Day 3 - Agra and such

This day was set up to complain and moan about the horrid road system set up in India. We left the house that morning with a full minivan + Tanvi(2 years old) so we didn't take the driver. Instead we trusted Sridhar mama. On the road we saw animals and taxi's so full that children hung on to the back to fit into it for a cheaper ride. Then we finally got out of Delhi/Noida and closer to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) and realized just how bad the roads and signage was. As we got closer to where we thought we had to turn a sign said go further ahead, when we got to that area there was no sign. So we asked a local- actually more like 4 of them- and they said go back to where the sign was and turn there. So we went back and then tried maneuvering through the smaller, more rural-looking, torn up streets. When we finally found the entrance (still couldn't see the huge monument) we were harassed into hiring a tour guide. And something important to note about tourism in India is that it almost always 20x more expensive to go as a non-resident of India. They have two different rates, 35 rupees for Indians, or slightly under 1800 for visitors. I understand that this allows a chance for poorer Indian residents to explore their countries' history, but the staggering difference is immense and even more expensive than many US museums after conversion. And this was not only at the Taj Mahal but the difference was found at all tourism sites.
Back to the trip, once we walked in the main gate and got a little info we passed into the entrance of the main grounds and I was so unpredictably amazing at the massive-ness of the picturesque landscape with the centerpiece as one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world. Only at this time did I truly appreciate all the credit that it received. It was then, and throughout the tour that I saw and understood what kind of effort really went into this massive project which was so expensive that the son of the builder put his father into jail for taking so much of public's funds.
After the Agra tour we headed back towards Delhi with the plan of stopping at Madura (birthplace of Krishna I believe). The roads and especially traffic was so bad there that after 3 full hours of driving and asking the police and the locals to find the place we finally gave up. Mainly because we were tired of going in circles and started to get hungry as well as realize that Sridhar mama had been driving for more than 8 hours that day with the horrid India traffic. On the way back we stopped at a little restaurant boutique at a train station. It was weird but nice at the same time to see so many people- mainly teens- there eating/talking/hanging out at 11PM.