- Dec. 17 - 18, 2012, Tuesday to Wednesday.
- We all arrived in Delhi for our last leg in the exchange program after an amazingly smooth flight via IndiGo; we were all welcomed by Ms. Pia Kumar, overall in-charge of this program, and other CII officials such as Ms. Indrayani Mulay. After lunch, our agenda was to have a "sightseeing bus-tour of Delhi." Since our hotel was in Gurgaon, Haryana, and was far from Delhi proper, and many of the delegates arrived late due to flight schedule concerns, not all of us were able to have a snap-shot of Delhi. I am quite thankful that I was able to see Delhi the last time I went to India, but it would've been nice to see Delhi once more.
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| The Lotus Temple from the airplane. Too bad we weren't able to visit. |
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| With friends from the other groups. |
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| Rachel and I with the Burmese. |
- The only peek of Delhi that I had and experienced was in Dilli Haat. Our bus went straight to Dilli Haat to do some shopping; Dilli Haat is a small government-handled marketplace that featured artisans from different states of India, showcasing their wares. (During our visit, most of the shops sold textile, since there was a textile exhibit/trade fair.) I would have wanted to stay longer in Dilli Haat and explore/experience the parts of India I haven't gone to, but we were only given 30 minutes to go around and shop. I told my seatmate and "buddy" for the evening to prepare ourselves for an "Amazing Race: Dilli Haat," and to condition ourselves for a lot of running. We were both looking for the same stuff anyway, so we'd pretty much stick together in Dilli Haat.
- I was able to buy a lot of cheap-but-not-cheap-enough souvenirs, and 2 pairs of ghungru (ankle bells.) I wanted to buy nicely-made kurtas there, but we had no time left to spare. We went back to the hotel, tired, and had to rest for our land-trip to Agra.
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| Right outside Dilli Haat. |
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| With Reymund. |
- The following day, we all woke up before the sun rose, and the weather outside the hotel fell to around 8 or 9 degrees Celsius. We rode the bus to Agra, stopping by twice to pee, and proceeded to see the Taj Mahal. Since it was another rare opportunity to see the perfectly-made marble structure, I opted to wear my caramel-brown-glazed beige-peach kurta, together with my brick-colored Rajasthani Nehru coat, my red scarf, and the new turban I bought in Jaipur. As for most of the Filipinos, and some of the other delegations, it was a kurta-and-salwar-kameez day; after all, why not wear something Indian while visiting the most iconic Indian structure, right?
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| Excited to see the Taj!! |
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| See the perfection?? It's way better when seen in person. |
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| It's always difficult to have the perfect Taj photo - the crowds in the background being one of the reasons. |
- We all went around like mad in the Taj Mahal complex. Gracie, Gino, Haziel, and I found ourselves away from the group, so we decided to stick together, while watching out for other delegates, to make sure we weren't left behind. We all wanted to take the "perfect Taj photo," and the perfect spot remains to be in the elevated area, near the Princess Diana bench. We were too busy taking out photos, so much so that we weren't able to join in the group photo with the almost-complete 210 delegates.
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| Jayson photo bomber!! |
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| Too late to realize that Gino's eyes were closed. |
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| Perfect Taj photo. |
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| Hugging the Taj!! :D:D:D:D |
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| Haziel's "wildest" photo ever. |
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| Touching the Taj once more. |
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| Fat Indian baby!! :D:D:D:D |
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| Too bright!! Taj Mahal became invisible!! |
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| With Ms. Pia Kumar. |
- Seeing the Taj Mahal again was like seeing an old friend you never thought you'd see again. Seeing the Taj again, despite being "familiar" to me, still left me in awe - its perfection, its color, its history, and most of all, its "love" left me with mouth agape and wonder. The sunlight was different this time when I went there. The angle of the sunlight made the Taj Mahal shine bright, with the general color of the surroundings being an amber-pearl hue, mixed with spots of colors from the colorful saris, salwar kameezes, and kurtas from both tourists and locals. I had the chance to sort of tour Gracie, Gino, and Haziel inside the Taj, and were able to meet the others outside the main Taj structure.
- After Taj Mahal, we had no more time left for Agra Fort, a supposedly relevant structure to the Taj Mahal, and we only had chance to see its facade from the bus. We were ushered inside another emporium to show us how a specific caste made the marble inlay similar to the ones found in the Taj, and of course, buy some things before we head back to our hotel in Gurgaon.
- I hope to see the Taj Mahal again soon, and hopefully, I'll be able to go around the Taj complex more slowly, so I can appreciate the structure more. I guess this goes for all the structures and sites we've visited. Nevertheless, the Taj Mahal trip was, I think, the only site where we were given the most time to go around and take photos. As for Dilli Haat, well, I'd love to go there again, haggle, and shop too!!
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