Day 3: Delhi --> Agra (our first road trip)

Quote from our itinerary: "After Breakfast start for Agra early in the morning. Reach and check in at hotel. Proceed for sight seeing." It sounded so simple, we were to travel on the Delhi - Agra highway, 221km in approximately 4 hours.

Our driver was to be with us for over a week and we soon learned to completely trust his judgement and observations. When we optimistically said that we looked forward to be in Agra in time for lunch, he gave us a knowing smile and set off down the road at breakneck speed, horn blaring, dodging in and out of the traffic. Apparently this is the normal way of driving and it takes years to perfect the skill!

We were on the road quite early, and even though it was a Monday morning, it didn't take long to reach the outskirts of Delhi and head for the highway. As we got out of the city the traffic didn't really get any quieter - in fact when we passed through towns it got a bit mad! Basically, the roads are usually two-wide, i.e. single lanes in each direction. However a whole number of vehicles travel along the roads so more often or not there are two or three vehicles to each single carriageway - or if there are motorbikes and bicycles it is however many will feasibly fit!!

Passing through the towns there are usually a couple of sets of cross roads with traffic lights, so when the traffic is stopped everyone tries to get to the front of the queue so it's a bit like the start of a grand prix when the lights change to green. The going is very noisy and stop-start, and you have to know where everyone is all of the time so as not to have accidents. We deduced that as many vehicles don't have wing mirrors on them (on account of them all driving with 1 inch separating them to the side and the front - no lie - I have the pictures (and sorry, they are still not ready)), this is the reason for all the horn blowing. They seem to honk the horn when they are going to overtake and while they overtake, but you can imagine when there are literally tens of vehicles all around you all honking it is difficult to decipher who and what is where and who is overtaking who ...

... Well I think you can guess what is coming ... we were driving up to a set of traffic lights, all around us were motorbikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, bull carts, trucks and a few other cars, when suddenly the lights changed and everyone screeched to a halt. Our driver put his foot on the brakes, however one of the motorcyclists either wasn't watching where he was going or his brakes weren't as good as ours and we heard this bang and almighty clatter! The lights changed and everyone started maneuvering around the fallen bike and the guy laying on the road who had crashed into us. A traffic policeman who just happened to be there waved us over to the side of the road and our driver got out.

In the short space of time of the accident and us pulling over, a crowd of about 50 strong had gathered and our driver disappeared into the middle of them. We sat in the car hoping that he wasn't going to get a) beaten up or b) arrested and wondered what might happen to us if the crowd got angry ... thankfully, about 10 mins later he emerged from the crowd, followed by a man held up by a couple of others limping down the road, jumped in the car and we were on our way! We never did find out what happened but we hope that the man is ok and by now our driver has had the dent in the car seen to. It was amazing really that we didn't witness any other serious accidents, although once we got on the highway we occasionally came across trucks lying on the side of the road having slipped down the bank or with a wheel off!

We stopped at a cute place at the side of the highway for lunch. It was the only building in view for miles and was obviously a popular place for tourists and travellers, being midway between Delhi and Agra. It was the first meal that we had eaten outside of the hotel so we were slightly wary, but it was delicious and sitting in the sunshine in the lovely gardens, listening to the birds singing all the traffic traumas were forgotten.

It was obvious that we weren't going to reach Agra until late afternoon so we tried to sit back and enjoy the rest of the drive. I was itching to see the Taj Mahal however we made an impromptu stop about 1okm outside of Agra. We were at Akbar's Mausoleum. Akbar was Shah Jahan's grandfather and ascended to the throne at the early age of 13 after the death of his father, Humayan. Akbar extended the Mughal Empire across India but he is also known for his contributions to the arts and his tolerance to other faiths. He founded his own religion called the Din-i-Ilahi, which means "Divine Faith" we learned more about this on our visit to Fatehpur Sikri on Day 5.

As the Mausoleum wasn't on our itinerary and we didn't have a guide we got out our trusty lonely planet and navigated ourselves around it as best as we could. The mausoleum is built of red sandstone decorated with white marble patterns inlaid into the stone. Walking through the huge gate with its three-storey minarets on each corner leads you to the gardens, and the mausoleum sits at the end of the walkway. It was a very pleasant stroll around the grounds, watching the monkeys and chipmunks playing in the afternoon sun.

Arriving at the Taj View Hotel, I managed to grab an hour by the pool to write some postcards and then looked out of the window at the Taj Mahal as the sun went down, excited that the next day I was finally going to see it!