Travelling past big blue Krishna temples and crossing the green fields that are the home land of Lord Krishna, on the bus we sang the Krishna song, “Govinda Narayana.”

In Agra, we checked into the Clark’s hotel and, after lunch, went to where we got 2 at a time onto horse-drawn tongas, or little chariots. The skinny little horses dashed through the busy road and ours even crashed into a road barrier almost flipping us over! At the Taj Mahal, we divided into smaller groups and entered the grounds. A festival was going on and the huge achrage was full of people. I loved the fabulous parade of gorgeous saris and fabrics that painted a beautiful river of colour all around the Taj itself. Inside the Taj a few of us stopped and stayed awhile, following local guides and looking carefully at the inlaid gems and stones that decorate the interior walls of the tomb. The acoustics are perfect and it was hard not to call out some noise just to hear the echo.

Flowing the flow out, we wandered back through the gardens to the west gate where we found the others and jumped onto our bus.

A couple of us opted to go to the hotel to rest while the others went to the Red Fort. The evening sunset was an unbelievable firey ball of red. I sat and had tea and watched it from my hotel room. I heard that that evening at the Red Fort was one of the most beautiful ever: the Taj Mahal shining pink in the dusty distance, and the walls of the fort radiating red in the magical red glow of the evening.

Taj Mahal glowing marble

Eighteen interesting and intelligent people from across North America and South Africa had come together to initiate a journey.

The darling tour guide, Aarti, a Delhi resident, introduced the evening and gave an overview of the tour logistics, along with cautionary notes that the trip might be somewhat challenging, especially once we headed to the Himalayas.

The route ahead was from Delhi to Agra to Jaipur to the middle of the Thar desert, all in the next four days. After that we headed to the Himalayan mountains, into the remoter areas of India where just ten years ago there were no phones, no internet, and barely any hot water or electricity for that matter!

The next morning we started with a 7AM yoga class and meditation. Bodies were sore from long international flights, but we had a good stretch and relax plus a quiet meditation, remembering why we’d come and focusing on our deeper purpose.

After breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the Islamic mosque, Jammu Masjid for a morning stroll, dressed in the brightly coloured robes we were given to wear over our western clothes, and a climb up the minuret for a view of Delhi. All around we could see the pink, lilac, and soft pastel colours of the spread of two and three-story cement buildings that make up Delhi. There are no sky-scrapers; Delhi is a street-level city. Life below was already thronging with cars, donkeys, dogs, vendors, and cycle rickshaws. We were shown in one temple corner a real 1500 year old hair from the Prophet Mohammed’s beard.

Just outside the mosque we jumped up onto cycle rickshaws, like little chariots, and were carried into the inner streets of Chawdni Chawk, the 500 year-old marketplace of old Delhi. In here, we had to get down on foot as the alleys get narrower and narrower, shops cram together and monkeys jump overhead. Delicious deep-fried paranthas and colourful vegetables were served up and we were getting really hungry just smelling the savoury treats. We looked into shops filled with all the adornments needed for elaborate Indian weddings and Aarti shopped for items for her niece’s wedding.

For our lunch we drove to a Chinese restaurant and had a banquet of Chinese dishes. Every meal over the next two weeks would be different, as Aarti worked to select the menus for us and ensure we had a sampling of as many types of different foods that are available in India.

Later in the afternoon we found ourselves at the Sikh temple where we walked around the large cool pool of water, sat and meditated and listened to the chanting being broadcast from inside the temple. We then went inside, sitting in the great carpeted room, and meditated again, listening to the ringing sounds of devotional voice and tablas.

We returned to the Oberoi after a full, sometimes overwhelming, and exciting first day in India!

Cycle rickshaw ride through Old Delhi