delhi, india: the road to agra

{entertaining sage at the airport}

india, oh india.

nate travels to india quite often for business. when we moved to asia, i thought i'd never take a baby there, but after asking friends and researching a little, we decided why not? our destination got progressively crazier as the water got progressively dirtier...singapore, bangkok, india. despite my best efforts, sage and i barely left our hotel room the first five days thanks to coughs, colds, and a case of "delhi belly" for me. yuck. delhi is home to 14 million people and is consistently on the list of top 20 worst-polluted places in the world.

but

delhi is a mix of old and new, rich and poor, and is so colorful. i guess i was blown away by india in general. it is a different world.

{our view while quarantined in the hotel room}

since we didn't make it to the actual city of new delhi thanks to being sick, these photos are mostly from our day trek across india to the city of agra, home of the taj mahal. the drive to agra was about four hours each way, and it was the most eye-opening road trip for me. i feel like i saw a raw slice of spicy indian life. i never want to forget the dozens of skinny cows wandering the "highways," woman dressed in vibrant saris balancing water/sticks/anything on their heads, families of 5+ people piled onto a motorcycle, dirt and garbage everywhere, monkeys sitting atop the buildings, sheds built from cow pies, villages made from sheet metal and boxes, beautiful children (sometimes sans pants), the dusty dirty air, the delicious displays of fruit at the street-side markets, and the kind people who constantly stuck their arms out wanting to hold the white novelty -- sage.

many of these pictures were taken from my car window since we didn't get out much during the drive, and the air quality + mosquitoes were not so great. okay, and i was maybe paranoid about sage getting malaria/dengue fever/tuberculosis/every illness on wikipedia.

when we stopped to change sage's diaper, our driver motioned for us to throw the diaper into this field. "it's india!" he said.
sorry environmentalists, but most of the indian countryside looks like this.

i can't get over the beautiful, bright saris the women wear

this almost became the theme of our drive...trash everywhere, with a variety of animals wading through it...cows, camels, goats, monkeys, dogs, and pigs to name a few

when i motioned to take a picture with them, he motioned for me to pet his cow.
my hand started reaching out, then i came to my senses.

one by one, more people came out of the woodwork, probably curious to see this white lady who was excitedly taking pictures of their cow pies

it turns out cow pies have many uses, and can actually look artistic.
some indians cook chapati in "ovens" made of cow pies.

getting her indian on.