The Taj Mahal

This post long overdue, and there's a lot of "story" to cover so I'll try and condense as much as possible.

The trip was amazing - well worth it. I (Alex) expected to be underwhelmed, but got much more than I bargained for. It's nice when things work out like that, especially here.

The trip started out on a bad note when we arrived at the airport and realized, that we had forgotten all of the travel information and arrangements including our e-tickets. We already had limited time before our flight so we were pretty rushed. Not a good thing when you are dragging two grumpy toddlers along.

Our flight left early Friday morning, and for those of you unfamiliar with not-enough-sleep Noah, he is pretty impossible to deal with in that state. That, along with the travel info mishap, had all of us a bit crabby. Part of dealing with not-enough-sleep Noah is giving in to some of his demands and letting his head clear. One of those demands that morning was actually quite reasonable - to pull one of our small carry-on bags. Rather than risk a temper tantrum, we gave in.

He took off running to keep up, only to trip and fall twice before we even got out of the parking lot. Luanne's mom tried repeatedly to take the bag from him but he insisted on pulling it. As we were rushing to the ticket counter, we looked back and he had fallen again. It must have been the last straw for him, because he just laid there on the ground where he fell.

Assuming he was faking, we called for him to get up and follow us, but he didn't move. After about 20 seconds we started to wonder if he really was hurt, and I (Alex) ran to get him, but not before a nice Indian woman scooped him up first. Still, the little thespian remained totally limp with eyes closed. I took Noah from the woman, but after a few seconds she grabbed him right back.

Of course quite a crowd was around us by now, and Noah still hadn't made a move. All of about 90 seconds had elapsed since the fall. The woman, still clutching Noah, proceeded to splash water from bottle on his face. He still didn't move, and the woman and her friends were getting more and more anxious. Finally, after one of them started slapping Noah's cheeks, and he finally opened his eyes to peek out. Seeing the sheepish look on his face, we quickly realized that the whole thing was a rouse. We thanked our helpers, grabbed Noah, and ran.

The flight to Delhi was miserable. The kids must have saved up all their angst on our previous flights just for this special occasion. Luckily it was only three hours. There was a time, about two months ago, when I couldn't imagine a three hour flight with the kids. Now it's child's play (no pun intended).

In India, the government controls the star-rating that hotels are classified by. To call yourself a 5-star hotel you have to have so many rooms, a pool, multiple restaurants, and the list goes on. For this trip we booked 3-star hotels partly to save a little money and partly for the experience. There was a little uncertainty, however, when we got to our hotel and the view down the street looked like this:

When we got inside it was very nice, and most importantly it was clean. Disaster averted.

We had lunch and went for a guided tour of Delhi. We saw India Gate, the Lotus Temple, Mahatma Gandhi's memorial, the presidential palace, and a few other odds and ends. Micah only had to be escorted out of restricted areas by armed soldiers twice, but luckily it was the same soldier both times.

At the end of the day, we went back to the hotel which was actually a really neat area with a huge market. Luanne and I both had such terrible headaches that we didn't manage to get out and explore.

The next morning, we left bright and early for Agra for the Taj Mahal, which is about a five hour drive. You end up crossing three states - Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. At the border of each state you're treated with beggars tapping on your windows, and trained monkeys on leashes jumping on your car. The boys loved it, but it's definitely a "locked door" situation.

On the way there we stopped at the site of Akbar's Tomb, and we all needed a break at this point so it worked out really well. Unfortunately, it was my (Luanne) first (and hopefully last) experience with an eastern toilet. Besides the fact that I was using a hole in the ground, it was also one of the most repulsive bathrooms I have been in, ever. After walking out, a man standing off to the side motioned to me to pay him. I was so stunned not only by the filth, but by the fact that I was paying someone for the use of something so vile, I couldn't even protest...then he had the nerve to ask for more money from my mom!

As we were leaving the tomb, some peddlers selling their wares swarmed us. My mom bought a few necklaces and started to walk back the the vehicle. Apparently unsatisfied with the sale, they continued to harass her. Sensing my Mom wasn't going to come right out and tell them to leave her alone, and completely fed up with their antics, Alex ran at them and screamed "Get back!" This must not happen very often, because everyone, the peddlers included, stopped what they were doing and just stared at him. I'm not sure if I have ever heard Alex yell quite that loud, or sound quite that menacing. But they jumped back and left my mom alone so it did the trick.

Next we went to our hotel in Agra and had some lunch. It was in just as sketchy an area as the Delhi hotel, and it turned out to be just as nice, if not a little nicer. The Taj was really close to our hotel, and we were even able to ride in a horse-drawn buggy from the motorized vehicle parking lot to the entrance itself. That was by far the highlight of the trip for the kids.

The security around the entrances is pretty strict. You can't take much more than a camera bag in, and definitely nothing sharp or hard that you could use to deface the marble or dig out inlays with.

I (Alex) don't think I have the words to describe how magnificent the Taj Mahal itself was. The scale, precision, and workmanship of it all is really beyond comprehension.

That being said, it was humorous (and eventually obnoxious) that while we were at one of the most incredible structures in the world, people were literally lined up to take pictures of our blond-haired kids. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that over the course of the day there were 100 pictures taken of the kids. If I would have charged 1 rupee per picture, I'd have made well over $2.

At one point Micah had had enough, and pushed over a woman that had knelt down next to him for a snapshot. Then he sat on her. Luckily (for her) she was good natured.

After the Taj we were all beat, so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.

The drive back to Delhi the next day was pretty uneventful, except for one thing - now known as the monkey incident.

When we got to Delhi the driver pulled over to the side of the road so we could take a picture of some monkeys. I was really indifferent, but they were cute, so I thought I might as well. When I rolled the window down, IT happened. We were hit by an other-worldly stench that until that moment, I couldn't even imagine existed. It was so thick in the air it was almost smothering. But smells really don't bother me, so I said something about smelly monkeys and took a couple pictures. Meanwhile, Luanne is in the back of the SUV with Micah sleeping on her. She's gagging and dry-heaving, trying to shove her nose into Micah's hair to mask the smell. It seemed like a good time to roll the window up, so I did, and told the driver "Man, those are some smelly monkeys." He pointed to a big pump truck in front of us and said "sewer". It turns out they were pumping pure, unadulterated, raw sewage either into or out of the pipes right in front of us. Marvelous!