Our First Vacation (1)

For the last two months, the most the we have travelled has been an hour outside of Mussoorie to the city of Dehradun. To be honest, we've been getting a bit of cabin fever. This weekend, we reached the half-way point in our first semester. To celebrate this milestone, teachers and students had a four day weekend. We decided to take a trip to see the sights in Agra with our friends Jared, Emily, and Maureen. For those of you that don't remember your Indian geography, Agra is the home of the Taj Mahal.

But there is much to tell before we get to this iconic symbol of India. Our trip started with a winding taxi ride down the hill into Dehradun. We made sure to stop at McDonald's before continuing to the train station. The McChicken sandwich was not exactly like the ones in the states, but it was pretty close.

We saw many of our students and their parents there as they made their way home or on holiday. Our train left at about 5:30 and it was the same train that we took up from Delhi when we first arrived in India in July. The Shatabdi is an express train that serves a meal, a snack, a bottle of water, and a newspaper. All that and an air-conditioned, reclining seat only cost about $10.

After our six hour train ride, we got picked up at the station and taken to our hotel. By this time, it was about 1:00 am, so we pretty much went directly to bed.

Our continental breakfast the next morning consisted of a small glass of juice and two pieces of toast. But our real goal was to get on the road with our very competent taxi driver to get to Agra. Our taxi had room for all five of us to sit comfortably and, again, the air-conditioning was a key factor in our happiness.

The route took us around Delhi as we made our way to the highway. We got to see first hand what it is like to drive around the city. We were sharing the roads with auto rickshaws, buses, cars, bicycles, mules, and camels.

Overall, the trip was about 5 hours including a couple of stops for refreshment and relief. The first attraction that we came to was the tomb of Akbar the Great at Sikandra. This precursor of the Taj Mahal was started around 1600. Akbar was the third emperor of the Mughals and built the place for himself while he was still alive. This is definitely not the most famous tomb in India, but many elements were copied later in the Taj Mahal. You can see us here standing in front of the main gate and this is followed by a view of the tomb itself.

After Akbar's tomb, we hit the Agra Fort. This was the palatial walled city that served as the capital of the Mughal empire for several generations. It was a beautiful place on the River Yamuna.

It offered lost of nice views of the Taj Mahal and had a bunch of green parrots that thought they owned the place.

Unfortunately, the heat and the dry air on the Gangetic plain took its toll on us. Beth got a couple of nose bleeds. She was a trooper, though, and enjoyed the Red Fort in spite of her constant tissue usage.

After the Red Fort of Agra, we went to get some Chinese food so that we were fully prepared for the Taj Mahal. The first bit of our first Indian vacation turned out quite nicely. Stay tuned for more information on our trip.

Dave and Beth