India Day 3

At around 5am Jackie and I got our wake-up call to go to the Taj.  We got up and dressed as quickly as we could, met everyone in the lobby and got into our bus. Once we got off the bus we had to walk about a kilometer down this rode to get to the actual entrance and there were monkeys and dogs everywhere. Seriously, monkeys in trees, monkeys on the ground, dogs chasing the monkeys on the ground into the trees, it was insanity.  This was the first time a lot of us had gotten to see monkeys up close we were taking pictures like they were going extinct.

As the sun was rising in the sky we finally entered the gateway to the Taj. We had to go through a lot of security because there are many rules. No food, drink, tobacco, no writing, no video cameras, etc.  The Taj was something that I was oddly not very excited about before but the second we got in there I was blown away by how huge it was, how peaceful the area was, how calming the atmosphere was, how beautiful everything was.  Because we got there so early there weren’t many people and we had around an hour to walk around and take pictures.  Just an hour would never have been enough so we left knowing we would be back at sunset to see it again.

After the Taj we went to the Agra fort. Normally I follow our tour guide like a puppy to hear everything he says but he talks very quietly and at the Agra Fort I was hot and tired so Nate and I decided to wander on our own and meditate and take pictures.  The Agra Fort was the first place I was asked to take a picture with someone, the first of many places.  I was going to get into this later but I’ll get into it now.

There is something about the way I look (looked) that Indian people LOVE.  One of my friends suggested it’s because I look like an Indian Model… they all look Indian but with very light skin.  I had the long dark curly hair, relatively Indian clothing and light eyes.  All day everywhere I went people asked to either take a picture of me or with me. Sadly when this happened I rarely had my camera (the Agra Fort was one of the two instances where I did) so I barely have any of the pictures, but there are many pictures of me floating around the global cyberspace with people from all walks of life.

During our second Taj visit I had forgotten my camera in the bus so I wandered alone. I tried to write in my journal and got yelled at, this is how I know about the “no writing” rule.  A Sikh man came up to me and introduced himself and asked me a few questions.  Despite the language barrier we managed to have a decent conversation and he wanted me to meet everyone he had traveled to the Taj with. This turned out to be around 40 older people. He took me around and introduced me to ever single person. This is my neighbor, this is my brother, this is my boss, this is my wife, this is my sister… Yep, I shook the hands of every single person, all of the men in turbans and all of the women in colorful sarees and big jewelry, giggling and excited to meet me.  One older women motioned that she liked my necklace I had just bought for around $4 so I tried to take it off and give it to her but she said no, they all thought it was hilarious.  That’s not the kind of thing that’s normal in America but in India that’s how things are and it felt like what I should do, to give someone a gift that would mean more to them than it did to me or the money I had spent on it.  Now I still have the necklace because she wouldn’t take it but it is definitely more meaningful to me.

Another instance was I was sitting on the Taj under one of these arches and this couple came up and put a baby in front of me. They went to take a picture and I got out of the way because I thought they just wanted a picture of their baby… Nope.  They looked kind of offended, and I motioned and asked if they wanted me in the picture and they got excited, so I got to take a picture holding and cuddling with this cute Indian baby.  Two other guys thought I looked like Shakira (I didn’t ask questions) and followed me around for the next half hour taking more and more pictures doing silly poses.  One of my favorite pictures of the day is one I actually have and is up on facebook, a mans grandmother wanted to meet me so I got to pose on theses steps with two beautiful Hindu women with our hands on one anothers shoulders.  She instantly went into grandmother mode, adjusting my shirt and my pants I guess so I looked “appropriate.”  When I got back to the ship on the last day one of the security guards at immigration even stopped me for a picture.

Anyway, after the Agra Fort we went to see some temples which I LOVED. We saw a Hindu temple, a Sikh temple and a Baha’i temple.  I loved the Hindu temple. One of the most interesting things was that there were swastikas everywhere so obviously everyone in our group was like woah, whats going on… our tour guide explained to us that the swastika is an ancient symbol of perfection and used to have a positive connotation before the Nazis used it in a negative way.

The Hindu temple in general was beautiful.  In all of the temples in India you take your shoes off outside and walk around barefoot. There were beautiful alters and shrines everywhere to the different gods and everything was brightly colored. One of the priests put sandalwood on my forehead which was very cool and we got to wander a bit on our own but I spent most of the time attached at the hip to our tour guide so I could hear everything he said because I think Hinduism is fascinating.

After the Hindu temple we went to the Sikh temple which was very cool.  As you can see in my pictures on facebook they make massive amounts of food there because the poor and hungry can come at any time and they will always be fed, even at 2am.  The vibe in this temple was very different. It was dark and there was one alter in the middle and everyone sat around it praying. There was a man singing and two playing the drums.

We actually went to the Baha’I temple on the third day but I’ll mention it now for the sake of organization. I had never heard of Baha’i before but it’s a very interesting religion. There was actually a Baha’i girl in our group, and for those of you who are wondering she was very pretty, about 5’ 5, white, blonde, and from the Midwest I think.   Baha’i’s believe in all monotheistic religions coming together and praying in unity to one god. Their temple was huge and beautiful, I think there are seven in the world which all represent different things and this one looked like a lotus flower, but there was nothing distinctly religious inside of it.  They believe that religion keeps evolving and all of the different leaders of the religions are prophets and manifestations that come to earth at different times to help the people in whatever way makes sense, so the leaders of each religion are different reincarnations of the same god.  In the gift shop/museum part they had giant posters hanging up with quotes and information about every major religion. I don’t remember the exact statistic but I think the Baha’I temple in India is one of the most visited places of worship in the world with over 10,000 visitors of every faith every day.

After our temple visits we went back to the Taj which was just as beautiful at sunset and this is when I took pictures with sooo many different people. 

I actually have to go to class now so I’ll write about the rest of my time in India later. I have a lot going on tonight but I do want to do the rest of India and Singapore by Vietnam so I don’t get too caught up and forget about it.  xoxo