August 29, 2004
On the way to Delhi, we stopped at our first Indian McDonald's. Can't say we enjoyed it too much. Everything was spicy and, well, just weird. No beef eating in this country, so they have a Maharaja Mac instead of a Big Mac. I think it's chicken...or mutton...
Journal and photo by Matt Candelaria
Well, here we are on Sunday again. I end up going to the Taj Majal again with Chanda and Nancy, because, what the heck? They really stick it to the foreign folks
for $17 dollars a person. I figure this is once-in-a-lifetime stuff so I am trying to ignore costs as much as possible. Turns out this is terribly easy here in India, with the value of the Rupee to the Dollar. I quickly pack around noon time and grab yet another Pizza Hut pizza (such a wonderful thing to find some normal food), and we are off to do some sort of photo shoot before we leave Agra for Delhi. We end up along the River with the Taj Majal in the background and, lucky us, the D1 starts running rough. Turns out one of
the plug wires is failing and we need to fix it. We find a nice bit of shade off the side of the road, and of course the entire world is there to watch. At this point, the Agra journalist that was doing the photo shoot needs to leave, but before he does, he warns us to be careful because this is not a safe area. I have been put on guard-the-tools duty, and let me tell you we needed someone watching over things. There were a half dozen kids poking and prodding at everything. At one point I catch one of them with his hand inside the car. The very same little kid I catch climbing on top of D1. He just will not go away. I am watching him very closely, and while Nick is somewhat distracted making Iridium phone calls this little fella has his eyes staring directly at his pockets. It seems clear
that these kids are up to no good, especially this one little fella. One of the other kids motions towards one of the other children and says "pick pocket"; now I know there is concern. Nick is now starting to get fed up with these little brats and keeps trying to get
the kids to go away. Nothing seems to work, and he finally grabs a can of WD-40 and sprays it towards them. Not AT them, but in their general direction. This seems to work for the most part. I now stand guard with the WD-40 can, and it seems to keep them at bay, at least 10 feet away or so. Looks like we managed not to loose anything, at least this time.
| Logbook for Aug 29th, Day 303 | ||
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Start: Agra, India Time: N/A N: E: |
Finish:Delhi, India Time: N/A N: E: | Mileage: |
| Notes: We were planning on leaving between noon and one, but a fouled cyllinder on D1 prevented that. The problem is most likely a result of bad gas. We fiddled with it for several hours and eventually had to arrange a tow to the Land Rover service center in Delhi. The vehicles require a flat-bed truck for transport, and Justin searched until he found one. It was a bit of a tight fit, so we removed the Santa Cruz mountain bike, and we held our breath. Nick had to climb out through the driver's window, because it was too narrow to open the doors. We lashed everything down and rigged it so the vehicle wouldn't hit the side walls on the bumpy roads, and then we left. We hit a McDonald's along the way (It was already dark and well-past dinner time by now.). They just don't do Micky D's the here the same as they do it in the U.S. The Chicken McGrill was too spicy for wimpy nancy to eat. The truck was slow, and it took a while to find a loading ramp for the off-load, so the recovery crew was up all night. Everybody's at the YMCA now and working hard on various tasks. Today was a long day. Oh, and we even did a photo shoot for a local newspaper. (N.O.) | ||
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