Asia
India
New Delhi->Agra
After doing my second watching Real Madrid to see them lose (this time against Bayern München) AND see them win (as they did against Barça), I took a nap and pretty early we were riding to Agra.
On the highway so see many unusual things for someone from the Midwest USA… but India is far away!
• Speed bumps
• A man sweeping with a broom on the side of the road
• Bikes as people crossing
• Bus stops (and of course people waiting on the shoulder)
Near New Delhi we saw for some kilometers a lot of "Multinational Corporation" buildings being constructed… and A LOT is short! It felt like watching a snapshot of a big city being constructed anew; like a bizarre mix between 2 movies and 1 real transient city: "Dark City" + "Brazil" + Black Rock City.
At a "pee stop", I experience in the restroom 2 very common:
• People stare at you like a kid
• Nobody waits in line
Our driver on this part of the trip (until we're back to Delhi) is Amit. We talk about many topics along the ride, being the most important related to married life (Amit: "Without wife, no life" ;) We exchange info about cultural practices and taboos and suddenly, there we are: Agra!
Our first stop here was the Tomb of Etimad Ud Doulah
2 PIX
The entrance gate (we did not want to pay to go beyond) had the same style we'd see later at The Taj…
About Agra: today is Election Day on this state.(India is the largest democracy in the world, so you can imagine the exponential spinning of promises and lies… terrible lies!
And Lies lead us to the main attraction of Agra: Taj Mahal (READ ABOUT IT) romantic tale, murder mystery or hijack by Muslims of a Shiva temple?
PIX TAJ MAHAL
Once gone through the South Gate of Taj Mahal, it dawn on me that the Wedding #5 had to be postponed! I forgot my GoPro SD card and got pretty upset at my stupidity on not checking the camera beforehand & Basia was suffering a heat shock = headache + dehydration… that means, neither was in the best mood to reaffirm our votes ):) it was a pity; Basia looked so pretty!!!
Rest of the day: Rest and recover! ;) We even didn't use WiFi for Blog Job!
And while we were about to watch a movie at 1030pm, the bell of the door rang insistently, and as I walked there the phone started ringing loudly! I opened the door and a short guy stepped on (like trying to
enter) shouting "give me your passport"! I knew this was just their way if asking for things, but I stand firmly and look at him upset and in silence. Since I was more than double his size, the guy stepped back and I told him "wait here", closed the door and answer the phone that kept ringing all the time:
"This is the front desk; someone will go for the passport, please give it to him"
"OK" and I hanged up
I didn't know what passport they wanted, so I opened the door (the guy was a couple of steps away) and gave him both passports without a word. He didn't say a thing and turn around and left. It was a precise non-verbal communication.
Ten minutes later the man at the front desk came to the room to tell me my passport was expired… so that was the mess (NOTE: they made copies of passports on every hotel and also when I bought a SIM card). I explained him patiently hybrid it wasn't expired and showed the extension. He was not very convinced so I explained again and he accepted it and gave them back.
Then I watch "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" while Basia fell asleep (surprise! Jaja!) and, before falling asleep, I saw I had 15% battery (Basia was using our only charger) so I set up the alarm at 630am and when to sleep for 4 hours, since I know the phone lasts on Airplane Mode more than 4 hours with that much battery left…
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