Day 9 - Road trip from Jaipur to Agra

10th January 2020

In the morning of Friday, after a good breakfast, which I personally had to skip due to nightly episodes of power diarrhea, we set off for Agra.
In India, distances are not measured in kilometers because it doesn't help in determining the travel time at all. The unpredictable traffic makes it simply impossible. So let's say, Jaipur and Agra are about 5.5 hours apart. Although at one point it was said to be 4 hours, but that was never realistic.The journey was uneventful except for a few interesting street musicians (see photo) who confessed their love to Marcel with the song "I Love You". The mood was still good... or so I heard... I "slept my stomach healthy" with a little pharmacy in my belly. It helped; I felt much better after we arrived and had a tomato soup.
But uneventful is not the complete truth: after an hour on the roads of India, Claudia screamed when she realized that she had left her passport and money securely locked in the safe in Jaipur ... still. After a moment of shock and subsequent panic, it was Ravi's time to shine. Within a short period of time and after what felt like 10 phone calls, Ravi hired a driver to collect the passport and money from the hotel and make his way to Agra.
After said lunch boost, we checked in at the Radisson... the best (and most expensive) hotel of our trip so far. The name Radisson is truly a guarantee of quality. After checking in, with a record-breaking 9 employees behind the reception desk and a short siesta, we took the bus to the west side of the Taj Mahal, the "Methab Bagh," which was built on the other side of the Yamuna River opposite the Taj Mahal. On the way there, we picked up our local guide Atiq. The view from this garden of the impressive building was breathtaking and naturally filled everyone with anticipation for the next day, when we would visit the Taj Mahal.
From the "Methab Bagh" we returned to the hotel, where our guide bid us farewell. After a refreshing break at the hotel, Ravi took us by bus to the Homestay Dinner at the "Aman Homestay" hotel. The hotel, which looks extremely colorful from the outside, serves its dinner guests either on the rooftop terrace (brrr... not today) or, as in our case, at a round table set up in the small lobby area. The table can accommodate approximately 16 to 18 people. We had the pleasure of sharing our table with some Australians and Italians whom we had already met several times during the trip. The special thing about the dinner is that only dishes that are cooked in Indian families in the evening are served. Everything was really delicious, and it was a very enjoyable evening that ended with the best chai of the entire trip.
Back at the hotel, which was only a few minutes away, we all had a nightcap at the bar, and some of us had one or two more in the hotel room. For everyone, there was also a dog concert until around 4:30 in the morning. It was a bit tiring because the 5/6 little puppies from the souvenir shop across the street were persistently and loudly barking. Shut up, you little rascals.
Insights of the day: To calculate the distances in India between point A and B, you use the simple formula: [Ravi's time estimate in hours] x [Factor 1.3] (sometimes even [Factor 1.5] depending on influencing factors such as pothole size, horn frequency, and suicidal tendencies of individual road users).