From Agra to Jaipur

Entering the Agra Fort
Originally uploaded by susiebarber

Today was a little tiresome. Anand picked me up at 8:00am this morning and we decided to go ahead and leave Agra for Jaipur. Both Agra and Delhi are known for being the worst places for tourists -- lots of folks trying to scam you. So I packed up my stuff and we headed out. But first we stopped by the Agra Fort. Agra was the capitol of India until it was moved to Delhi some time ago, I believe by the son of the Shah who built the Taj Majal. In fact, the son deposed his father as ruler and kept him locked up at the Fort until his death. So he was only able to look at the Taj Majal from across the river. But don't fret -- the son also put 5,000 women in the Fort at his father's disposal and he did entomb his father in the Taj with his dead favorite wife. Good story, huh? There's plenty of pictures of the place on Flickr, so have at it.

Then we were off on our 5+ hour drive to Jaipur. Now I have to tell you about driving in India. It's total chaos. Believe it or not, a Bangkok tuk tuk driver doesn't stand a chance here. Everyone and everything shares the roads, including the highways. Trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws (both motor and bicycle), carts (some being pushed by hand and some being pulled by various animals), they all share all of the lanes. Since all of these types of vehicles go at different speeds, it's quite a mess. Everyone tries to pass everything else, but that means speeding headfirst into oncoming traffic. Oh, and then there's the rest -- pedestrians, horses, camels, goats, cows, pigs and dogs take their share of the roads and highways, too. Sometimes they even walk down the highway in the wrong direction. But it's OK, the people don't obey the signs either. As we arrived in Jaipur, we were stuck in the worst traffic yet. What was causing it? An elephant meandering down the street. I didn't get to my camera fast enough for that one unfortunately.

It's really scary at times. Buses are all overcrowded, so you see them speeding down the highway at 100km/hour with people hanging out the windows and guys up on the roof. I talked to a couple of Canadian women yesterday that have been traveling through India for 3 weeks now. They say that all the buses and even the trains are like that. Now I'm really glad I have a driver.

Believe it or not, I haven't seen one accident or even bump. With all the honking (there's honking in my dreams now), speeding, and swerving into oncoming traffic, it's a wonder that anything survives.

I'm at my hotel in one piece (thankfully) and tomorrow Anand takes me around to see the sights of the "pink city". Cheers!