Onward in India - Agra

Our sleeper train delivered us four hours late the next morning to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. To distract us from the grossness of our bodies covered in bites, we showered and properly dresses as women to make us feel better. Starving, we went for a rooftop lunch where we proceeded to lounge all afternoon over multiple bottles of beer. We did not make it to see the Taj but went to a different rooftop with a view of Taj for more drinks. We made our way back to the previous rooftop across from our hotel for dinner and enjoyed two bottles of wine and excellent Indian food. Sandi loves the Chipati. Jen loves the Naan.

Day 2 in Agra we awoke at 6am to see the sunrise behind the Taj.(Note, we stayed in a very clean guesthouse that night.) The Taj is a magnificent structure worth the effort of visiting India. We then revisited the same rooftop for more wine and actually decided to extend our stay in India. This is such an incredible statement to write at this point because we decided again with 48 hours to leave as soon as Sandi could get a flight. More on that later. I haven't mentioned all the times we had been screwed over, ticked and taken advantage of. I think I've become a savvy traveler but it doesn't work for me here. Whether t's money, time, expectations or answers, this is the most dishonest and disrespectful place I've ever been. We may describe more later but I'm trying to refuse to let this topic take over this message to you. I knew it existed before I arrived and that it would be a challenge. It works for some travelers but this is not a place conducive to our personal character.

On our way to the train station, we asked our richshaw driver to stop so we could arm ourselves again with whiskey for the 13 hour night train that left at 6:20. He escorted Sandi across the street and made her hand him the money to buy it for us since apparently it's bad for women to buy it themselves. Sandi and I have both purchased in the past week and it's obvious by the stares and smiles we receive. Men literally swarm around us wherever we are.

We arrived at the platform at 6pm and the train started moving so we jumped on as it was pulling away. Two minutes later we realized we were on the wrong train but it was going to fast to jump off. Enter Chaos to the traveling scene of Sandi and Jen. We deboarded at the next stop with the advice from a man who actually helped us. Seeing as the train ticket is not in English, he informed us we had been dropped off at the wrong station to begin with. We cursed the error of our last driver. The Nice Man (as we named him) assured us our train was running late and that we could still make it. Our rickshaw driver did the best he could to quickly maneuver the streets bu we ran into a parade. This might be a good time to share with you the typical street scene in India. Imagine big trucks, little trucks, cars, horsecarts, autorickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, bicycles, motorbikes, cows, boars, buffalo and yaks, people and an occasional camel moving on the streets in all directions on both sides of the road with no order. It's complete chaos. Horns blare nonstop. Smoke fills the air. Street vendors wander the roads and people are eating as the world goes by inches away from the food they're putting in their mouths. Ok, back to the chaos.

We ran into the correct train station and reached the platform at 6:50pm. Indeed, our train was late. We didn't pull away from the station until 8pm. It may not sound like much as you read this but it was ridiculous. It was like a "Sandi & Jen Amazing Race Asia" episode in slow motion. While waiting on the platform with electricity going in and out, a little boy of about 5 of 6 years old was fascinated with us. For 30 minutes, he laughed, giggled, jumped, danced and played hide and seek with us. Sandi and I genuinely laughed and smiled for the first time since leaving Nepal...except for our rooftop time with drinks in hand. People around us watched and finally decided it was ok to smile at the situation. The parents of the boy were loving it the whole time. The Sadhu/Holy Man sitting on the floor finally convinced the boy to shake our hands and give us a kiss on the cheek which we happily returned.

This time we mixed our drinks in the toilet...aka bathroom of the train. Finally got good seats on the train where we didn't have to share the seats with anyone so our luck turned. Drink in coke bottles but also realized we had a few voyeurs on the train constantly staring (which gets old quickly). As the night progressed we refilled from our seats so the bottles was mostly concealed but after finally engaging in conversation with the Indian family occupying the 6 seats across from us (including one of the starers who turned out to be nice) we realized drinking is forbidden on the train. Also Jen's tattoo was pointed out again and the Hindu mother politely but strongly suggest she modify it to a flower. Train arrived at midnight to Jaipur and luckily Manog our guesthouse owner was still there to pick us up after arriving late. The place looked clean and he seemed nice so we settled off to a relaxing sleep.