We had our trip to the Taj. They said it was a 3 hour drive, but it took us 5 hours! There were a number of "small" towns along the way. I thought the city was bad. The poverty was a little overwhelming. And, there are always people everywhere. Even on the "highway" you have cars (large and small), trucks, motor scooters, bikes, taxis (scooter with more room to sit), buses, rickshaws, bicycle carts, carts being pulled by cattle or horses/donkeys and people walking. And - you never know when a cow will be on the road.
We stopped for lunch. There was a family that were manning the toilets. A mom and her 3-4 year old son showed me into the bathroom. The little boy was so cute. He was excited to get me a roll of toilet paper. He grabbed one roll and his mother scolded him and he got me a roll that had more paper on it. They also helped me wash my hands and dry them. As I was coming out of the stall, mom was playing and hugging on her son. The love between the two was quite evident. I gave them 10 rs which is about 30 cents. DP told me later he would have only given 5 rs. I didn't have anything smaller than a 10 - but 30 cents is nothing - and he thought I should have given 15 cents.
There was then a man and his son (I think they were related to my bathroom buddies) who were putting on a show. I can't imagine what kind of life they have.
(editor's note - Here are some pictures from that part of the trip - I wrote a lot this day, so I'll include more in another post)
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