The month prior to India (while we were in Jamaica) was when our team started to plan our trip to the Taj Mahal. We heard that it was closing in a couple years due to construction issues, and we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to visit one of the most historically known, wonders of the world. Even when it was an insane travel plan from where we were at for our ministry.
Why not? We were going to be in India, when will we ever have this moment again? This was our thought process up to the point of actually leaving for the Taj.
Also a little background, our teams are about to change for this month in Nepal, and going to the Taj was kind of our last hurrah as team Magic School Bus(MSB), to spend more time together and go out with a bang!!
So our journey to the Taj started with a very tedious logistical process. Which is a crazy process in itself. Just ask our girls (Sara, Saylah, Katherine) who did all the work getting our tickets, transportations, and everything else in between in order.
So our day started at 5am on Friday the 11th of May in Bangalore. We left our ministry house at 7am to catch our 10am, 2 and a half hour flight to Dehli. We landed at around 1pm and had to take the airport metro to get to the local train station in New Dehli to catch our 5:30pm, 3 hour train ride to Agra. It was around 110 degrees and we were carrying all our gear, standing out (as foreigners) in the crowded city and an even more crowded train station. We dodged traffic, vendors and rickshaws to get to the New Dehli train station from the metro station, only to find out our train has been delayed 2 hours.
But our God is good, after waiting about half an hour outside in the crowded heat, He gave us a really cheap private waiting area that had AC, food and comfortable couches.
Our train was delayed another 3 hours, and though it was cheap to stay at this rest area, we got charged every hour and with our world race budget, we didn’t want to stay In there any longer than we had to. We found ourselves back in the crowd with our heavy packs, heading towards the flat form where our train that’s suppose to take us to Agra should be. But behold, it was once again delayed. After about 6 hours of delay. Our train arrives.
We ran as soon as we saw it coming trying to beat the crowd to get our spot in the train. And with huge packs, a huge crowd, and blazing heat even at 10pm, it was sure fun getting to where our seats were. Did I mention how much we stood out? Every where we went it seemed to be crowded and we were always on tight spots.
We arrived in Agra at around 1:30am. It’s now Saturday of 12th. There was no sleeping for us, we didn’t want to miss our exit.
As we rushed towards the door as the train comes to a stop, we were met with people rushing to get in the train (doing the same thing as we did ) as we were trying to get out.
We found two taxis thankfully as soon as we left the train station to take us to our air bnb. By the time we were settled in, it was around 3am. We did not get sleep… our ticket to the Taj was at 6am so that we can see the sunrise… so we left our air bnb at 5:30am.
The day at the Taj was great!! We were in awe, not really because of the building but, that we actually made it there. After all the planning, the Uber rides, haggling of prices for motor transport, the crowded train stations, the hot weather, the heavy packs, the constant moving with no sleep, we actually made it…
We were there for only about 3 hours taking amazing pictures, videos, and making memories as a team. On this same day, we had to catch our flight that leaves from Dehli to Hyderabad, where we were suppose to meet our squad (so we can all fly together to Nepal).
So we got a taxi from our air bnb to the bus station, where we caught our 3 hour bus ride from Agra to Dehli, and our flight from Dehli to Hyderabad. It is now Sunday the 13th of May. And we still have little to no sleep.
Don’t get me wrong, the Taj was amazing, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to be able to see it and experience a very historical place. But when I look back on our trip to the Taj, I won’t really remember the destination.
It was going through the difficult journey with the amazing people the Lord has blessed me with. It’s the hard but amazingly fun situations that we went through, bringing our team closer together. It’s the late nights, tired grunts, the laughter (when you’re feeling frustrated), the joyful laughter, the cheesiness of us trying to get the best pictures, the deliriousness, the love and support that we received from each other, the team work trying to get ourselves to not miss the next transportation, and the realization that we truly are brothers and sisters in Christ.
It’s the story of how we got there and back that will resonate in my memory and my heart the most. The destination was cool, but The challenges of the process was amazing.
