This is the post in which we shall discuss whether it is humanly possible to arrive in Agra in a timely manner.
But first things first. We really wanted to spend Thursday morning at the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, because seriously, who wouldn't want to check out a museum like this?
Alas, the toilet museum was 30 miles in the wrong direction. We didn't really want to add 30 miles to the already long drive to Agra, so we settled for Humayun's Tomb instead.
It wasn't really settling, though, because Humayun's Tomb is spectacular. I especially love the carved sandstone windows.
There were far fewer tourists than in December, so we were able to spend a lot of time exploring the tomb, including some rooms that were closed last time we came. We also peeked in on a section of the complex that's under restoration. John did some climbing around, but, as you can see in this photo, the rest of us plopped down in some shade and let him make all the awesome discoveries.
John the Adventurer was all for getting a family picture with the snake charmer sitting outside the restaurant we stopped at for lunch. I was OK with that until the guy opened his basket and had to dodge the snake's strike. Not charmed enough for my taste, thank you very much. Even John, who's generally not put off by little things like danger, decided to pass this time.
Now to the question of the day. Is it possible to get from Delhi to Agra in a timely manner? Anyone? Anyone?
Our first attempt, back in December, was by train. You can read about that experience, both awesome and awful, here. The short version is that we had to hang out at the Delhi train station for over three hours with over 5 million people. Well ... maybe it was only 2 million. The details aren't important. The point is that we didn't arrive at the hotel in Agra until well after midnight, when our plan had been to arrive with plenty of time for dinner and baths before the kids' bedtime.
For our second attempt, we hired a car and driver and blithely assumed that the drive would take the predicted four to five hours and that we'd arrive at the hotel in Agra with plenty of time for dinner and baths before the kids' bedtime. Ahem.
We did arrive in Agra within the five hours. However, the main road to the hotel was blocked for some unknown but surely very important reason. We and 10 million other people ... well, maybe 4 million ... had to inch our way through Agra's narrow, winding back streets (through a rainstorm) for a good two hours before finally arriving at the hotel.
The good news is that Sarah got to see a bit of the real India! The streets were jam-packed with vehicles of every kind: cars, vans, trucks, auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, motorcycles, scooters, bull carts, bicycles and India's ever-present crowd of pedestrians. People were sitting on their balconies and roofs to enjoy the show, and if they caught sight of us it was all staring and smiling and waving and laughing. And, to complete the picture, through it all wandered cows, bulls, goats, dogs, all oblivious to the chaos around them. Awesome!
Sarah just kept laughing out loud. She said it reminded her of Richard Scarry's book Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Too true. It was as if Ma and Pa and Penny and Pickles Pig had decided to go on a picnic ... at the Taj Mahal.
Sadly ... we never found Goldbug.
But first things first. We really wanted to spend Thursday morning at the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, because seriously, who wouldn't want to check out a museum like this?
Alas, the toilet museum was 30 miles in the wrong direction. We didn't really want to add 30 miles to the already long drive to Agra, so we settled for Humayun's Tomb instead.
It wasn't really settling, though, because Humayun's Tomb is spectacular. I especially love the carved sandstone windows.
There were far fewer tourists than in December, so we were able to spend a lot of time exploring the tomb, including some rooms that were closed last time we came. We also peeked in on a section of the complex that's under restoration. John did some climbing around, but, as you can see in this photo, the rest of us plopped down in some shade and let him make all the awesome discoveries.
John the Adventurer was all for getting a family picture with the snake charmer sitting outside the restaurant we stopped at for lunch. I was OK with that until the guy opened his basket and had to dodge the snake's strike. Not charmed enough for my taste, thank you very much. Even John, who's generally not put off by little things like danger, decided to pass this time.
Now to the question of the day. Is it possible to get from Delhi to Agra in a timely manner? Anyone? Anyone?
Our first attempt, back in December, was by train. You can read about that experience, both awesome and awful, here. The short version is that we had to hang out at the Delhi train station for over three hours with over 5 million people. Well ... maybe it was only 2 million. The details aren't important. The point is that we didn't arrive at the hotel in Agra until well after midnight, when our plan had been to arrive with plenty of time for dinner and baths before the kids' bedtime.
For our second attempt, we hired a car and driver and blithely assumed that the drive would take the predicted four to five hours and that we'd arrive at the hotel in Agra with plenty of time for dinner and baths before the kids' bedtime. Ahem.
We did arrive in Agra within the five hours. However, the main road to the hotel was blocked for some unknown but surely very important reason. We and 10 million other people ... well, maybe 4 million ... had to inch our way through Agra's narrow, winding back streets (through a rainstorm) for a good two hours before finally arriving at the hotel.
The good news is that Sarah got to see a bit of the real India! The streets were jam-packed with vehicles of every kind: cars, vans, trucks, auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, motorcycles, scooters, bull carts, bicycles and India's ever-present crowd of pedestrians. People were sitting on their balconies and roofs to enjoy the show, and if they caught sight of us it was all staring and smiling and waving and laughing. And, to complete the picture, through it all wandered cows, bulls, goats, dogs, all oblivious to the chaos around them. Awesome!
Sarah just kept laughing out loud. She said it reminded her of Richard Scarry's book Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Too true. It was as if Ma and Pa and Penny and Pickles Pig had decided to go on a picnic ... at the Taj Mahal.
Sadly ... we never found Goldbug.
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