What a wonderful weekend to cap off my time in India! We boarded the train last night at 6pm and arrived at Mathura at 4:15am. Although the rail system isn't quite as nice as "the Darjeeling limited" portrayed it to be, I didn't see a single rodent on the train. It was interesting to go to the bathroom in a hole through which you can see the train tracks passing by.... Don't think I'd want to walk the tracks in this country.
Ram surprised us at the station in Mathura by having his brother pick us up in an SUV. Best surprise car ever, according to Alice.... I have to agree. As we traveled through the town, in the dark, to our first temple of the day, I thought to myself, "holy f**k! I'm in the trunk of an SUV, in India, with a group of people from all over the world that I had no idea existed 2 weeks ago!" At this point I realized that my life is fantastic!
We got to the first temple, the birthplace of the Lord Krishna a tad bit too late, so we had to sight see for a couple hours until it opened again. We went to 3 other temples, including a garden where Krishna used to take his love. The place was swarming with monkeys! I seriously feared having my face eaten for the first 15 minutes. After a while, the monkeys just became cute to watch. They are in the process of taking over that town!
We returned to the birthplace temple at 6:30am and were finally allowed to enter. We browsed to look at the architecture and history before the ceremony started. It began with singing/chanting and culminated in the opening of 3 shrines, one at a time. Each time one opened, the crowd fell to the floor and sang in harmony "hare krishna". It took my breath away. Some of the others found it creepy, but I found it wonderfully inspiring. Extremely spiritual!
Next on our trip was a visit to Fatehpur Sikri, an ancient sandstone Mughal town completely abandoned. The architecture was amazing! After seeing all the extravagant buildings and rooms the king had made for his harem, I'm beginning to think my boyfriend needs to step it up a bit (and I haven't even been to the Taj yet)!
We made it to Agra just after noon, but with a full 8 hours behind us already. Ram has a friend, Lucky, in Agra who owns a restaurant and guest house, and who agreed to let us stay for the night. After a quick shower and nap, Ram came to take us to his house in a village just outside Agra. Perhaps my favorite part of the trip thus far!
The entire neighborhood under the age of 15 came over and just stared at us for a couple hours; us, not knowing their language, and they not knowing ours. We managed to entertain to some degree, although the shadow animals made with a head lamp only lasted so long ;). The power went out at least 3 times while we were there, so we spent half of our visit by candle-light. Ram's mother and sister in laws made us a spectacular authentic Indian dinner! It was very interesting to watch them make chapattis by hand over a fire fueled with cow dung (very resourceful). While we may not have been able to express our gratitude in words, I hope our empty plates made a strong enough statement!
And now I'm back at Lucky's, exhausted, and ready to wake up at 4:30 for the Taj at sunrise!
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