Saturday was Rahki, an Indian festival that celebrates the relationship between brothers and sisters. Sisters tie a sacred thread (often embellished with fake jewels or sparkly flowers) on the wrists of their brothers or male cousins as a symbol of love and good wishes. In return, brothers offer money, gifts or sweets to their sisters with a vow to provide lifelong protection. To celebrate this popular festival, families headed out of New Delhi early Saturday morning to reunite sisters and brothers.

Unfortunately, we also headed out early Saturday morning to visit Agra, about 200 kilometers south. We were told the drive would take about three hours. It took seven.

The van picked us up at 6:45 so we could beat the traffic! Woo hoo!

The gang’s all here.

Off on our “happy journey.”

It seemed the whole city was trying to get somewhere else. These photos were all shot through the van window.

Trucks all encouraged other drivers to blow their horns, and boy did they ever! Most trucks also had the painted instruction, “Use dipper at night.” We learned that using your dipper means flicking your lights.

Our sweet driver Raju is not heeding the warning on the truck, eh?

I have lived and traveled in places with horrific traffic, but I have never seen anything like this! Bumper to bumper with nearly every imaginable vehicle. I expected to get on the highway here in New Delhi and then exit in Agra. No such luck. We spent much of our time crawling through village markets, weaving around back alleys, dodging cows, dogs and pedestrians, and rocking gently over potholes and speed bumps. Here’s a little video for a glimse into our day. Note the guy getting a shave in the midst of the chaos.

The sights and sounds outside our van were so compelling that I couldn’t be bothered to read or listen to music. At one point, we were stuck at an intersection where every driver pulled in to the middle so nobody could move until a sweaty young policeman stepped in and somehow restored a fleeting sense of order. Our hero for the day!

If someone had told me the ride to Agra would be seven hours, there is NO WAY I would have done it. But I’m so glad I did! I hope to go again some time, although I’ll be sure to avoid holiday weekends.

Wait till you see what we saw in Agra…