Mumbai to New Delhi to Agra

The second full day of trip began SUPER early today with a checkout time of 5:45AM from the YWCA hotel in Mumbai. Unfotunately, I think all of us are still trying to get over this jet-lag, and so the early wake up time didn't seem to be too big of an issue. The city of Mumbai was really quiet that early, and it was neat to see such a busy city in a peaceful state.

We arrived at the airport and boarded our flight to New Delhi. The flight was less than 2 hours and we safely reached the ground in India's second largest city. Once again we had a bus waiting for us at the airport to take us on a quick tour of the city. It was interesting to see how Delhi compares to Mumbai. While both are incredibly densely populated city, there was a striking difference between the New Delhi streets and Mumbai- it seemed like in Mumbai that people were literally filling every space possible- sidewalks, beaches, any sort of green space. Here in New Delhi, it doesn't seem to be as crowded; but then again, we only saw a small portion of the city so maybe it is just as crowded elsewhere.

Due to time constraints, we were only able to visit one historical site, but it was an incredible experience! We went to see Humayun's tomb, who was a Mughal Emperor of India in the 16th century (it was finished in 1572... give or take a couple of years, I don't completely remember what our tour guide told us!). The tomb is listed as a UNESCO World Hertiage site, meaning that it is of special cultural significance to the country. It was super interesting to see the locals and the tourists mingle together at the site. I think it must be awesome to have such a ancient site so close to your home- I can't even imagine having this giant structure anywhere in the midwest.

Our group outside of Humayun's Tomb

Humayun's Tomb

View of the climb to the main entrance of the Tomb.

In addition to seeing Humayun's tomb we also got to explore the Isa Khan Tomb Enclosure. This was on the grounds of Humayun's tomb, but was actually built 20 years earlier. This spot was also architecturally striking, and gave us a nice spot to rest in the shade from the overbearing sun.

SWE member's photograph Isa Khan Tomb Enclosure

After we were all overheated and needed water, we left the site and went to dinner at a local restaurant. The Indian food they served us was absolutely delectable. We gorged ourselves a bit too much, however, and all quickly fell asleep for our 5 hour bus ride to Agra, where we are going to see the Taj Mahal.

Once we arrived at our hotel in Agra we all met to discuss plans for our outreach activities in Walchandnagar next week. We discussed the order in which we were going to introduce the activities, carefully planning which ones we should introduce first, which activities should be on the same day, etc. We also discussed questions that we should ask the teachers before interacting with the students, and set a high level plan (but seeing as we're in India, plans are bound to change once we actually get there!).

We're now all safely back in our rooms and getting ready for the day ahead of us. Tomorrow it's off to the Taj Mahal and other sites around Agra, and then back to New Delhi!

From Agra, goodnight and goodluck!

-Jenna