Today was a normal day, back at the office after a long weekend of no sleep and whirlwind touring…it was a good day. To reward ourselves we decided that we needed mani pedis (Manicures & Pedicures) …reward ourselves for what I don’t know, maybe just to feel a little less grimy lol So we found a couple of places online, called one place to make an appointment- and decided there was no way we were going to pay $40 for a mani pedi here…so on to the next place’s website. Angel Salon- Rs 700 for a manipedi- can’t beat that! So we bustled out of the office right at 6 and headed to the location except for our ricky driver had no clue where sector 29 was! Seriously about an hr later he finally has found the place we are looking for- thank God for the human nav system that they all use here (ie stop and ask for directions a million times- totally the opposite from the male stereotype of never asking for directions). So we get to this bustling shopping center annnd can’t find the place- but there is another salon place and we went there. We decided against mani pedis because God knows how sterile it probably would not have been so we opted instead for brow and lip threading. That was a 1st and she did a great job- finally no more unibrow (seriously that’s what it was coming to) and I got a mini facial which was nice ☺ So for about $11 I got my brows, lip and face done for way less than I get my brows done for back home- LOVE it! After Sadie found out that she could get another inhaler from the chemist (pharmacy) I decided to see if they had any Doxycycline (malaria meds) annnd they did! For Rs 140 I got 36 totally legit pills! Why did I even bother getting any at home!? When we got home I took my 1st malaria pill ever…and now I feel nauseous! Thankfully the nausea didn’t hit until we were almost done strolling through the market by our house. We go by this place everyday but today we actually ventured to it! I got an Indian DVD called Lucky w/English subtitles ☺ Hopefully I’ll have time to watch it tonight before I pass out! Anyway what I know Mom is waiting to read about…our weekend in Agra visiting the Taj! (This could get long so sorry in advance). So we started out leaving the house around 6:15am to catch our train at 7 something. The train station was basically like a giant slum- way worse than the other ones we had been to…so treading cautiously over lord knows what in flip flops we made it to our train- The Taj Express. Got onto car D8, no AC second-class seat car and the journey began. It was a nice, easy, quick 3hr ride to Agra. Although the train was pretty dirty (by this point in living here dirty to me is probably disgustingly filthy to anyone else but I’m use to it and should have an immune system of steel by the time I get home) it wasn’t too crowded and since it was early morning it wasn’t too hot. Along the way we passed many many slums- the kind of stuff you see in those TV commercials- for a $1 a day you can sponsor this child…sadly here you start to get use to it. On the train (they don’t come through to check tickets- at least not in this class) people would hop on begging, which is standard, but there were street performer kids on the train. This little girl was performing in the isle. She was double jointed pretty much everywhere and had this metal hoop no more than about a foot in diameter- she could lay on the floor and arch her back and twist herself through the hoop-I wasn’t sure if I should be impressed or depressed. More of the scenery along the way included rice paddies- it reminded me of China. I realized I had been there for both the growth seasons and harvest seasons and had hiked through the rice fields in both seasons- and for a minute I really missed China. We arrived in Agra and were immediately bombarded by relentless Taxi drivers (sometimes you just want to hit people but because you don’t want the mob to attack you, you refrain- this was one of those times) we made our way to the prepaid taxi stand and headed to the hotel. Along the way (drum roll please) we saw our 1st elephant!!! It was chilling on the side of the road w/it’s rider. Best part of it was that our taxi driver said that there are a lot of them in Kerala- guess where we will actually be in a couple of weeks…oh that’s right Kerala!!!! Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to ride an elephant- and I shall call him Babar! The Hotel Taj Plaza- sounds lovely doesn’t it?! Kind of like the Monterey Plaza…hahahahahaaaa yeeeeah…soooo it’s a fine place, and for $15/night for 2bedrooms we REALLY can’t complain but there was no AC in the room because I’m sorry but a swamp cooler in 100F and something degree heat doesn’t do squat! With the fan on and the “AC” it was still insanely hot and humid! But we had friends staying with us…lots of flying bugs and crickets…everywhere! Anyone reading this who knows me very well, will know that I don’t have a high tolerance for things of this nature but c’est la vie, I have learned to be one with nature and embrace the fact that I am a great landing pad for all flying creatures! …at least this trip I didn’t have any in my food (that I noticed…key word noticed) Our taxi driver to the hotel also worked for a private taxi service and so we called him up and had him drive us to Akbar’s tomb, not too far outside of Agra. When people say there is nothing in Agra they really mean that there is nothing in Agra- every part we drove through was pretty slumish. I’ve noticed that all of the places to see here are either tombs or forts (forts that have- you’ll never guess- more tombs!) oh and temples many of which have guesssss what (answer: more tombs)! Morbid obsession of some sort perhaps?! Anyway Akbar’s tomb was of course amazing as are all of the tombs and what not…although they’re all starting to blend- red stone, marble, all inlayed- all amazing. This place was super cool though, because they had gazelle and huuuuge peacocks…even got to see two of them all fanned out from a distance! That was pretty cool! Then back to the car with our driver (Ashlof) and his “friend.” His friend (Khan) was quite entertaining- he liked to sing…lmao…we all have a new favorite song w/coordinating head bob and finger snap and click action thanks to him! After the tomb, we headed to Moon Garden, across the river (or what use to be river- now its almost completely dry) to watch the sun set over the Taj. It was of course incredible- quite a lovely view! We hung out for a while took pics and watched the sun set and then back to the car. And of course in true tourist fashion they took us to two extra stops along the way to “show” us local art- what GREAT guys!!! (Seriously another I want to strangle you moment) So we went to one start that was selling black star of India jewelry and stuff. The back star of India is actually pretty cool looking (google it) and then we went to a marble store where they showed us how they do all of the inlay work- it is quite impressive and take an insane amount of time and effort to do. But really by this point I was tired from getting maybe 4hrs of sleep, filthy because well when traveling here when are you not, and sick of being taken advantage of because I’m white so after one more stop at the liquor store for a couple of beers (don’t worry Nanny and Papa- I don’t drink beer), got back to the hotel. That was a pretty awesome shower until literally seconds after I felt gross again…oh well. Dinner at the hotel’s restaurant was good…we ended up eating every meal there- curry chicken and butter chicken are good any time of the day. I went to bed early because I was super tired and knew we were getting up at 5:30am to see the sunrise at the Taj, but Sadie and Kelly stayed downstairs playing cards and what not until about 2am. 5:30am comes around and well waking the still drunk is kind of like trying to wake the dead but we made it to the Taj in time to see the sunrise and beat the crowd and it was well worth the lack of sleep! The Taj is some crazy kind of love story! Sadie and I have decided that any future husbands have a lot to live up to! So the shah built it for his 3rd wife, obviously his favorite wife. His 1st wife was Hindu and it was an arranged marriage, the 2nd wife a Muslim- again arranged but the 3rd, was a Catholic from Portugal and that one was for love. His love of his life gave him 14 kids (gross I know) and died giving birth to #14 so of course the logical thing to do is to camel in tons of white marble from Rajasthan along with precious stones to build her an epic tomb…that is done 22yrs later…along with royal guest house and mosque (Shah Jahan was Muslim). They now are entombed next to each other. The Taj is absolutely gorgeous…as are the paper shoe covers you have to wear as to not damage it…I understand why it is a wonder of the world- it’s amazing! After strolling back to our hotel, fighting off people trying to sell us stuff, we had brunch (curry chicken and butter chicken of course) and then checked my email and passed out! While having brunch on the roof looking out at the Taj, we got to talk with a couple of guys who work for Deutsche Bank, which is opening a branch in Rajasthan. These guys seriously have my dream job- one lives in London the other in NY and they’ve been to India a couple times for a few weeks at a time to set up this new branch and the NY guy was on a plane later that afternoon to Germany to go to head quarters but usually he works at the branch on Wall Street! Wall Street = the Mecca of finance…like seriously he said that and I heard angels singing. Anyway we all took epic naps, and I woke up wit some of our little friends sweat glued to my legs- oh well maybe bugs are good for the skin? After nap time we called Ashlof and had them send another driver so that we could go to this place about 20km outside of Agra to see a fort and mosque. We drove through some pretty rough places- it is really weird seeing the places where the sponsor a kid commercials come from. While on our way we hit some rain (finally) and man was it POURING! Seriously the wipers did nothing, literally there was no seeing in front of us- thankfully it was a good highway that was well maintained and had hardly any cars on it. By the time we got to the mosque we only had an hour so we got a horse drawn carriage of sorts to take us up to it…this was after almost literally pushing a “tour guide” out of it…like seriously these people do not take no for an answer and I would have felt no pity for him had he “accidentally” fallen out of the carriage. We get there and a guy tells us he is not a tour guide he just works at the mosque and wants to take us around and will not ask for money at the end (yeah right) anyway since he doesn’t take no for an answer and says he doesn’t want money we just go with him and he took us around the mosque and told us about it- actually a really nice guy. It was really weird walking around here because, even though it is a “holy” place there are people all over trying to sell you junk that you don’t want. Made me think of the story in the Bible, where Jesus goes to the temple and flips out at all of the people there selling stuff and all of that. Anyway end of our tour and he shows us what his family sells there- they carve stone and it was all really nice work. I ended up actually getting 3 tea light holders that are pretty cool and hardly paid anything (China taught me well on how to bargain) lol anyway after that we didn’t have time to see the fort that was there too (I’m not heart broken) then back to the car to go see Agra Fort. Agra Fort was pretty sweet- apparently when it was in use the mote had alligators in it!!! The Indian Army currently occupies 2/3 of the fort and so only about 1/3 is open to the public and its still HUGE! It also has great views of the Taj from it. Funny story, Shah Jahan who built the Taj also built the fort- his son imprisoned him in the fort…apparently the Shah had a bit of a spending problem (although that’s not the only reason his son locked him up but ya know)…so basically he was stuck there looking out over the river at the monument that he built. After strolling around for a good while, we headed back to the car…finally found our driver and headed to the train station. Ahhh the train station- where the adventure is! So we’re chilling, begging children swarming us, get on the train, boot people out of our seats (since we actually had real, confirmed, we belong here seats this time) and are sitting. And I’m sitting there on the isle seat (think school bus type seats but not as comfy and 3ppl sit on them) and wondering when all of these people are going to be taking their seats. Buuuut apparently that was wishful thinking! We were in the same class going home that we were coming and it wasn’t the 3rd class cattle car but omg after this, I can’t imagine what the cattle car must be like. So Sadie came up with a great theory- the larger you are here, the more skin you can show (by wearing a sari). Anyway this rather voluptuous woman was practically sitting on me- I like my personal space bubble and love it when I don’t have some strangers bum practically in my face. Anyway she finally moves and this guy is standing there kind of blocking my seat- I appreciated him saving me from her (though I don’t think that was his intention). And of course even though its crowded beyond belief the chai man has to walk up and down the isle a million times which means all of these people crowding the isle have to move enough for him to get through. I plugged into my iPod and tried to go to my happy place. My seat was really uncomfortable- I was essentially sitting on a metal bar but when the guy in the window seat moved to go to the bathroom (I can only imagine what they’re like on the train) the large lady who liked to sit on me, shooed us over so she could sit and so Sadie moved window and I moved middle (Kelly was in the seat behind us), the middle seat actually had some cushion to it so when window guy came back he just booted the lady who was practically (once again) sitting on me and took isle…it was glorious! No more people sitting on me, airflow, and some cushion. Finally we made it to our stop, harassed some ricky drivers and finally haggled a price, got home and passed out! Although I passed out after multi tasking a skype date and finishing a power point presentation for work. I was suppose to present my research and give recommendations to the head of business development today but he came to the office at like 4pm today sooo I’m giving it tomorrow- thaaaanks buddy for one more day of feeling nervous even though I know I know I’ve got this in the bag! Oh well time to skype and pass out so that I can be well rested to go in there tomorrow ready to give them my two cents- Accenture here I come! ;)
*sorry about the formatting i've tried everything to get it to format right and it wont:( )
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