Tried for the Taj, landed in Delhi

Yesterday morning we (Kristin, Derek, Will, Lisa and I) left Dehra Dun on the morning bus and headed to Delhi where we needed to catch our train to Agra. Our bus left late, which was not a good start to our day as our schedule was tight. When we got to Delhi the 5 of us along with all of our luggage piled into 2 auto rickshaws.
As we headed to the train station we noticed a puddle forming in the road. As we drove a little further the puddle began to grow and eventually stretched across our 3 lane drive, being deeper closer to the sidewalk and shallower along the median. We were unsure of the source, but the smell suggested it might be a sewage pipe – gross! The water not only slowed us down, but traffic started to slow down as cars began to form a single line along the median and large trucks drove through the deep water splashing the smaller cars. Now for those of you who have never seen an auto rickshaw before, it’s kind of like a glorified golf cart which meant that we were open on all sides. At one point our rickshaw driver decided he needed to get gas which meant passing through the deep end of the water, flooding the bottom of vehicle. Lisa and I screamed a bit during this. Lisa gave an even louder scream just a few minutes later when we were back on the road and a very inconsiderate car drove by forcing a wave of sewage water over our rickshaw soaking Lisa’s clothes. It was around this point that we were pretty sure we were going to miss our train.
Kristin and Derek’s rickshaw made it to the train station before ours, but because the station is so big it took me a few runs around to find Derek and Kristin. As we all gathered together we were excited to see that our train was actually still showing on the schedule so we all dashed down the steps to our platform. Throughout this whole adventure we were red faced and sweating as it was a balmy 100 degrees outside. We panted and chatted a bit on the platform and kept our eyes peeled for the train. Will stopped one of the station workers to make sure we were in the right place. The gentlemen smiled and said “right platform, but train is gone”. We all looked up at the flashing sign that still showed our train coming, and the gentlemen smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said “sorry, it is already gone”.
Will and I had already seen the Taj, but when we asked Kristin, Derek and Lisa if they still wanted to go they all heartily agreed “forget it, let’s just get a hotel and stay in Delhi”. We all went back down the station steps, hailed a van taxi and headed to our beloved Godwin Grand Hotel where we had showers and naps.
Later that night we headed over a restaurant called “The Big Chill”, known for its western comfort food. We stuffed ourselves with fresh salads, pasta and delicious homemade desserts like hot apple crumb with homemade ice-cream. Delicious and gloriously satisfying after a long day in Delhi.