Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Road from Agra to Delhi

The day after our visit to the Taj Mahal, Kristin and Amy packed up their suitcases and we headed back to Delhi. But this time they didn't leave until after the sun came up (whew!), so I was able to see more things on the road between Agra and Delhi.

The first thing I noticed in Agra was another large red building complex. Kristin says it is the Agra Fort. It is also known as the Red Fort of Agra. Well that makes sense because it is red!

I was surprised their was a Red Fort in Agra since I had already visited the Red Fort in Delhi. Kristin says the fort in Agra is very important because at one point it was where the Mughal government ran the country. I had no idea! You can learn more about the Red Fort of Agra by clicking on the colored words above.

I wanted to stop and see the Red Fort of Agra but the driver told Amy and Kristin we needed to keep moving because the traffic was going to get really bad between Agra and Delhi. Well the driver was right. Traffic was really jammed at times! It took us a long time to get out of Agra.

Once we were out of Agra and on the highway, I could see there were a lot of trucks on the road. These trucks are not the same as the big semi-trucks I see in the United States. They are smaller and most of them look very old.

These trucks are much smaller and sometimes are REALLY overloaded. Sometimes I could even see people sitting on top of stuff in the back of the trucks. Can you believe it?


I noticed several trucks with what looked like long sticks like this one passing us on the road.

Kristin told me the sticks were something called "sugar cane." Kristin says sugar is made from sugar cane. I had no idea! I LOVE sugar.

Our driver pointed out that the trucks loaded with the sugar cane were driving to sugar cane plants like this one.

It is probably hard to tell but in the photo below there are dozens of trucks loaded with sugar cane waiting to enter the sugar cane plant (just look for the big piles of sticks...that's where the trucks are). Here is a picture Kristin took from the car of a sugar cane field. I'm glad she told me it was sugar cane. I thought it was a corn field!

It takes more than three hours to get to Delhi from Agra (and even longer in traffic), so I had plenty of time to look out the car window. Sometimes I could see interesting little buildings that reminded me of the mud huts I saw in Africa.

Here you can see one Amy took with her camera's long zoom lens. Kristin says it looks like the roof is made out of sugar cane. I couldn't tell if people were living in these huts, but Kristin says people probably do live in them just like they live in the huts I saw in Africa.

If you look really closely at the photo above, you can see the walls of some of the houses look like they have patterns in them. I asked Kristin how the patterns were made. She told me they were made from mud patties like the ones you see below.

I saw fields full of these mud patties. Kristin said the patties are made from mud taken from the fields where cows live. Hmm...I think I know what's in the mud. YUCK!

I stopped thinking about the mud houses a few miles away. That's because I started to see camels. I LOVE camels! I had no idea there were camels in India. Kristin says the camels are sometimes used to pull large carts overloaded with items. This camel was getting ready to pull one of those large carts. And guess what? They walk along the same road as the cars and trucks!

These camels were taking a rest. Look closely and you will see there are patterns shaved into the fur coat of the camels. Very interesting!

About halfway through the trip we stopped at a rest stop along the side of the highway. Kristin said we stopped at the same place on our way to Agra. I guess I must have been sleeping when we stopped before. Anyway, the rest stop was a lot like some of the rest stops along the highways in Iowa. It had bathrooms, a small restaurant and a place to buy crafts and food for the car.

I really wasn't interested in looking at the crafts. I was more interested in the field next to the rest stop. It was FULL of sheep.

It is probably hard to see the sheep because they blend in with the field, but trust me there were HUNDREDS of sheep in the field. I also saw two boys watching after the sheep.

I got sleepy after the rest stop and I slept until we got to the outskirts of Delhi. Here are a few more photos Kristin took from the car as we made our way to the hotel in Delhi. Here some rickshaw drivers were taking a rest.

This is one of the modern gas stations I saw along the road.

And right before we arrived back at the Hyatt in New Delhi, I saw a train near the road. Kristin says traveling by train is very popular in India. I guess so! This train car was packed with people!

That's my trip from Agra to Delhi.
Bye for now....