The Golden Triangle is a very historical trifecta of landmarks that exist in India. Made up of Delhi in the North, Agra in the southeast and Jaipur in the southwest, these three destinations are each approximately 250 km apart from one another. Each destination is packed full of highlights and landmarks that are worthy of days of exploration. It is not uncommon to explore each of the three points on the Golden Triangle for at least a week.
Patty and I did the entire Triangle in 36 hours, thank you very much. And if you are ever considering doing something similar in the future, I am telling you right now… DON’T.
Let me explain.
To get from Delhi to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal), Patty and I decided to share a taxi with two lovely girls that we met at our hostel. The four of us packed into an air conditioned sedan and met our driver at 5:30 in the morning. After naps in the car, we arrived at the Taj close to four hours later. It was epic and monumental and everything you’d ever hope it would be (more on that by clicking HERE). While Agra Fort is another popular destination in the area, we knew that there was a larger one back in Delhi (the Red Fort), and that we had to get on the road.
Patty and I arranged for another private taxi to drive us the almost 5 or 6 hours it takes to get from Agra to Jaipur. In case you don’t have a calculator handy, that’s 11 hours in one day in a taxi on the crazy streets of India.
Standing in front of an absolutely stunning masterpiece
We had a very difficult time reaching our contact in Jaipur, so we just crossed our fingers that we’d make it into town and somehow the stars would align and we’d find him when we arrived. The good news is, we did find him after an extremely exhaustive attempt at using multiple cell phones and numerous numbers. We met Kaushl’s brother (remember him from THIS entry in Nepal?); his name is Dewang. He graciously met our taxi and drove us to his friends house.
Unfortunately that’s where things got a bit sour. The gentleman’s house that we went to was nowhere near the old city we were hoping to see. He spoke no English and was just plain awkward. At one point he literally attempted to convince us to fly off the roof with him. It wasn’t fun.
The next morning we decided we didn’t want to stay another night and risk continued discomfort in the city- so we decided to high-tail our butts back to Delhi. We didn’t want to spend another $100 on a taxi, so we had Dewang book us “sleeper tickets” on a train. Paying a little extra for a rush order, we found ourselves with about 4 hours to explore all of Jaipur. Impossible. We decided to focus on the most important part- the City Palace (which was gorgeous).
The lattice and pink architecture of Jaipur
After taking many a picture, Dewang escorted us to the Jaipur train station. If you’ve never experienced riding the trains in India, then you haven’t experienced India. Sprawling and massive and scary and full of noise, there was not a more overwhelming option for us to choose for the final leg of our whirlwind journey through the Golden Triangle. Mice ran at our feet, stinky men stared and invaded our space, and we just prayed we’d make it back alive.
Six grueling hours later, we rolled into Delhi station. There are three stations in Delhi, by the way. We had arrived at the one opposite the one we had told our taxi to meet us at. So we waited… By ourselves… At the Old Delhi train station. Rats. Bats. Men and women urinating right in front of us. What’s not to love?
How about the taxi ride back to the hostel? We had an extremely long drive (because we’d gone to the farthest possible station), and the van pickup almost ran out of gas. So we had to drive around looking for a fill-up. At 1am. The drivers are crazy, remember, so inevitably we hit a big bump and I went sailing up and cracked my head into the roof of the van.
At that point in the journey- I just lost it. I cried uncontrollably in a van while Patty attempted to comfort me and the driver and hostel staff person asked if I should be taken to the hospital. After Patty confirmed that I didn’t have a concussion, I just begged them to (safely) get us home.
Stepping foot into Nirvana Hostel was like coming home, after all. We marched right into our room, I crawled into the shower and just CLEANED myself. I believe Patty’s favorite quote that I sobbed from the shower was “I… just… like… need SO much soap.”
The good news is, that was the low point of the entire trip we’ve had abroad. It’s over and done with and we experienced it and learned from it. There will be more blogs about specific sites we enjoyed afterwards- because there were quite a few that are breathtaking.
The point of this particular entry is that adding haste into an already stressful travel journey between three cities in five days was not a good choice. I don’t know that I wanted much more time in India, at least not on this visit. But I do wish that I hadn’t rushed us so much. I do wish that I’d taken the time that India deserves.
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