Today was a busy travel day again. We were out of our hotel by 8 am in order to get on the road early. For those looking for wise words regarding the road system in India, especially crowded cities, I have a few from our tour guide. The first, “Lanes are simply symbolic, nobody really follows them.” Further he joked that, “we don’t need rear view or side view mirrors, we just concentrate on the front!” Ha, I’m so glad our guide has a sense of humor, but things are definitely very different here than in the US. Thankfully while there is a crazy amount of congestion and vehicles are literally everywhere (regardless of “lanes”) there are very few fatal accidents in cities because vehicles aren’t really going terribly fast because the congestion is so heavy; instead, all the cars just have dents and scratches from driving too close!
On our way to New Delhi, our first stop was at one of the oldest stepwells, Chand Baori, Abaneri. The step well was magnificent. The well was enormous and surrounded by steps so during rainy season, one could simply go down a few steps to the water level to collect water from the well. While it was very cool to look at, I am not sure how I’d personally feel to gather water since the well was extremely steep. According to our guide, much of the reason for the shear number of steps surrounding the well was due to ascetic appeal. In addition to the well, the surrounding walls included a temple that had been partially destroyed. During the same stop we went across the street to visit a potter’s house and watched as he showed us how to make various different types of clay items. The potter even let us have a spin at using the wheel to craft something ourselves. It was cute to watch Michaela, Kathy, Erika, and Akanksha try to use the potting wheel. Erika’s was definitely a passable pot but Akanksha finished with a “ice cream swirl” lols. Needless to say, things weren’t as easy as they thought!
After arriving in Agra, we went to the Taj and got a chance to explore the back side of the Taj. Best parts of the Taj so far have been 1) taking pictures of people posing for selfies, and 2) convincing my mom that the ONLY picture I was able to take of myself in front of the Taj was a very funny looking selfie before my phone “died” due to the heat (probably since this happened to many yesterday, but no mom even if that did happen I’m sure someone would have been nice enough to take pictures of me for you). Also, there was a camel that a few people took turns riding as we left the back of the Taj. Honestly, it will probably be a close contest between whom had more fun—those riding or those watching the facial expressions of the riders! In the morning we will be back by 5:30am in order to watch the sunrise and have photos at the front of the Taj too before heading to New Delhi. By starting the day so early this should help us as we will be able to spend a full day in New Delhi and then head to the airport by 10pm. Our flight out leaves at 3:30am, so it will be a night exploring the airport before some rest on the plane.
Wow, the step well seems really neat. Awesome that you got to see the Taj. Have a safe flight Becca!
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