{"id":2300,"date":"2014-11-21T13:33:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T13:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/word.christopherwagner.org\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2014-11-21T13:33:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T13:33:43","slug":"new-delhi-taj-mahal-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/word.christopherwagner.org\/?p=2300","title":{"rendered":"New Delhi \/ Taj Mahal 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had about five days in the New Delhi area before we left for Rajasthan. Simply put, our time in New Delhi had a hard start. From the time we entered India to the time we left Delhi we had one problem after another compounded by misrepresentation, horrible processes, traffic, pollution, and massive, just massive amounts of people.<\/p>\n

With that said, I’m still on the fence as to whether our time in Delhi was well spent or worth a small pile of beans. We did learn one very important lesson about travel in India, something that has helped us immensely in our travel here: experiences in India are bipolar. Here’s two examples:<\/span><\/p>\n

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* On one hand: we have incredibly delicious food available to us, food unlike anything we’ve ever had before. On the other hand: both Jacquelyn and I end up with food poisoning.<\/p>\n

* On one hand: we see an amazing site like theTaj Mahal, absolutely spectacular – it’s the Taj f&**ing Mahal! On the other hand: we have an non air conditioned seven hour bus ride full of mosquitoes and no breaks to get back to Delhi from the Taj Mahal even though we specifically booked a bus with air conditioning. There were no openable windows on the bus and the bus didn’t have a bathroom; I didn’t know I had to explicitly ask for a bus with no \/ few mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

I could write for a long time about all of the bipolar experiences we encountered in a very short while in New Delhi. It was really good lesson to learn quickly and come to expect. It’s helped us plan different (make plan A, B and C), fortify ourselves physically and emotionally and make us better travelers for India.<\/p>\n

Probably the funniest reoccurring situation presenting itself is the desire of Indians to have their photo with Jacquelyn. Whenever I notice Jacquelyn’s not at my side I usually find her getting photo taken – yup, there she is holding someone person’s baby and getting a photo. The first day it occurred, Jacquelyn happened to be wearing a blue shirt and blue pants so I figured that Indians wanted to have their picture taken with someone who had a ridiculous looking outfit. I quickly realized Indians were not interested in Jacquelyn’s fashion and just really, really, super-duper want to have their photo with her. Not even joking: the police \/ security at the Taj Mahal had to break up a group of guys trying to take their photo with Jacquelyn. I posted a photo of all the guys trying to get their photo with her and all the guys taking photos at the same time.<\/p>\n

No one really wants to take photos with me but I’m OK with that.<\/p>\n

We’re in Rajasthan now and things have been going very well, pretty much the complete opposite of our experiences in New Delhi; neither Jacquelyn nor I have any real desire to visit New Delhi again.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the photos :).<\/i><\/p>\n

Chris W.<\/p>\n

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