Day 34 The Road to Agra
January 8th, 2008 Tuesday
Up early – I have been catching up the blogging entries over the last few days. I am writing this on Tuesday January 8th at 5am so I am only a day behind at this point. This visit to India has been a whirlwind of sites and sensory overload. I have learned and experienced much. I can feel my perspective broadening with each day.
We still had no confirmation of our tickets to Cairo – did receive an email from our travel agent (Shonne) that she had a backup plan so I am hopeful we will reach Egypt as planned.
I am surprised at how difficult it has been to get internet access and to keep up with blogging. I think it is a by-product of trying to fit so much into this visit to India. Each segment from Delhi to Jaipur, Jaipur to Agra and Agra to Delhi is about 250km. That is about 6 hours of driving because of the road conditions.
I actually work on some blogs on the road today.
We travel through Rajasthan to another state – our drive pays a tax for operating the vehicle in this state. 650 rupees –the tax is 600, extra 50 to get the permits. That seems a lot per days.
Again I find to difficult to describe the conditions.
We have a planned stop at a fort called the "Ghost City". It was built in the 1500 for Akba The Great – and is abandoned due to lack of water. Many of the palaces are very well preserved. Akba is a very liberal leader – Muslim by birth but he keeps Hindi wives as well and the architecture mixes Muslim, Hindi, Jain and Buddhism together. It is an amazing site to visit. It is fun to imagine based on the set-up of the palaces how the people lived. In the back of my mind I realize that this represents a tremendously wealthy regime built on the backs of very poor citizens – I wonder how these regimes stay in power with such an imbalance of wealth. Our guide was waiting there for us and travelled back to Agra (20km) with us. He had escorted a group from Agra prior to our arrival.
Our driver Mr. Sing and I talk at length about politics – he is of the firm belief that politics are the root of evil – and that politicians are all corrupt. He has never voted in his life-time . He has lived through the assassination of Indira Ghandi = he said it happened very near his house – he was 12 and after that being a Sikh he was subjected to violence by others – it was a sikh bodyguard that killed Indira.
Overall I feel I am witnessing the emergence of a country and I see many flaws in systems of government. I wonder about the future and how these flaws can be addressed. I feel more strongly than ever that religion has no place in a government. I tell our driver about my dislike of religion in general as it leads to violence and judgment of others. I als admit my disbelief in god – he is shocked. Does not even know the word atheist.
It is interesting how many of the people we have met discuss how well educated they are but at the same time they are blind to many things. Their mythology that defines the gods to which they pray – Ganeesha – Elephant headed god – the monkey headed god – you can see how these have developed over the centuries – but nobody seems to ask to common sense questions. The belief in astrology is prevalent – signs and amulets – these things just do not align with what I would consider well-educated. How does where the sun is in the sky dictate anything about daily happenings?
There is superstition everywhere – we have seen a number of accidents on this journey – more than Mr. Singh has seen and he is worried – I believe he thinks we might be bad luck. He might even equate my religious beliefs to these accidents – of which we almost got into one today.
The roads here are insane – I have said it once and will continue to say it. The lack of traffic laws seems ridiculous. I can only imagine they do not define them as they cannot enforce them. I wonder how corruption has become so common place. I honestly believe in our police forces that corruption is the exception not the norm – here it seems to be the opposite.
There have been many roads and hotel and subway construction in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth games – I do not even know what these are!
Everywhere there are children playing cricket -I have seen no other sport – except kite flying.
We make t to Agra about 3:30pm and ask to eat. The restaurant is overpriced and the food is nowhere as good as anything we have had before.
It is interesting – when we stop on the road for drinks, restrooms the drivers are all fed by the place where we stop.
They even get a small commission on anything we purchase at the shops they take us too. Our driver states that he gets 3-4 percent, the guide probably 6-7 percent.
Our driver's salary is 2800 rupees per month so the commission he would get on the carpets (which I think we are probably going to keep) is equivalent to one month's salary. The tip I was planning, 1000 rupees, seems to be appropriate.
The hotel is the nicest one to date – it has a pool (out of commission), work-out room but no internet. I wonder when I am going to be able to post my blogs and pictures.
I download the pictures – over 700!
I am tired so I do not blog – I start my pleasure novel. Aria and Allysha go work out and then we all lay down and read and drift off to sleep.
Tomorrow we are heading to the Taj Mahal at 7:30am. I read that seeing it in the sunrise is spectacular but our guide says that it has been very foggy and thus we skip this plan. We will get another guide tomorrow and after the Taj Mahal we will visit the Agra Fort and then head to Delhi. If we want to do anything about the carpets we have to be there before 7pm. Busy day ahead.
