this is real life.

a flower necklace we were given when we arrived in Delhi.

The third morning of our stay in India, I prepared to embark on our journey to the Taj. The entire idea of the trip seemed sort of surreal. Leaving for a trip to the Taj Mahal is not something you think ever actually happens. Like, you know you will make a trip to Disney World at some point in your life, and, if your from Flo-rida, maybe Disneyland, maybe Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, etc., etc. But, the Taj Mahal? It's kind of special.

I say this not discounting the length of the journey to get there. Its not like it’s a short hop, skip and a jump from Kochi (which is already in India) and bam you’re there. Kochi (which is another name for Cochin, for all you India newbs out there) is near the southern tip of India. The Taj Mahal is in Agra, about 125 miles south of Delhi in the far north of the country. Our flight to Delhi was 4 hours long. From Delhi, you must take a 4-hour train ride to Agra.

the train to Agra.

Because of the travelling, that first day was kind of miserable. After catching our 6 AM flight to Delhi, Semester at Sea organized a bus tour of the city. I am not sure how much I agreed with their decision to bus around a group of 20 college students…and about 6 lifelong learners and professors, on a tour bus that we never got off of for 3 hours directly after a 4-hour flight. From our bus tour, we went straight to a buffet lunch of Indian food set aside for us in the private dining room of a hotel.
Both of these parts of our itinerary pay testament to what I was saying earlier, about wanting to run behind the store fronts and see the "real India." But, at least before, the way in which that stuff was being hidden from us was organic and unplanned. Now, it was as if we were paying to be shielded from the nitty, gritty parts by staying on a tour bus the entire time we were in Delhi and eating in a room completely isolated from other Indian diners. The real, nitty, gritty that I, personally, was dying to see.
From lunch we went to the Ba’hai temple. This is known world wide to be magnificent and, admittedly so, it is. Fun fact: there are 6 Ba’hai temples in the world and a Ba’hai shrine and gardens in Haifa, Israel. I have been lucky enough now to visit 2 temples and the shrine. Semester at Sea Part 2: Ba’hai Temples of the World? I need to finish my list! Ba’hai is a pretty cool faith, though. For those of you who don’t know that much about it, I highly recommend checking it out on Wikipedia. Actually, here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%27hai. Enjoy.

Madison, Theresa and I at the Ba'hai Temple.

I was frustrated, though, because we were shuffled through this amazing place. Being there was was really powerful, too. On the tour, they give you a brief history of the building and the religion and then allow you to enter the sanctuary. It is dead silent and no one is allowed to wear shoes. Inside, there are people from all over the world, of all different faiths, sitting in silence, meditating and praying and thinking. How cool is that? So, we sat in the sanctuary for not 2-minutes before our trip leader motioned that it was time to go. We were shuffled back on to our air-conditioned bus and brought to the train station to catch our train. I wasn't even allowed to see that part of India.

Four hours later we arrived in Agra, weary but still excited to be in India. We met another bus and were brought to certainly the nicest Radisson I have ever stayed in. The bed was literally the best bed I have ever slept in and, in the morning, we had a full spread buffet of American and Indian foods. I tried kiwi yogurt, which must be illegal in the United States because it is so good they should have it, yet, I have never seen it. BUT, I was staying at what I would consider a 5-star resort in India. I had been shuffled through a temple and taken pictures of slums from the window of a bus the entire day and was now staying in an amazingly comfortable bed with perfectly white linens. This was India?

I went to bed in mattress heaven but with this weird craving to have dirt under my finger nails, eat with my hands, and be hugged by someone who hadn't bathed in at least a couple of days. I wanted to be uncomfortable and know there was no way I was making it through the entire night of sleep. Does that make any sense?