World Cruise - Days 11-12 - The Taj Mahal (Getting There)

It has finally come, I'm ready to knock a big one off my Bucket List - The Taj Mahal. It will be quite a trek to get there. Bus, plane, train, and by foot.

Our boat landed in Cochin, India the morning of May 3rd. We (there were 74 of us in all) took a bus to the airport with a couple of stops. The first stop was St. Francis Church - the first European church built in India.

The next stop was to view the Chinese fishing nets. I think this is the only place they are used besides China.

I was "lucky" enough to be selected to help them raise the nets. I was definitely sweating by the time I was done. The top picture is a shop there selling colorful dresses and scarves. I wish I would have had time to look.

Next was the 1.5 hour drive to the Cochin airport. The green buses were all around Cochin and were packed with people.

The flight to Delhi via Hyderabad. The first flight was 1.5 hours (and it was delayed by an hour), and the second flight was 2.5 hours, with a short layover.

We arrived in Delhi about 7:30pm to massive traffic (their rush hour is from 7:00am to 10:00pm every day) - just craziness, but exciting. I felt pretty safe in the big bus. We drove about 45 minutes to our hotel, The Taj Diplomatic Enclave, which was an amazing 5 star hotel. There was a wedding at the hotel and a few of those attending wanted my picture after I'd been traveling all day. Their clothes were so beautiful.

We had a most delicious late-night buffet dinner that the hotel had waiting for us, then off to bed to get ready for the Taj.

The next morning, we took a bus to the train station in Delhi, which was an amazing experience. We had to walk in the streets to get to the station because the bus couldn't park in fron. It was so packed and crowded - I loved every minute of it. It is incredible that no one in our group got lost in the crowd.

It was hard to get good pictures from the train, but it was fascinating looking out the window for the entire 1.5 hour journey. Along with fields of rice paddies and farmland, there were many homes like these, and people didn't seem to be worried about walking on the tracks.

One more bus from the train station, and a short shuttle to the entrance to the Taj Mahal. Here's a preview for my next blog entry...All I can say is - spectacular!