, it would be the food from that dinner that night.

After dinner that night, we all headed back to our hotel room and literally just crashed into bed. Till You've Got Mail was on TV. Then we got Jamie, Kendra, Jeannie, and myself into our bed and watched that movie. Seriously, one of the greatest chick flicks of all time, and I love it. That was a great way to end the day in Agra.

We then woke up the next day, and then caught the train to Delhi.

Day 7 - Delhi

Hard Rock Cafe in Delhi

Once again, we caught our last train to New Delhi. I took a nap. For being hot, unair-conditioned
sleeper car, they are actually quite excellent for naps. When we got there, we checked back into our first hotel, and then Kendra, Jamie, Steven, Jeannie, came with me to the mall where I could finally eat at the Hard Rock Cafe in Delhi! Whoo! That was very nice for them to come with me, as I had wanted to go the first time we were in Delhi earlier that week. And it was just so cool to be able to go to the Hard Rock in Delhi. When we were done there, we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

The view from our table in Hard Rock

The next morning, we literally just wandered around the city till it was time for our flight back to
Vizag. Once there, we visited this amazing place, where unfortunately we could take any pictures. Which kind of sucks. There were carvings of elephants EVERYWHERE! And it was just such a huge and large structure, and it was beautiful!

When we were done exploring, we still had a few hours till our flight, so we decided to wander around the little shops just to see what it is that we could find as some last minute gifts for everyone at the main house and for everyone back home. Then it was time to go back to Vizag. We caught an underground to the airport and we took off, heading back to Vizag.


If there is one thing that I could say about this trip, is that it was something that I never thought that I would ever be doing. I am so grateful to everyone who helped me come on this trip as well as everyone who supported me throughout this trip. My parents, my husband, my friends. Without them, I wouldn't have felt that I would be able to leave all that I know and am familiar with and live, literally, half-way across the world in a place unfamiliar to me.

I'll hopefully have more adventures to talk about more soon.

Talk to you later,
Ashley

Days 5 through 6 of My Trip through North India

So...days 5 through 6 of my trip through North India. Let me tell you, day 5 has been my favourite day. And I'm pretty sure once I explain why, you'll see why it's my favourite day! ;) And yes, I know, I'm way behind!

Day 5 - Jaipur

This was a great day! The first thing that we did was wake up super early to head to the Amber Fort! The reason for this was because we needed to get to the Amber Fort early so that we could RIDE ELEPHANTS UP TO THE FORT!!! Now that was pretty friken' awesome! We also had a pretty awesome rickshaw driver, well, two of them. The driver for the rickshaw that I was riding in, his

Amber Fort

name was Shampoo. *giggles* Shampoo! The reason for the name, he said, was because it was a nickname that he got when he was younger, for using to much shampoo when he washed his hair. He was a pretty cool guy, he was around my age, so about mid- to late-twenties, spoke excellent English, and knew a lot about a lot of things. I kind of wish I had a picture to show you, that's the one thing that I tend to forget to do, was take pictures of the people that I connected with.

Jamie and I on our elephant!

Anyway, we wake up early, catch our rickshaws and drive out to Amber Fort. Amber Fort is in Jaipur and is the one place where we could ride elephants! Now that was super cool! We actually got to ride elephants! Yes, the most super, cliché thing that someone could do in India, but it was still pretty awesome! And elephant rides only go in the morning for a few hours, which is why we needed to get there early in order to be able to get to the elephant rides. On our way up to Amber Fort, we actually started passing the elephants that would be used for the rides. We stopped and were able to touch and get close to them. They were big! And very gentle creatures too. We weren't all the way up to where we needed to be, so once we were done saying "hi" to the elephants, we climbed back into our rickshaws and finished driving our way up. We then got ready to ride the elephants up to the fort. That was pretty awesome!

Like I said, beautiful architecture...and Jeannie, of course.

Jamie and I on the elephant :)

When we got up to the fort, we all climbed out and started our time exploring the old fort. It was a beautiful fort, one that had a lot of awesome architecture. If there's one thing that I've grown to appreciate since my time in India, is that I love the way the buildings look and how they are shaped and just how it all looks. It's just beautiful! By the time we were done exploring the fort though, we were getting tired enough that we needed to sit, eat, cool down, and get something to drink. I swear I drank more water while I was in India than I had my whole life. Which is a very good thing, mind you. But still, a lot of water. Once we were done with recuperating from our trekking and exploring, we decided that we needed to head up to the next fort. There was a fort, above?, the Amber Fort. so we walked the "secret tunnel" to the fort that is above the Amber Fort called the Jaigrah Fort. The walk up to the fort was long and hot, but it was worth it for the amazing view! And the small breezes that came very so often also made it very enjoyable. The tunnel was cool to look at as well, but the view from the top of Jaigrah Fort was simply beautiful!

"Secret tunnel" :D

View from the Jaigrah Fort

If there's one thing that I will say about India, there is a lot of beauty in just some of the smallest of things, be it the amazing tunnels that were created to walk from fort to fort, or the view from the top to see the green, rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It's a wonderful place and it's a place that is beautiful to see. You can almost see what India would have been like when these forts would have been up and running. It's like stepping back in time.

Also, random thing, I GOT TO DRIVE A RICKSHAW! Shampoo, our rickshaw driver for the day, is a guy who is about our age, mid-20s, and he was a blast! And he let me drive his rickshaw! How many other people do you know can say that they drove a rickshaw from Amber Fort in Jaipur? Heck YEAH! ;D

After the forts, we headed down and went back to our hotel. We were able to relax and enjoy our last day in the hotel before we head for Agra the next day. We spent out last night in the hotel in Steve, Jeannie, and the boys' room watching BBC and just enjoying the time that we had in an air conditioned room.

Day 6 - Agra

This was the day that we headed to Agra and we all rolled out of the hotel and headed to catch our sleeper train to Agra. It was some time till we were able to actually get to our train, so we headed to check out this museum. It was an interesting place, as it was the palace, I think, of a man that just
wanted to collect the things he liked. It was a pretty cool place, but what interested me most about the museum was the Egyptology section. And I love looking at all the statues and mummies, and figures, and everything from Egypt. So this is the only part of the museum to have pictures, though I probably should have taken more, but you know, whatever. :)

When it came time for us to catch our train, we got on our train, a non-AC sleeper, and just sat in to ride on our way to Agra. One of the coolest things about this train ride was that I was able to get some cool pictures of the scenery out the window and the train door. And then I settled in to sleep for a few hours before we get to Agra. We were actually getting into Agra really late, so the nap on the train was good to have.

So, we get into Agra, and it's really late! Like, late enough that we all just want to eat and then collapse into our beds. We're set up into two rooms again, me and the girls in one room, with Steve, Jeannie, and the boys in the other room. We order Domino's Pizza, and literally just fall into bed and sleep. We had to get up early the next morning in order to get to the Taj Mahal! WHOO! But that is an adventure for another time.

Talk to you later,
Ashley