Tales of a weekend tourist — featuring the Taj Mahal
Update: I learned to say no — just for this once. What was the result? I now have Saturday’s off from work, hooray!
Last weekend Brooke and I left the city of Bangalore and took a short 3-hour flight to New Delhi, India’s capital. We arrived in New Delhi at 2:00 AM on Friday and were immediately greeted with Northern India’s lovely heat and humidity as we disembarked the plane. Before this trip, I had only heard of the horror stories from my co-workers that were from Northern India about just how amazing Bangalore’s weather was in comparison to much of Northern India — they were all right. We reached our hostel at 3:30 AM and got a couple of much needed hours of sleep before beginning our weekend tourist extravaganza later that same day. By 10 AM we began our sightseeing with the Red Fort, India Gate, CP market, and Hauz Khas village (all worthy of a quick google search). Coincidentally, we weren’t allowed to enter the India Gate plaza because India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was visiting later that day and it had been shut down for security purposes. Hauz Khas village was the highlight of the day. The village was centered around a set of ruins dating back to the 1600’s and visitors were free to explore and climb all over the ruins on their own.
Friday came and went, and Brooke and I scrambled to catch our 10:30 PM bus that would take us to Agra — the home of the Taj Mahal. After an hour or two of delays, we finally began our 3-hour bus ride to Agra. Similar to the day before, we checked in to our hostel on Saturday morning at about 3:30 AM. This time, however, we did not have the luxury to get much sleep since we planned to be at the Taj Mahal as soon as they opened the gates at 6:00 AM. Less than three hours after checking in to the hostel we were waiting at the Taj Mahal’s east gate with tickets in hand waiting for the clock to strike 6 AM. Once inside, I could not help but be entranced with the beauty of the gardens, mausoleums, and of course, the Taj Mahal itself. Being that we were among the first groups of people entering the Taj Mahal that day, there were remarkably few tourists, which only helped to highlight the peaceful atmosphere that the elaborate gardens and Taj Mahal provided.
Saturday afternoon we took a bus back to Delhi and then flew back to Bangalore Sunday morning. This weekend was exhausting, to say the least, from Friday through Sunday I slept no more than eight hours in total; but, for the first time in a long time, I can truly mean when I say that I saw and experienced things I will remember for the rest of my life.
The last two weeks have helped solidify my daily routine in terms of work, school, socializing, and having time to myself. Tanya Bunger, the Global Fellows program director, visited Brooke and I earlier this week and treated us and our respective teams from Sattva to a wonderful dinner.
Things are going well. With only two weeks left I have already begun to think of the fact that there are undoubtedly certain people, places, and experiences that I will miss once I depart from Bangalore on August 4th. But until then, I will strive to enjoy each day and be present to the best of my abilities — as I said I would just over a month ago in my first blog post.
