After a very light breakfast we headed to the Red Fort in Agra.

It is another world heritage site and is laid out similarly to the Amber Fort in Jaipur. It is the last palace of the Murghal kings and where the builder of the Taj Mahal ended his days under house arrest at the command of one of his rather nasty sons – a religious zealot who caused many enemies and weakened the dynasty’s power, ultimately resulting in its downfall when it was beaten by the East India Company in the 18th century.

Unfortunately it was a foggy morning but on a good day the king could look across from his balcony to the Taj and the resting place of his wife. The paintings and most of the mosaics have gone but you can still see the most beautiful and intricate carvings on both stone and marble (I know marble is stone but I mean the limestone and red brick).

Next it was off to a carpet making place. As part of the world heritage project The Indian government banned mechanised carpet factories from Agra and instead supports family based cooperatives where the carpets are made in homes. The carpets are hand knotted with value depending on both size and density of knots.

The prices are fixed which was a welcome change. The designs and colours were quite stunning and just about all of us bought something of one size or another. Mike and I got a beautiful blue one in the same deign as the carpet beside the tombs in the Taj Mahal. (That’s the only non-symmetric thing about the Taj. Contrary to his father’s wishes, Creepy Guy, as Baargy calls the last Murghal King, had his father’s tomb laid beside his mother’s, causing the one asymmetric aspect of the monument.)

The wool is imported from NZ, spun, dyed, hand knotted and cut in India and then shipped free of charge back to NZ. It’s the circle of life!

We stopped for lunch at a motorway food place, which had a variety of Indian and western fast foods.

We traveled to Delhi on a 6 lane motorway, the longest and one of the only motorways we’ve travelled on. Today’s story time was about Indian weddings and Bhagi told us all about his arranged marriage, which is still the norm for 70% of marriages. It was both fascinating and funny. He’s not only very capable and informative but also a comedian. He has these funny sayings. Every morning we get “Good morning India “ then at other times he sticks ‘dotcom’ on the end of phrases. ‘All good.com’ is a favourite. He also says ‘hola’ when he wants our attention on the basis that none of the other guides are likely to be speaking Spanish.

The gender differences here are very evident in the traffic. During 10 minutes of the drive into Delhi in the motorway I saw 3 women driving and none of them appeared to have men in the car. If there is a driver and one other man or boy, he will almost always be in the front seat. Likewise with the scooters, women are almost always on the back.

When we were at lunch one of the drivers took down all the side curtains. Evidently, after a terrible rape on a bus it is now unlawful for buses in Delhi to have curtains. Delhi doesn’t feel like a safe city for women and I wouldn’t travel anywhere out on my own. Kim had a few days here before the tour and she said she was constantly followed and felt distinctly unsafe, unlike anywhere else she has traveled.

The traffic into Delhi was very heavy with many people heading home after the 2 day New Year break.

We were going to the largest mosque first and the bus dropped us off near where it could park. We all piled into 3 rickshaws and battled our way through traffic, or tried to.

In the end, we and about half a million locals virtually ground to a halt so we piled back out and crossed the road into this very old local market that comes out by the mosque.

What an experience. The place was packed and colourful and amazing. Eventually we came to the mosque’s tourist gate only to find that it closed 20 minutes earlier. Oh well, off to the nearby Sikh temple. But first Bhagi had a domestic crisis. It was his son’s 12th birthday and he’d arranged for the family to be taken to dinner at a nearby town. (They are staying with his wife’s family over the holidays, some 1000km west of here.). Unfortunately his phone ran out of charge and no one had a cable for an android phone so we headed up the street until he spotted a shop with someone using a charger outside and he borrowed theirs.

The phone calls were made to connect driver with wife, son and brother in law and off we headed again down more narrow streets.

Our visit to the Sikh temple was great.

We learned a lot about the religion which focuses on equally and sharing before god. The temple was very busy, being New Year’s Day. 3 of the men and I wanted the loo but I opted out when I found even the locals refusing to go into the cubicles – a decision I would later regret.

We had to take off our shoes and socks and head scarves were dished out for those without their own. Being pretty cold most of the women had our own. We all had to wash our hands in this outside basin and then walk through a foot bath. Then we went upstairs into the main prayer room, which was very colourful.

We were allowed to take photos but not selfies or of each other.

Then Bhagi led us out to a kitchen area where food os prepared for everyone in groups of about 100 or so.

It is all supplied from local donations and most of the helpers are rostered or random volunteers.

The people waiting for food queue behind these gates and then are let into the eating area in a group where everyone eats seated on these long floor mats.

Again, volunteers of all ages and occupations are mopping the floors. After the plates are collected up and scraped clean so no food is wasted. The scraps go out to feed the dogs or cows.

Then we had to collect our shoes. Everyone with leather shoes returned to find them polished and we went into the room where there was a small army of men cleaning shoes.

It was very reminiscent of biblical stories: Jesus washing the feet of the poor and feeding the 5000. We were all really glad to have visited and learned a lot. Bhagi is Hindu, not Sikh but he is clearly impressed by the Sikh religion and comes from a religiously tolerant family. He is a Brahman, which is the priest class traditionally, although none of his immediate relatives are priests.

By now it was 7pm so we loaded back into rickshaws for the trip back to the bus park. The traffic was still heavy and I suspect we might have been quicker to walk though the rickshaws are crazy fun.

Once back in the bus we relaxed for the 20 min drive to the Jaypee Siddharth- wrong. The traffic remained unbelievable all the way and we arrived at 9.30pm. By that stage I was hoping every intersection was the one by our hotel as was busting for a pee. At least we provided entertainment for people in the cars and rickshaws with lots of waving and smiling. There might be more westerners in Delhi than in Kanota or Jaipur but we were the only ones we saw in the entire day and we must have seen several hundred thousand people. We saw some interesting sights on the way and managed some hilarity trying to interpret what was happening. The full on disco with guys dancing on the pavement beside some toilets was possibly the oddest.

Dinner was a beer and some nuts in our room at 10pm and that was probably more than we needed. Another excellent if exhausting day in India.