India: October 26

Destination: OM (Operation Mobilization)
Team: Aaron Bailey, Luke Greenaway, Tim Barley, Adam Burke
Duration: October 18-28, 2009
Assignment: Education, Encouragement, Evangelism, Adventure
Today’s Log: October 26
Submitted by: Luke Greenaway

Today we took a train from Delhi to Agra, home of the renowned Taj Mahal. After deboarding the train, we were swarmed by taxi drivers and we ended up renting an auto rickshaw (three wheel taxis which is like a covered motorcycle with a bench seat attached to it). The drivers offered to take us to the Taj Mahal and any other sites we wanted to visit in Agra for 500 rupees (approximately 10 bucks) for the entire day. It sounded like a good deal to us and so we hired them. We arrived at the south gate of the Taj Mahal and as it came into view, we understood why people travel from all over the world to see it.. It truly was a magnificent site. The ruler who had the Taj Mahal built did so as a tribute to his deceased wife. She had died from medical complications after giving birth to the couple’s 14 child. Aaron kept commenting about how deeply he must have loved her to have built such a monument.

Our drivers took us to lunch and we enjoyed fine Indian cuisine (butter chicken, naan, basmati rice, roti, and other Indian delicacies). Afterward, we were taken to a bunch of shops around Agra where merchants pandered marble, carpets, jewelry, and textiles. We soon realized that our taxi drivers were probably getting kickbacks from all the places we were visiting!

Finally, we visited the Red Fort (or Agra Fort), another big tourist attraction in Agra, The walls were huge and the views spectacular, but the most fascinating attraction for us was the monkeys that roamed wild around the courtyards. We took a lot of pictures and made a lot of memories, and met some great people, but man, we were beat by the time we got on that train back to Delhi! We’d covered a lot of ground and it was nice to nap on the train. A driver from the hotel picked us up at the Delhi train station and took us back to the hotel. In no time, we were all in bed, anticipating the trip back to Hyderabad and ultimately, home.