Taj Mahal Trip....Part One

Last weekend we decided to head north to Agra to visit the TAJ MAHAL.....I would have thought this would be an easy trip. Boy was I wrong!!! By plane it's only about three hours (Bangalore to New Delhi to Agra). Remember everything in India is a PROCESS.

We leave our hotel around 4:30 A.M. on Saturday morning for the Bangalore airport....It takes about an hour or so to get to the airport. This is not an easy commute...There are plenty of dogs, cows, people, cars, bikes, rickshaws, etc. on the road at this hour....We arrive at the airport. We get our tickets and head to the security line. Five minutes or so go by and I start talking to women in front of me. I was trying to figure out why the other two lines were so much longer than the one I currently standing in. She quickly points out that I’m standing in the “Women Only” line. Well sure enough I look up and Tim and I are the only two men in this line. In India, women and men have separate lines at the airports. Why? Every person is searched (Violated) very thoroughly at the airport. Women even have to go into special booths to get searched.

We finally get through security and realize that our flight to New Delhi is delayed because of FOG...This is a big issue in India especially in New Delhi. Also, all of the airports in India are at RED ALERT. This is due to threats of Mr. Bin Laden. Apparently, we wanted to hijack an India Air plane. I'm feeling pretty comfortable about flying the friendly skies in India….

An hour or so later we finally get to leave. While on the plane I noticed there was MILITARY standing in the in-field of the airport. They stand there while planes land and take-off.

While on the plane, the pilot mentions that the New Delhi airport will be closed for an hour (11:15 to 12:15), so the military can practice for Republic Day (January 26th). We picked the wrong time to fly in India....We land in New Delhi and let me tell this is one big airport....However, it was difficult to see how big it was due to the fog...

We arrived and we were dropped off in Arrivals. WHAT!!!! I ask. We have to go through security again!! It took about an hour or so to get our tickets and get through security and there was hardly anyone in line....Process....We get to our gate and they bus us out to our plane...We get out to the plane and we notice the hood on one of the engines is open. They realized they have an engine problem and that the engine won’t start. Great!!! This is the only plane into Agra and they decide now to check the engine. The plane had been on the ground for several hours. They inform us that it will hopefully take an hour to fix.

We have to make a decision either wait or get a car to Agra...There's only flight into Agra. The car ride is about four hours long and apparently it’s not a pleasant ride. We decide to wait it out...To our surprise they drop us off at arrivals again instead of departures...Guess what? We have to go back through security. It’s time to get VIOLATED again.....

We arrive in Agra and we notice very quickly this is not a nice place...The airport is guarded by the military...Luckily we have drivers and a guide to show us around...It’s about five or so and we decide to go see the Taj Mahal at Sunset because we were afraid that it would be too foggy in the morning...

It’s absolutely chaos in Agra...I think to myself there's no way the Taj Mahal is here. I would have thought the area would have been a lot nicer...The Street that Taj Mahal is on is very dangerous. You name its going on here...

Once we are in the gates I'm just blown away by how magnificent this place is...It took 20,000 workers twenty two years to build the Taj Mahal. It’s so grand, marvelous, beautiful, overwhelming, majestic, etc...This place is heavily guarded...We stay a 1.5 hours or so taking pictures and touring the grounds.

It’s quickly getting dark and we all realize we have to walk back down the street that we came in on after dark. Even our guide tells us to stay close together as we walk back and to watch out...Once we get out of the gates it’s just chaos...Our group consists of five women and three men...We literally had to muscle people out of the way to even get down the road..I had to push people out of the way just to get the women into the car...I'm thinking to myself this is not good. We need to get out of here as soon as possible. However, some of the women decided they wanted to start a riot by purchasing items from the car...At this time I'm saying some choice words because this has started a frenzy and now our cars are surrounded by locals....Somehow we get out of there and we head to the hotel.