To Agra, 7 July 2004

The New Delhi-Agra highway is probably the best road on which we drove. The road quality assured me that good roads can be found in India after all. (This is the first time I had opportunity to experience good roads in India in about thirty years). It was also on this highway we had a brush with a near accident. The drivers in India do not seem to care to observe lane marks. Everyone drives as if the only concern they have is whether the front of the automobile they are driving can fit in the opening they see in front of the vehicle. My son once described this driving behavior as a stampede, particularly after seeing how the traffic starts at a green light in Bangalore.

The particular incident occurred as a lorry - truck, for the American reader - decided that it needed to overtake a slower moving vehicle in the slow lane. (The highway had 2 lanes in each side at this point). We were driving in the fast lane, the lane closest to the median. The lorry driver saw the possibility of pushing his vehicle between the slow moving vehicle in his lane and our car, forced his way with a huge honk, unmindful of whether our car driver would feel forced to get our car ever closer to the curb of the median! For a few split seconds, this was not a pleasant experience. Luckily, nothing untoward happened.

As we got close to Agra, we spotted a McDonald's, the American eatery icon, and we decided to stop by for a snack. A few more minutes later, it was time to get off the highway to get to the hotel. And, this portion of the drive was a marked contrast to the highway drive. The road was extremely narrow, with puddles from previous day's rain, and extremely uninviting as a reception to one of world's greatest wonders!

We checked in at the hotel, and we were welcomed to the hotel with a lemonade drink, a drink that was more water than lemonade. But, the view of the Taj Mahal from the hotel room was pleasantly surprising, and we were all ready to take in the monument.

1. Taj Mahal. The drive to the Taj Mahal from the hotel was a short one. Due primarily to security reasons, private vehicles are required to park away form the monument, and a separate shuttle bus, operated by the monument and electrical powered, takes the visitors closer to the monument. Electrical power, of course, avoids the pollution that could otherwise occur near the monument. Elaborate physical checks are made at the entrance of the monument, and you are admitted after you pay the admission fees. The monument is definitely breathtaking, and it takes about 2 hours to visit various interesting aspects of the monument. Mumtaz's tomb is several meters below the ground floor of the Taj Mahal, and visitors are not allowed near the tomb. While the monument itself is definitely awe-inspiring, my personal wonder is how Agra as a city continues to be so dirty everywhere in the city except near the monument.
2. Agra Fort. The Agra Fort was nothing particularly remarkable.

As was customary, we went out for dining in a local restaurant because of the belief that the local restaurants are better representatives of local foods, and not the hotels in which we stayed. The restaurant, although not inexpensive, did not serve particularly inviting food. The children, however, liked the food and that is all that mattered to me. We finished the evening after going around the hotel a bit; the hotel did indeed have quite a bit of recreational activities in its premises.