Thomson Airlines Boeing 757 Explorer One (G-OOBF)
Agra and Jaipur, India
Thursday, February 18, 2010

    This was another day that would be mainly travel. We left Siem Reap, Cambodia right after breakfast on our way to India. The flight took about five hours; a little longer than expected due to some rerouting by Indian air traffic control and a two hundred mile per hour headwind. We are now in the Indian time zone which is an unusual one hour and thirty minutes behind Cambodian time.

    We landed at the Indian Air Force Base at Agra. They have one or two commercial flights a day and are set up to perform immigration and customs duties. But since it is an active air force base, the security was thorough. We boarded buses and drove a short distance through the middle of Agra to the Taj Mahal. Actually, we had to change from our fossil-fueled buses to electric buses as we got near the Taj Mahal. They are trying to reduce the pollution near the site and thereby reduce the damage of the buildings.

    Even the electric buses can only get a certain distance from the site and then you walk the remaining distance. More bag searches, metal detectors, and body pat-downs greet you as you enter the gates. They are very cautious and strict about what can be taken into the sight. Bags are discouraged, and most items are forbidden – including all batteries that are not in acceptable devices, such as cameras.

    The Taj Mahal is quite magnificent. We were very fortunate to have excellent weather today. The sky was clear (maybe a little hazy) and the temperature was in the mid-seventies Fahrenheit. You must either go barefoot or place booties over your shoes while in or around the Taj Mahal. I went barefoot. The cool weather is a welcome change from the hot, humid weather since Easter Island. I had nearly forgotten what it was like to be outside and not drenched in my own perspiration.

    We were not alone at the site. At one point, the line to enter the site wrapped completely around the large building, but the line moved quickly. Our visit to the Taj was short – only about two hours. We then reversed the path we used to arriven and took our buses back to the airport for a short thirty-minute flight over to Jaipur, India.

    Since we had cleared customs and immigration in Agra, this trip through the airport was simple. We boarded buses and took the short ride to our hotel – the incredible Taj Grand Palace Hotel, a place once reserved for royalty. Here, there were more security checks, beginning with using mirrors to examine the underside of the buses. Exiting the buses, hand baggage was searched and everyone was scanned with metal detector wands, sometimes multiple times. This has been a day for security checks. The checks at the hotel were done tastefully and quickly and tempered with being presented with refreshments and grand greetings.

    Check-in to the hotel was instantaneous and we were again individually guided to our rooms. Dinner was ready as a buffet and available upon arrival. Our baggage was delivered to our rooms during dinner. It was a long day, and sleep was the order of the evening following dinner.