Travel
ence
hal
I
sat in utter amazement, nestled in
the back seat while my driver, a
Sikh wearing a turban, somehow
maneuvered the car through a
free-for-all frenzied traffic jam
of epic proportions. Seven jumbled
lanes of misaligned vehicles squished
within three officially marked lines.
As far as I could see, no rules of the
road existed. A cacophony of honking
and beeping horns seemed to simply
announce, “I’m here.” Bicycles,
rickshaws, motorcycles, hundreds of
tiny Tok-Tok three-wheeled cars
(occasionally overstuffed with
people like clown cars at the circus)
plus regular size vehicles, buses and
trucks and ox carts vied for space.
Every once in a while, a stray cow
would wander in. I’d been warned the
traffic in Delhi is insane; multiply
that times ten. It’s sheer madness,
but for some reason I didn’t feel
anxious.
ITC Mughal Hotel
Entry Way
As I child, I dreamed of touring Paris
and the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids of
Egypt and India’s Taj Mahal. I longed
to visit the places I’d see on TV:
California’s Disneyland and the Wild
West, where I imagined cowboys and
tumbleweed rolling across streets.
My family never traveled to any of
these famous places, although at
sixteen I explored Niagara Falls...and
was totally enthralled. Still, my
dreams remained, so you can imagine
how excited I was to recently make
my way to India. While my itinerary
called for adventures in the southern
part of the country, my tour of this
distant land would absolutely have
to include India’s most famous
landmark.
ITC Mughal Hotel Pool
Following a series of long flights and
late night arrival, I wasted no time.
The next morning, it was off for
Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.
Although Agra lies only 130 miles
from Delhi, the trip takes four hours.
You need at least one hour to get
out of the congested city, two on
the new expressway and another
hour to get to your hotel once you
arrive on the outskirts of Agra.
India’s Taj Mahal in Agra
Catching my first glimpse of the
Yamuna River (considered a sacred
river) thrilled me as did a distant
view of the Taj across the way. Taj
Mahal means “Crown Palace” and it is
in fact the most well preserved and
architecturally beautiful tomb in the
world. The English poet, Sir Edwin
Arnold, described The Taj as “Not a
piece of architecture, as other
buildings are, but the proud passions
of an emperor’s love wrought in
living stones.”
ITC Hotel Gardens
To understand the building, you must
know the background story. The Taj
Mahal was built