Delhi

The second and third legs of this trip were to Delhi (Old Delhi and New Delhi are actually parts of Delhi. The entry to this large, sprawling city is Indira Gandhi International Airport. One thing to remember is that there is a domestic airport and an international airport. When one exits the plane from a domestic flight, to your right, in the terminal building is a counter which says international transfer. It is necessary, if one is flying out of India at this point, to pick one's luggage up at the carousel, even if you're checked all the way through to anywhere, and register for the bus which takes you to the massive international airport. They will dump you off in front of several security checks allowing you into the terminal with your luggage, then you go to your respective airline counter where they hit you with a barrage of security questions. They take this very seriously. Be serious!

You'll re-check your bags at this point, re-enter with the your carry-on with a load of other people and do the shoes/laptop/bag and everything else check, emptying pockets, holding jewelry, complete pat-down thing and then go in. There were several security checks that I'm omitting, including another bag check right before you enter the plane!

What I'm trying to say is that although I had 3 hours layover, as soon as I arrived domestically I went through all this to international and went through the stuff I mentioned and by that time my flight was boarding. 3 hours turned out to be zero layover. It took all 3 hours to board my plane. Amazing.

Delhi is the hub of many large Indian institutions. I got a chance to see the Prime Minister's building and several legislative buildings. It was remarkable how similar to Washington D.C. the capitol area was! Except they allow cars in the area. When I was there it was Children's Day, and many school buses full of kids were in the area as well as the tourist spots.



Like many Indian metropolises, the traffic is brutal and this limits how much one can see. Fortunately, there are many temples within a few miles of Delhi including the Minar, a huge Muslim minaret which was being swamped by Indian schoolkids from the southernmost regions of India. Additionally, I visited the Lotus Temple, a temple of the Bahai faith.

Agra, approximately 250 km away, is the site of the Taj Mahal and was magnificent. It took 3 plus hours to get there and approximately 3.5 hours to return. Several things I noted. The building is not very white anymore, a huge refinery is to blame and was recently retrofitted with scrubbers to remove some of the larger ash/particulate which is being blamed for soiling the Taj.

The Taj Mahal is inscribed with the complete Koran (see slide show) and was built in honor of a Mughal Emporer, Shah Jahan's wife.

Because of the length of time it takes to get to the Taj Mahal, many people take a bus or better yet, the train to get there and stay overnight. I was only able to walk through the Taj for an hour and a half and was not able to see the Red Fort. Upon leaving our vehicle, we were barraged with all sorts of scheme-sters who wanted to escort us around the lines and take us on a tour of the Taj Mahal. This was extremely annoying. The next time, I'll stay overnight and start the visit as early as humanly possible, then leave at the end of the day.

Driving back, I noted monkeys at the top of the buildings, also scheming out the premises for a quick bit, most likely!