May 10-12 Colombo to Cochin part 1

June 23, 2023

Eight passengers left the ship to go on the excursion to the Taj Mahal, accompanied by one guide. The map on the right shows where we left from Colombo, Sri Lanka and returned to the ship, on the third day, on the left, from Delhi to Cochin, India., roughly 3.5 hr flights either way.

The view of Colombo from my balcony, before I left...later that day, Michael would take a Tuk tuk ride and go up the tower (Lotus Tower) to check out the view.

Driving through the countryside to get to the airport. And when we got to the airport, there was a little drama, because one of the passengers who happened to be traveling on her own for the flight, had the incorrect passport- the concierge had handed her, her daughter's passport instead of her own- and she had to wait for hers to arrive by taxi.

These were the stewardesses on the flight. Not as gruesome as they looked.

And this was the hotel in Delhi.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jA9kxDEekQW8Z1xz6 (welcomed to the hotel). We had an excellent dinner at the hotel, which is frequented by diplomats. The hotel is located in an area of embassies and after a full day of traveling, it did not matter that there were no shops immediately around. Just wanted to retire for the night. I had a wake up call for 5:15 am with room service delivering breakfast at 5:30. By 6:30, we were on our way to a train station for the 2 hour ride to Agra

The following pictures all taken through the tinted windows of the train. I'm not sure, but the train car was probably first class, because was air-conditioned and mainly filled with foreigners. There was constant food and drink service.

What struck me here, were the number of people walking along the tracks. It was almost constant.

Delhi is a city of roughly 32 million in a country of 1.4 billion. I'm not sorry that I took this excursion, but neither do I feel like I actually saw very much of India. Perhaps if we had driven through more of the city. I don't believe that what I saw was necessarily representative of the area. Kind of like driving down Cote des Neiges in Montreal , not really giving you a picture of what the entire city looks like. The area between Delhi and Agra is not only miles apart from the south of India, where we would fly back to, but geographically totally different. This is a parched area until the monsoon season, made up of mainly small subsistence farmers. There are no large conglomerate farms. The next source of rural activity, would be brick making and the countryside is littered with smokestacks where bricks are carved out of the dry soil, and then are slowly dried out over a course of a couple of weeks. These stacks might be owned by a collective small group but no large companies are involved. These stacks are also one of the main causes of pollution. Some days, the air is black and harder to see through than fog.

So yes, we saw some cattle on the streets, but really not nearly as many as I had expected.

We entered the Taj Mahal (meaning crown palace)through one of the gates (the imposing building on top).

Although the temperature was over 100f (40c), there was little humidity and as long as we weren't doing calisthenics, it was bearable.

To be honest, at first glance, I was not overwhelmed. But as I came closer to the monument, and was able to see the details, and heard the stories of the 22 year construction with 20,000 workers, I became more appreciative.

Leaving the Taj, we next stopped for lunch, where we each had our own thali plate. When the plate was set down in front of me, I was momentarily confused (ok, maybe the heat had got to me) and I thought that this plate was meant to be shared by everybody.