Monday Oct 10, 2005 - day
11 - OAT camp to Agra - Kathy: 128 photos, Bob: 131 photos
Today was a lot of travel time. We left the OAT camp
early and boarded the jeeps that would take us to the tour
bus. On our way into the camp yesterday,
we saw a small island fortress at the far end of the lake. The jeep had gone by too fast for us to get a
photo, so we hoped that we could get one on the way back. So before boarding the jeep, I asked Sujay
the word for “stop.” He said something
like, “Rooko.”
(I’m not sure of the spelling.)
When the jeep driver got close to the fortress, I started saying, “Rooko, rooko, rooko!” The driver stopped and we happily took our
photo of the fortress.
(Go is something like “Cha-low”
pronounced “Cello”.)
We made our way back to the bus and drove through the
bumpy roads until we found the national highway again.
Our next stop was to be an ancient Hindu temple. At one point, we turned off the main road and
headed down a very small road that led to the temple. Halfway to the town, we encountered a large
camel cart that had a broken wheel.
The camel was resting happily
in the shade,
the broken wheel was off the cart, and the owner was
gone. There wasn’t enough room for the bus
to pass. There was no chance of fixing
the cart; so a new wheel would have to be brought in from the town. Our driver and guide went outside to
investigate.
On both sides of the cart were trees. On the far side of the trees were very soft
fields that had recently been plowed.
The cart was piled high with very heavy wood, the weight of which
probably caused the wheel to break. The
cart was sitting on a car jack and the wheel was off. Without the wheel, there was no way of moving
it out of our way either. There was no
chance of us passing this cart.
Children from the farms came running to see the big tour
bus and the broken cart.
After scratching their heads
for a long time, Sujay talked to a guy who was headed for town. He sent for someone–anyone–who had a cart
with a large back end. The truck arrived
and we piled into the back of the cart and off we went to the temple.
Now I know why the middle
name of OAT is Adventure.
The temple was beautiful. I love old temples. We took a lot of photos
and spent some time there. After we left the temple, I saw a weird
looking bird and took its photo.
Then we walked across the
street to where they had one of these huge walk-down wells.
It was huge and deep well,
the purpose of which was to hold water like a cistern. All around the well, there were hundreds of
steps leading down, so that no matter how full or how empty the well was,
people could climb down the steps to fetch water. It was very cool. These were the famous step-wells of
Rajasthan.
The well had a palace/apartment for the king on one side
so the king could watch his subjects.
After that site, we piled back into the cart and headed
back to the bus. The broken cart was
still there, and our bus had somehow found a way to turn around. Back on the bus, we continued our journey to
Along the way, we saw more reminders of how crazy the
driving is here.
To
break up the trip, we stopped at a few places.
For example, one of the towns specialized in cutting and shaping
marble. We saw how they turn and cut the
raw marble to make their table tops and such.
I wondered if this was where our hotel got its mattresses.
Next, we saw a fort called “Fatehpur
Sikri.”
It was a cool place and we
took lots of photos.
Gee, I hope these photos turn
out good. My theory is: outnumber the
odds. In other words, since Kathy and I
are both packing digital, taking photos doesn’t cost us anything but hard disk
space on the computer. Therefore, the
more photos we take, the better our odds at having a few turn out good.
Eventually, by sunset, we made our way to
This is in very sharp contrast to the scenery outside the
hotel. The streets are dirty, with large
piles of trash on the sides of the road.
At one place, we saw a garbage pile so big that three cows were sleeping
in it! There is a lot of pollution
everywhere, and lots of dirty people outside.
Sujay told us that the Taj Mahal has attracted lots of tourists, and the
tourists have attracted lots of pickpockets, petty thieves, pollution and many
other problems. I guess we’ll get to
experience that tomorrow.
All I know is that Kathy and I both felt huge pangs of
longing for the peace and serenity of the countryside we had left today.
As we pulled into the hotel, I noticed a MacDonalds restaurant nearby! This is absurdity itself, I thought, since
seventy percent of Indians are vegetarians and the rest consider cows to be
sacred. So who’s going to order a Big
Mac? I had to ask Sujay. He told us that the restaurant is owned by
the MacDonalds corporation,
but inside you will find only Indian fast food, not burgers of any kind. Like fast food Matar Paneer and Murgh Makhani. What a concept! Too bad we don’t have these in the States. But how do the Indian people feel about MacDonalds corporation, a global giant slaughtering and
feeding cows to millions of people every day?
It’s a question I dared not ask.
Now
don’t get me wrong. I’m not some kind of
tree hugging vegan-vegetarian militant animal rights activist. As a matter of fact, I’m ashamed to admit
that I am a confirmed carnivore. My
mother and father taught me from a little boy to love meat: steaks, hamburgers,
ham, sausage.
And what good would a big slab of lasagna or a taco—God’s most perfect
food—be without meat?
I’m sorry, but I’m a carnivore.
But still I wonder how any people embrace a corporation so diametrically
opposed to their value system.
I guess I’ll leave it at that and go to bed.