The Road to Agra

Today we got up early to get on the road before major traffic jams. A futile effort, we seem to be in plenty of traffic from the start, can’t imagine it gets much worse.
We are on a bus ride to Agra an old capital of Mughal India with many points of interest in particular the Taj Mahal.

Giant goddess on the way to Agra

Our lunch stop is planned to visit an ashram of the ISKON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) folks, popularly known as the Hari Krishnas in the US. We take a tour of the facilities and see the industrial scale program where they feed 50,000 school lunches from this facility, all volunteer work. And around the area they have facilities that feed another 100,000. They also have programs to feed widows. We have lunch there and the food is good, better than some restaurants we have eaten in. We buy some trinkets and make some donations, its hard not to when you see a program working so well and run by happy, dedicated volunteers.

We climb back on the bus and head towards Agra. We hit a lot of traffic, some three wheeled scooters carry 10 kids home from school. At one point the traffic grinds to a halt, there is a mechanical breakdown ahead on a vehicle that looks surprising it has ever ran, a reject from the junk yard. Vehicles actually turn around and go the wrong way back to try to find some around the jam. Several of us pile off the buss to help push it off the road so we can get on our way. Fortunately the repairs are concluded  as we arrive and we don’t have to strain our bodies in unexpected ways.

Trouble on the road.

Tomorrow is the Taj Mahal we do not have enough time today but we do visit the Red Fort which is about as impressive fortress as any in the world. It was mostly built in the early 1600s with three sets of walls, a moat and originally some 500 buildings within it. When the British controlled India they used it as an army garrison. It was temporally overrun by rebels in the 1857 Seapoy Mutiny but its hard to imagine anything taking over this formidable facility. From the fort the Taj Mahal is visible and inviting.

Interior Palace

One of the four gates

 We check into our local hotel and it looks great, especially the food, another buffet. We need to just skip some meals. The food is just too good and too much.

 A difficult development, Sybil is not well, significant gastric distress. A doctor visits but wants to have some tests to make sure it is not a serious problem. Everything is in limbo for her, will she feel better, need some minor treatment or have to end the journey early. We will not know until tomorrow.