This has been a long day of sitting on a bus. They broke the trip up with a few stops but we left this morning at 8:30 and didn’t get to our hotel until close to 6:00. My ankles are not happy with me and swelled up again.
Our first stop of the day was at Chand Baori which is one of the largest step wells in India. It is located next to the temple dedicated to Harshat Mata, goddess of joy and happiness. I choose not to walk the uneven steep steps into the well or up the steps to the temple. I am not a big history person so neither one were too interesting to me. I people watched instead which is much more to my liking.
We then went to an elementary school which Gate One, my tour group, sponsors. I have some cute video of the kindergarten class singing and reciting poems. The school is very very basic – no doors, very few books, they use mainly chalk and chalkboard. The teachers looked very young but the children were very well behaved. When we walked up to the classrooms all the children’s shoes were lined up outside the classroom door.
We then went a short distance to a restaurant. The place is a retreat of some sort and was nice and quiet. I managed to find some foods that I could eat.
We drove all afternoon to get to Agra. We are staying in a very fancy hotel for tonight and tomorrow night. I sent a bag of laundry out and trust it will be back tomorrow evening as promised. One never is quite sure if that will happen. I’m down to my last two outfits so not sure what I will do if it doesn’t come back before I leave.
I am skipping the dinner tonight. I need to decompress a bit so I can sleep tonight. I am on sensory overload again.
It is fascinating to me how many different types of transportation are used. On the expressway you will see buses, cars, trucks, lots of motorcycles, camels pulling a cart, horses pulling a cart, taxis, lots of cows on the road meandering down the road or lying on the median, bicycles, and tractors. I probably forgot a few.
Our tour guide had called Agra a village but he said today it is a town of 3.5 million people. Traffic was horrible as we arrived during evening rush hour. Many times I would see a motorcycle going the wrong way on the road. People, dogs, cows, and vehicles of all sorts all crammed together. You hear horns honking all the time. Nicole calls it organized chaos – I’m not so sure about the organized part but I didn’t see any wrecks so maybe it is.
I lost count of the number of men I saw peeing on the side of the road. I guess when you have to go you have to go. Not sure what the women have to do. I see about 10 men for every one woman.
Car seats for babies are not used. I saw a family of four on a motorcycle. The dad was driving and in front of him was a child that looked to be two. Mom was on the back of the motorcycle holding a baby. None of them had helmets on.
Saw lots of women carrying loads of things on their heads without holding the load with their hands. I saw a small pickup kinda thing pulling a wagon full of people in it. There must have been 25 people crammed into the wagon.
I thought a lot today about what is the role of government. We rail against regulations but I saw today what appears to be a total lack of regulations – or maybe it is unenforced regulations. Do we want to go back to no car seats for children, no seat belts for adults, men peeing anywhere and everywhere, six lanes of traffic on a road built for four plus motorcycles adding a couple more lanes. Trash is everywhere although they do hire people to clean the streets but getting it picked up and hauled away appears to be lacking. The rivers were full of trash. Housing standards appear to be non existent. What role should government play in all of this.
Homeless people make camps everywhere. Sidewalks are few and far between. Disability access is non existent. Should government regulate any of this?
We talk a lot in the USA about the government being too big and interfering with our lives and overstepping what they do. But when I see what I have seen for the last four days I wonder if we really know what we are asking for when we want the government to shrink and leave us alone more.
I asked about health care and they do have free government paid health care. The only problem is it is under funded and it can take months to get an appointment. Most of the working people purchase private insurance so they can get prompt care. They have free hospitals but the free hospitals in Delhi rarely have beds available as needed.
None of this has an easy answer. Government strives for some sort of balance but where is the measuring stick for that? The pendulum does seem to swing back and forth attempting to find some sort of balance between improving quality of life and interference.
This is what I thought about on the long bus ride today. I also felt my privilege and am not sure what to do with that feeling. So many here have so very little and I have so much. I wish I had the opportunity to interact more closely with the locals and understand their life style more. Looks can be deceiving and maybe their life is much richer and happier than mine in the ways that really count.
Tomorrow we are going to the Taj Mahal. We were given instructions about going there today. Evidently they are on high alert due to the car suicide bomber that struck in Delhi earlier this week. We were told not to take a purse in and only put in our pockets toilet paper, a credit card or a little cash, and our phone. We have to go through security and I guess they are very strict. No fingernail clippers, etc. It will be an adventure in many ways.
After the Taj Mahal we are stopping at a marble gallery and showroom. After that we will come back to the hotel and then there is an optional tour of the city. Nicole is going on the tour but I am going to stay behind. I am overstimulated and need some quiet time. Tomorrow night we have a dinner with some sort of entertainment – I think belly dancers and a chance to get a henna painting on my hand. That activity is included with the tour so I will probably go to that.
We are halfway through this adventure. Sunday we go back to Delhi and then Monday we fly to Kathmandu. We head home next Thursday. Our travel home is going to take over 36 hours plus my drive from KC. Fingers crossed I get some good sleep on the long flight home. We have a total of four flights to get home.
Grateful I was able to practice some self-care and skip dinner, grateful for all the new experiences I am having, and grateful for a quiet hotel room this evening to decompress in.