I woke up rather early and was quite refreshed, considering I’d only had about 5-6hrs of broken sleep. The excitement is growing I think, and I’m too keyed up to sleep.
After a yummy breakfast at the hotel restaurant of fruit, and typical Indian food, we ventured off with our driver, Prakash, to tour around Delhi before our trip to Agra.
There’s around 10million people in Delhi, all crammed into tiny little living spaces. Space to call home is a luxury for many, and for the rest, the will camp wherever they can in order to have shelter over them. Many homeless sleep on the street in front of shops and houses, yet go to work during the day. Due to an increase in work options in the cities, more people are moving to the cities to gain employment. Rent prices are often out of range for these new city dwellers, hence their unique situation of homelessness while working. Even rooftops become suitable shelters with a few recycled materials such as large sheets of plastic and timber.
As we were driving around the city, we happened to come across a Sikh Temple. Prakash told us that the dome of this temple is pure gold and the interior of the building is exquisitely decorated in gold and finely crafted woodwork. The attached pictures don’t do it justice. It is truly beautiful. The goldwork, carved woodwork, stone carvings are works of art. The Sikhs give a lot to the local community, supplying worship, food (20,000 a day are fed in the big hall which seats 400 at a time during mealtimes – they do it in rounds – and notice the size of the wok in the kitchen, you could bath in it), medicine (both allopathic and Ayurvedic) and accommodation. We went into the hospital area and met the doctors. I could easily treat children here. Something to consider for when the Oasis Foundation team return next year.
Next we travelled 5hrs and 270km to Agra. The roads are good and drivers drive at a slower speed to avoid accidents. There’s not much to see along the way, although our wonderful driver, Prakash, does point out interesting sights along the way.
We pull into Agra in the early afternoon and visit Agra Fort. It was built by a son of the mogul king that built the Taj Mahal. After the Taj was built, this son wanted the kingship and overthrew his father, the king, by imprisoning his father in the Fort. There is a lot more to the historical story, and it shows that family feuds have been going on for centuries.
We eventually get to our hotel as the sun is setting. This boutique hotel we’re in is suitable for a good nights sleep, which we have after a yummy meal. The Indian food is pretty much the same as in Australia, with a greater richness and depth of the flavours. A big difference though, is they use buffalo milk, yoghurt, paneer (soft cheese) and butter in their cooking, so the food is very creamy.