Why I hate India

Of the countries I have visited there is not one that I would say that I really do not like, that is until India.

India is nuts....let me say that again....it is nuts...when you step out of the safety of the airport it a free for all and you are swarmed by Taxi drivers. It is a really agressive society. After being in Nepal and being treated so nicely and everyone being so friendly I was in quite the shock in India, where 10 people will swarm you while you are stopped at a light and ask you to buy something or to go to their hotel.

We went to the Taj Mahal today. Which turned out to be an adventure that I do not ever want to relive. We got up at 5:00 am so we could meet downstairs for our bus for 6:00 am. Then proceed to ride a supposedly a/c bus for 8 hours only to be told that if we wanted a ride back to our hotel in Delhi (which was covered in our bus ticket) that we would probably not arrive until really late. Thus conveniently an alternate plan was made for us, we would be dropped off at a travel agent and they would take us via taxi to the Taj Mahal and other tourist sights and then be put on a train back to Delhi. Of course if we wanted to take the deluxe train we would have to pay extra. Elita and I vehmently said No...we will take the regular train. So, we see the Taj Mahal which is spectacular, then were taken to a marble factory and were told that this man is the descendent of one of the original builders of the Taj and is no in charge of taking care of it. He then told us all about marble and tried to sell us crap and kept talking about how it is free to ship, how it is like you are taking the Taj with you. My god he would not let us leave, finally we got out of their, having wasted an hour where we could have been seeing Agra. They took us back to the travel agent, where the man working there conviently owns a gem store and proceeded to take us there to look at gems. He was pushy and even suggested that we allow him to borrow our addresses in Canada so he could send some gems there and then have someone pick them up...we said no way!!! Then he proceeded to grill us about why we didn't want to do it. Finally to shut him up we bought some gems from him. Nothing too expensive...then we took a 3 hour train ride back sitting on hard wooden benches. My first experience with Indian trains and hopefully my last.