Just thought you might be interested in knowing (or being reminded) that you can’t buy beef in this country, seeing as the cows are sacredly roaming the highways. Even McDonald’s has a mostly vegetarian menu (with a bit of fish and chicken thrown in for the visitors). Western restaurants post big signs on their walls stating they sell no beef products, supposedly to quell any concerns from the locals.
Refreshment stand for visitors of the monuments and buildings of the Qutb Minar complex (finished in 1368), Delhi, India
I have been trying to eat mostly local cuisine, but I can’t say that I had really great Indian food. The best Indian meals I’ve had, oddly enough, have been on the flight coming in (Gulf Air) and the flight going out (Cathay Pacific). Maybe my lack of luck in Delhi restaurants has something to do with my eating budget!
Food Vendor on the streets of Delhi, India
I have been trying to be very careful about food poisoning — seeing as I’ve gotten very sick on a few occasions over the past year. So far, no problems in Egypt or India. My water purifier is working a charm! Doesn’t sound like my neighbours can claim the same. I heard some horrible wretching through a wall in my guesthouse a few days ago.
Diwan-i-Am, part of the Red Fort, a historic Mughal fort located in the Old Delhi area of Delhi, India
Tomorrow I head for Hong Kong, where I will be doing a bit of cheap shopping until flying to Thailand on Friday.
I headed off on a long all-day tour down to the city of Agra and back yesterday, primarily to see the Taj Mahal, but also to see some of the other historic sites around the area.
The whole experience of getting there and back is something I don’t think I will ever forget. The drive took about four hours each way, and was about as treacherous as anything I’ve ever experienced. It doesn’t seem as though India has any safety regulations on its roads. Even when we were travelling down a paid turnpike, the road was full of roaming cows (I was wondering where all these sacred cows were since I hadn’t seen any in Delhi), camels and horses pulling carts, bicycles, motorcycles, motorised tricycles, pedestrians, buses, and trucks. And never a police officer in sight.
Avenue of Rickshaws, Delhi, India
People generally drive down the middle of the road here, straight over the white lines — presumably to avoid hitting pedestrians and other dark, shadowy, slow-moving traffic. This means everyone who comes up behind must honk their horn to get drivers to pull over. Many trucks even have big signs painted on their backs asking you to honk. All you hear the whole way is horns honking continuously. Every time you hit a traffic jam, the road appears about as organised as a clogged bumper car ride — with vehicles pointed in just about every direction.
Street Traffic around Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
One of the more unsettling experiences came when our van got a flat tire in the middle of the trip. The driver merely pulled halfway out of the lane onto the shoulder on an outer curve of the highway. We weren’t ever asked to get off the vehicle. Instead, we just sat there while he repaired the flat. While we sat there, large overloaded trucks continually came barrelling around the curve up from behind us and quickly had to swerve out of our lane to get into the clear lane. It was unbelievable!
At night, there were many vehicles on the road with no reflective material of any kind—including some oversized trucks that would be barred from most Western roads without a lead and follow-up vehicle and lots of flashing lights. The air at night was full of smoke from fires lit by all the homeless people living in tents along the road trying to keep warm, or from big, onerous factories belching black fumes from their smokestacks. Our van would typically come barreling down the highway to stumble across a giant, dark, mysterious shape that would turn out to be a slow-moving cart or truck pulling a massively over-packed load. There was no break in speeding traffic. The whole experience was quite scary, but I never actually saw any accidents.
Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaAgra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaAgra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaAgra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaGray Langur Monkeys (Semnopithecus) on roof of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of Agra’s Red Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Marble Inlay details on the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
What can I say? It’s an amazing building. The second you lay eyes on it, you’re mesmerised. It just commands your attention. You have to hand it to the Muslims: they certainly seem to have a keen sense for design. The Taj Mahal was designed by an Iranian architect, based on Islamic themes you find in many mosques throughout the Muslim world. Everything about the Taj is purely symmetrical.
Details of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaMarble Carving details on the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaDetails of the Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
The Taj Mahal is also full of optical illusions that give it a real presence on the landscape. Things like vertical lines that diverge as they run up the building were made to look parallel while you view them from the ground. When you enter the courtyard (the place where you see the most famous view of the Taj Mahal with the fountains in front), you can start stepping backwards, and it will actually appear to get bigger the further back you walk. The surrounding towers lean slightly outward to protect the main building from earthquakes. Some circular columns that run up the building appear angular when viewed from more than 10 feet away. It’s an amazing place.
First Glimpse of The Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaTaj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaTaj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaTaj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaTaj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
The building itself is pure white marble with designs raised or cut out and filled in with black marble and semi-precious stones. You can shine flashlights through the marble and illuminate different colours behind the stones. It’s supposed to be amazing to see late in the day when it illuminates in a range of colours as the sun sets, but it was a bit too hazy, and the sunlight too diffused for me to see the effect when I was there.
Taj Mahal, as seen from Agra Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaTaj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, IndiaTaj Mahal, as seen from Agra Fort, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
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