Weekend Marathon Travel

Friday we began a rigorous field trip to Delhi. . . rigorous in that it included little sleep. We got up at 3 am, then traveled for 2 hours to the airport in Chennai. And took a 2.5 hour plane ride to Delhi, where we took a bicycle rickshaw ride through Old Delhi -

Tiny roadways, even tinier shops, rich and poor shop owners, great smells of wonderful spices, and other not so nice smells as well. Tyler is a bit taller than most Indians, so he didn't fit too well in the rickshaw.

After a good lunch at an Indian restaurant we began our 8 hour bus ride. Stopping at a podunk pit stop and McDonalds. We passed a big temple all lit up like Las Vegas, but was in fact decorated for a Hindu festival. We finally arrived at our very nice 5 star hotel at 12:30 am. We even got our very own room.

Slept a bit, woke at at 5:15 to head to the Taj Mahal. Came back to the hotel for about an hour and a half, then headed back to the Red Fort. With a full day of shopping following - a bit too much for us. Although the shopping was interrupted shortly for a somewhat American meal at Pizza Hut.

Back to the hotel at 9 pm, early rise again to head toward home. Stopped for some of the group to go on an elephant ride, then later to see the Lotus Temple. Continued to travel by bus and air arriving home at 12:30 pm. Phew!

We loved it! It was great getting to know the other members of the team better and seeing some very amazing Indian sites.

Had we had it our way, we would've visited more sites (and stayed longer) and done a lot less shopping and eating at American restaurants. With a group of 32 people, however, it is difficult to satisfy everyone's wishes, and so we made the best of it. Instead of shopping in the tourist shops the whole time, we explored the market. Instead of ordering pepperoni, we chose the Chicken Tikka Makhani pizza. We also sought out opportunities to talk to our tour guides, our bus drivers, and anyone else we met.

Two of the most interesting shopping venues were the Rug factory and the marble-work factory. We were shown how the workers made the rugs by hand (it takes two highly-trained workers one day to tie 4 inches of a rug) and how the semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble to create tables and dishes. We bought both a mini rug and a small plate.

We were very impressed with both the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. The workmanship of the Taj is both immense and intricate. The entire area, of which the white building commonly named the Taj Mahal is part, boasts perfect symmetry. For example, a giant mosque the size of the European cathedrals was built to the west of the main structure and faces east, and to maintain the symmetry, the emperor had a duplicate building built on the east side. Because all mosques have to face east, the second building was never used and remains to this day (400+ years later) completely empty. When we first arrived, we couldn't even see the building from the north end of the compound for the fog, but about halfway in our visit, it cleared and we managed some great pictures (though still overcast).

The Red Fort was simply massive. The ruler who built it was quite the diplomat. In order to promote peace in his Kingdom, his second wife was Muslim and his third was christian. Accordingly, different parts of the fort employ distinctly different architecture styles. At one point during the tour, we impressed our group and all of the Indians in a small courtyard with our whip-cracking skills. Mandy just about knocked down a water bottle from Tyler's head with the whip. Don't worry though, they were short and safe whips. :)

We came back home from the trip exhausted. Although we loved the excursion and all of the wonders of the world we saw, we really missed the Rising Star campus and all of the children. We are happy to be back!