In Cochin we left the ship…
For a three day trip…

To New Delhi by plane …
And to Agra by train.

And by gosh…
The hotels were VERY posh…

But it seems…
I cannot find the words to describe the extremes.

In all my travels before…
Nothing has stirred me more…

Than this astonishing filthy terrain
Along the tracks of the train…

From Delhi to Agra in a two hour ride…
In the early morning light…

Cows, dogs, goats and monkeys that are roaming free
Have a better life then then the thousands of humans I see.

While in the rising sun…
From their huts I see them run…

And squat to relief themselves in open air…
While the rest of the villagers walk by and do not seem to care.

No public toilets in sight…
And we are told it is against their religion to have toilets inside.

A roach here has a better life…
Then what for humans I can describe.

When we arrived at the Agra station we had to look around
To not step on people that where on the floor sleeping all around

Then by bus we drove to the most beautiful building of them ALL…
The TAJ MAHAL…

Said to be the most beautiful incomparable Mausoleum
A building …much bigger then the Coliseum

Shah Jahan promised his wife to built the tomb in her memory…
To be remembered into eternity…

And he commissioned a building of marble as white as a dove…
To be built as a token of their inseparable worldly love…

It took 20 thousand people over 22 years-but the amount of money…
Bankrupted the country.

He was imprisoned by his son.
For what he had done

And from his cell for the next seven years
Had a view of the Mausoleum thru his tears

We visited the graveside of Gandhi
And had a cycle rickshaw ride in Old Delhi ..

An experience comparable to none
Crazy… foreign…wild…but a lot of fun!

We flew from Delhi to Mumbai before called Bombay
From a crowded airport but without delay…

An unforgettable trip…
But glad to be back on the ship.

Convinced…that these extremes to truly experience and realize…
Can only be done by ones OWN eyes.