Friday, January 28, 2011

Agra

Our bikes are corralled in a small room at the front of the hotel with a guard on duty. After coffee this morning, Jan, Candie and I decided to take our bikes on a test ride to ensure that our brakes and shifters etc. were working properly but when I went to free my bike from the line-up, the handlebars had turned sideways. I had lost one of the two bolts on the extender and it was nowhere to be found. It probably worked its way loose on the taxi ride from Delhi. I have a small packet of spare nuts and bolts but none were the right size to replace the missing one. The mechanic on the tour had nothing like it either and we asked some local fellows if they could find something that might work… they found a nut that fit my thread pattern and went to find a bolt. In the meantime, we tightened the one remaining bolt which secured them nicely. We took our first spin in Agra… I will take time in a future blog to describe what I have begun to understand and call “the Indian dance called transportation.” The honking, the flowing together, the understood language of what happens on a roadway is extremely interesting and without equal!

Here’s my bike in one corner of the bike corral:

Our test ride was a success and there were no issues besides my missing bolt – we were pleased. And although the fellows that went on the hunt to find me a bolt never returned, the mechanic assured me that it should be fine – I will check it every morning before riding.

There is a great coffee shop right beside the hotel – with espresso, which is rare here. We were VERY pleased! At the coffee shop we met Morgan and a few other people traveling with her. Morgan will be doing this ride using her hand crank bike – she is a paraplegic. She is raising money for two reasons; one is for a $40,000 stem cell procedure that she is a candidate AND the other is also to bring awareness of what someone with paralysis CAN do – she wants to encourage others and support continued research of it. She is an amazing young gal with that can-do attitude that is so incredibly inspiring. A friend of hers is filming her adventure for a documentary and as he prepares this documentary he will be doing what he calls a “blog-umentary” on her. If you want to check out this blog here is the link: www.morgansride.com I will be following it too. She really is AMAZING!

Here’s Morgan:
We went out to visit the Red Fort also known as Fort Agra today. It is an unbelievable in size and workmanship… it comes equipped with a draw bridge, a HUGE moat, massive doors, open courtyards with 16^th century fountains, complex halls, dungeons and an entire wing for the harem, royal baths and the smallest mosque in the world – the Gem Mosque. This is where Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal for his (favorite) wife, became imprisoned by his greedy son. He was kept at this location until his death - his view, which is at the top level of the fort is across the river from the Taj Mahal – where he could see his work of love for his wife every day. He was entombed with her at the Taj Mahal after he died. This was his view (without the pollution I would imagine). The riverbed is very low right now but becomes a large river (the Yamuna) when the monsoon rains begin to fall.

Here is the place where he was imprisoned – it has the same semi-precious stone inlays as the Taj Mahal. The fencing keeps people from digging out the stones – some are missing.

And much of it really is RED:
Here I am inside just one of the many entrances to passageways within the fort. I have so many pictures of this place but I figured you might want to see me instead:

Our group meeting was this afternoon from 3-6. It was a productive meeting and addressed every concern and logistical question we could think of. It is nice to have such experienced people heading up our trip. Once the meeting was adjourned, I finished packing my permanent bag (the one that will stay on the truck until our rest day in Jaipur) with the hope that it would fall within the 15 lb. weight limit – which it did - 12.9 lbs. Whew!!! I will turn in my other bag before breakfast in the morning with the very same hope - that it does not weigh too much – I’ve got my fingers crossed.

I was able to buy one hour of internet in the lobby this evening and enjoyed a visit wi my friends at the YMCA at home. I had trouble hearing them because of the noise in the lobby, but it was great to see their faces and join the Friday morning coffee gathering we have all come to enjoy. I also made my first Skype phone call and of course called home to check in – all is well on the home front and my dog misses me terribly… not sure about the rest of them! Haha! J

Tomorrow we load up our bags before breakfast which begins at 5:30 am, then we are off to the Taj Mahal for a group photo. We will leave Agra caravan style (on our bikes of course) and once we are outside the city limits then we will be allowed to break up into smaller groups – always having at least one male in each group is the rule. It’s a cultural thing that is for our protection and I’m all for it!