Perspective and appreciation start to set in for real now…
Howdy,
After breakfast with Sonja, we hopped into a trusty cab off to the airport. We were able to send a quick blog before boarding and then hopped on the plane. The security there at the airport was stellar compared to in Bangalore where they never even compared out ticket to our passport or anything!
Ever been somewhere super hot and they have those super fine misters to cool you down? Our airplane had them on the inside! YAY! It was super cool and relaxing on the flight, with no real events to speak of until we started our descent. The smog we were trying to cut through was so thick, it required our plane pullout a knife to lead the way through.
Having been to Los Angeles I thought I had seen smog and pollution, but never have I seen anything like this…and flying over the stick huts and tents and freaky places right away put Amber and I on hyper alert. As we neared things, our spidey senses started to really tingle and we made an executive decision to upgrade our accommodations to that of a 5 star hotel, not the local flop house that was the original plan. Once we did that, we signed up for our tour of the Taj Mahal and two other fort/shrines and hopped a taxi to our new home. Even more were we reaffirmed of our good decision as we passed unbelieveable poverty, filth, criminal looking people and just plain scariness.
When we reached our hotel we were pretty freaked out. I am still shocked at how shocked I was, as I thought I had been desensitized with my various trips, and even with what we had seen in Goa and Bangalore, but I was 100% wrong. Dead wrong.
When we pulled up, our hotel was like an oasis in the desert to two weary travellers. Going to the front desk and checking in, then heading up to our rooms, we passed security guards at the door, gun detectors before being able to go into the elevators. We felt much better! Our room was on the 18th floor and we could barely see out of it due to the pollution. ICK! Upstairs for dinner as we did not want to venture out at all. Bed time was super great as we crashed hard! Off to the Taj Mahal tomorrow!
See you there!
A & A