Back to Delhi

Hi to all the followers of the journey :)

I have just returned from Varanasi on the train in 1st Class and once again had a pleasant journey with air conditioned luxury and food supplied by the rail authority although this time there was a hair! Think it must be a feature of preprepared food here...
Anyway, arrived back in Delhi and stayed at the YMCA, yes the YMCA, all together now:
"Young man theres a place you can go
I said young man,
if your short on your doe....."

Decided to take a trip to Agra and the Taj Mahal and it did not disappoint even though it was over 4 hours away by coach. The building is a majestic palace of white marble surrounded by other unique architecture rarely seen in postcards. The gardens are idyllic and it is possible to sit by the side of the Taj taking in the natural beauty of the surroundings. A second Awsome site which was not spoiled by the thousdands of tourists because it is sooo large :) It is also environmentally conscious as no food is allowed in and no rubbish. You are thoroughly checked on entry... Even my smints had to go...
What i did not realise is the no polluting industry, according to our guide is allowed within 60km of Agra.

The mammoth road trip was an enlightening experience. The rules of the road appear to be somewhat confused, for example:
During our journey i witnessed the horn in constant use for warning other road users of your presence, indicating that you wanted to overtake, undertake, pull in, pull out, accelerate of break - or simply to show annoyance at fellow traffic weavers.
Along the road there were a number of strange events, until i realised that they were not strange at all and were in fact normal...
1. Cows walk, lie and chew cud in the middle of the road and this includes motorways! It is up to the traffic to avoid them.
2. Lorries and cars break down on the road and as there is no hard shoulder they simply jack up the vehicle there and then and complete repairs in whatever lane that they happen to be in.
3. Farm machinery was much more in evidence along the roads and many tractors and combines were out in force. Uttar Pradesh is one of the bread baskets of India.
4. The trucks on the road are all from the 1960's (But many are in fact modern), they seem to have small engines and doors mounted onto raised flat beds or metal sided blocks. All the trucks are hand loaded as there are very few if any forklifts/good for employment. However, the trucks are generally poorly prepared for the road as i saw a number of vehicles with bald if not to the canvas tyres and many also had no lights at the rear at all - this includes break lights - which is a little unerving if you are approaching them fast at night (Trucks seem to only reach about 30/40mph max speed and take a century to get there...
5. Rick shaws and motorcycles are common forms of transport often loaded to the brim, motorcycles with a family of three on with no protection is not uncommon, while rickshaws operate all hours and are loaded with up to 12 people, some sit on the roof and wave through the window at us as we pass :)

Anyway, it would appear that our tour bus was pretty much the fastest vehicle on the road, but i could not guess at a speed...

Delhi is currently being prepared for the Commonwealth games and the roads are under constant redevelopment, this means that on the journey we drove off road, sometimes forming up to 6 lanes from the 2 originally there!! Traffic went from lane to lane with no regard to others barring the hooting of the horns. We did get stuck in traffic on the way back and instead of arriving at 10pm we instead made it back at 2.30am !!!!! That is a lot of time in a coach.

Anyway, have run out of time on the computer, so will continue update from Jaiselmer.

Farewell for now :)