Here unfolds the story of one of the longest traveling weekends in my life, but also one of the most exciting. We arrived at Rising Star from our tribal village trip at midnight and then had to wake up at 2:30am to drive 2 hrs to the Chennai airport to catch our plane to Delhi. It was quite the night and quite the travel experience. The Chennai airport is rather confusing and intimidating. The security is so finicky about what they will allow and what they won't, which is why when I was being wanded in a secluded area I basically took off all my clothes so that she wouldn't think I was hiding anything. Seriously, I pulled up my shirt and then my skirt just to prove that I was innocent. All of the other girls had a good laugh about that after they explained they hadn't had to do any of that. But we finally boarded the plane and were off. Once we reached Delhi, I immediately noticed a difference. The airport was newer and cleaner and the people were all dressed in pants and shirts, none of the chudidhars that we were wearing. Our Delhi tour guide met us at the curb and took us to our nice air conditioned bus with the word "tourist" in giant letters across the front. We found out later that he was either the first or one of the first members of the LDS church in India to be baptized.
We first toured New Delhi which was much cleaner and nicer than I was expecting. We then headed over to Old Delhi which was much more familiar. There were tiny alleyways and electrical wires everywhere. We drove rickshaws through the streets and saw the bridal shops and then stopped in my favorite, the old spice market. The aroma was almost a little too much for my lungs but I survived. We then stopped at a restaurant for lunch and this place was authentic. It was a hole in the wall, but oh so good. One of my new favorite dishes is butter chicken curry, but you have to specify that you want it boneless. After lunch we hopped back on the bus and started our drive to Agra, the old capital of India.
Old Spice Market
On our way to Agra, we stopped at the Baha'i Lotus temple. It was such a pretty building and one of the girls is a member of Baha'i faith. I'm pretty sure its a nondenominational church. The best part of this little stop was all of the Indian tourists that wanted pictures with us. Seriously, I felt like a movie star. People would grab me and pull me into their pictures and some would snap pictures on their phones while we weren't looking. It was kind of amusing and flattering, until we were trying to leave and got swarmed. We asked our guide why they wanted our picture and he said that a lot of them are from rural areas in Indian and have never seen Europeans or people with white skin before.
Lotus Temple
We then hopped back on the bus and made our way to our hotel in Agra which was quite the swanky joint. We stayed at Jaypee Hotel and I have never felt so spoiled before after using bucket showers and squatting toilets for two weeks straight. It was nice to get in a regular shower and not have to worry about whether the water is going to be freezing cold or not.
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