Accountant Adventures: Goodbye India, Again

At the Taj Mahal, no big deal

The plan was a day in Agra, come back to the hotel and rest up for my 5am flight to Casablanca. Of course nothing ever goes as planned and it always makes things better. We got up at 6am to be ready for the bus to pick us up at 7am. After several calls and worried pacing in the street the bus full of passengers showed up and we hopped on. Praj had requested special seats for us and they saved us two seats in the very front of the bus by the door, with extra leg room. Perfect, well almost, my seat wouldn’t sit up. With the slightest of pressure, like say, sitting on it, the back would fall backwards and only stop when it hit the knees of the 70 year old man behind me.

On the 4-5 hour drive to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is we encountered some traffic. The driver pulled off the side of the road, aimed the bus perpendicular to the road and drove over the median to the other side where there were oncoming cars but no traffic.

Today was packed with full circle events. We ate breakfast and lunch at the same place. We stayed at the same hotel the day I got to India and the day I left. I also arrived and left through Delhi. On the Agra trip I met a man who is from Israel but lives in Thailand and we were both foreigners on the same bus so we bonded and spent the rest of the trip talking to each other at all of the sites. I was asking him about Thailand and what brought him there. He told me he is there because of the women. HE said that 80% of the people in Thailand are women. He has a wife in Israel but he lives in Thailand with his girlfriend. When I probed further I found out that he had four regular girlfriends in Thailand. Then I found out that by girlfriend he meant he paid $20 a night for them to be with him. I asked him why people come to Thailand. “Many reason, people from Russia come for the women, people from Europe come for the women, people from America, come a little for the women” At first it was entertaining but then he wouldn’t talk about anything except for how cheap and beautiful all of the women are and how terrible Indian women are and that he wouldn’t pay $.01 for them.

The Taj Mahal is normally Rs 750 for tourists and Rs 20 for Indians. There are apparently three days a year when it is free for tourists and today was one of them. How lucky am I? I feel like I won the lottery, well almost.

As we were walking towards the Taj Mahal, and could not yet see it, we were talking about what we expected and neither Praj nor I had very high hopes. Then we turned a corner and could see it through an ancient archway. It is incredibly beautiful and breathtaking. So much more spectacular than I had expected. “What do you think now?” Praj asked. I told him I would wait to respond until we got closer, so I could see the condition up close. Up close it is just as beautiful. The Taj Mahal is definitely spectacular.

Presumably because of the large crowds, some people didn’t show up for the bus on time and we waited for over half an hour for them to show, but they didn’t so we left them and went to the next attraction. We went to the birth place of Lord Krishna and then the place where he grew up. Neither place held much intrigue for me and after they Taj Mahal, they were both a let down.

There were lots of people trying to sell goods to tourists and they get up in your face and shove their wares at you and say “200 Rupees” As I don’t generally buy souvenirs and most of this stuff had no appeal, I would ignore them and keep walking. “Okay sir, 100 Rupees, 50 Rupees, 5 for 100 Rupees, please sir” It was amazing how quickly they would drop down in price, makes me wonder how cheaply they bought them for.

I thought we were supposed to get back at 10pm, because that is when most of the other buses get back, but apparently we were on a special bus and we weren’t supposed to get back until 2am. We actually got back at 3am and I grabbed all my stuff threw it in a bag and grabbed a taxi to the airport for my 5am flight.

I had an amazing time in India. Praj and I got along so well and definitely strengthened our friendship. I don’t think you can really know someone until you live with them and you travel with them and Praj and I have managed to do both without killing each other and both experiences have made us closer. I am going to miss him and his over-the-top obnoxiousness in my travels without him.