Agra Sunday and the Taj Mahal

Where oh where do I begin?! I'm still dumb-struck at the Taj Mahal's beauty. I keep looking at all of the pictures because I can't believe I was actually there! It's made me want to visit more; not just in India, but around the world. Watch out World, there's no stopping this traveler now!

We left my place around 530am. We were supposed to leave earlier but Rahul had a late night and there's no way in hell I can drive in India – not that I want to – and I wanted to get to Agra and back in one piece. I let him sleep in a bit before calling to wake him up. The first stop was to get coffee, drinks, snacks, etc. The ride down was great. We listened to music, talked. The ride was about the same distance as to Rishikesh, but it only took 3 hours to arrive instead of 8-12. Score!

At first we stopped off at a tomb just on the outside of Agra in Sikandara, called Akbar's Tomb. Since we arrived around 9-9:30, it was still pretty early and Akbar's Tomb looked amazing. I figured after seeing the Taj Mahal, I'd be too exhausted and tired to stop and see anything else. Luckily, I was right. I only had to pay 100 bucks to get in to this place. It's set on 60 square acres. Like everything Mughal, it's all precisely planned. There are gardens to either side of the walkway from the main (south) entrance to the tomb. There were plenty of deer, antelope, and peacocks on the grass. I didn't see a sign that said you couldn't be down there but because no one else was, I didn't step out on to the grass. Most tombs feature “false tombs” where you can pay homage but the real dead body tomb is some where in the basement. There were several "tombs" towards the out of the building housing Akar's body. Quickly slip off your shoes and you can walk down to the basement to see Akbar's actual tomb. There's a man that stands guard over it. The room has a high vaulted ceiling and the man would sing prayers to the gods. It'd echo throughout the room and sounded amazing!

Apparently Akbar was quite the ruler. He built a huge empire and basically helped everyone to get along. I think the sign outside the tomb says it best so I'm going to post pictures what was written:

Definitely this tomb was elegant and peaceful. Akbar did an amazing job designing it! After we got hassled by touts to buy elephants (“2 for 200 bucks. No? How about 3 for 200?” “Ma'am, how would you like postcards. The whole book for 50. Okay, how about 30?”), we set off for the glory in all it's splendor, the Taj Mahal! I thought the touts at Akbar's Tomb were bad, there weren't ANYTHING compared to the ones at the Taj Mahal. It's really really sad to see so many people trying to rip you off left and right while you attempt to see devotional love in it's pure form. It's worse than the kids that stand out on the street intersections of Delhi trying to sell you random crap!

We found a parking spot. You could walk, take a rickshaw, or ride a camel rickshaw to the entrance of the Taj Mahal. I wasn't too happy with all the touts so I decided to walk. Up until the end of the 1-1.5km trek, we had touts trying to get us to take their rickshaw for only 40 bucks, then 30, then 20. Oh and there were TONS of vendors selling souvenirs. Rahul's dad had talked to me about these vendors when I met him. He told me that almost all vendors say they're selling marble but it's really only soap-stone which dissolves quickly. I knew not to buy into their words, no matter how "cheap" they were willing to go. We were low on paani at that point so we hit the restaurant just outside the gates to get some water and cool down in the AC before hitting the pavement again. The food was really good but the power went out about 5 minutes after sitting down. It was cooler than outside, but I was still sweating a bunch.

I had to pay 750 bucks ($18) to get into the Taj Mahal, it came with a “free” guide, shoe covers, and a small bottle of cool water. The cool water didn't stay cool for very long. It was around 1130am at that point and the sun was beating down. I kept trying to sip the water but when it's warm, it's hard to swallow. We walked around the complex a bit. There's a museum within the Taj Mahal area but the power cut out there too and as soon as we stepped in, I couldn't breathe and I started pouring out buckets of sweat.

Rahul kept trying to tell me that being there wasn't simply enough. I really needed to go up to the Taj Mahal to see it's beauty up close. The problem was, the heat was making me dizzy, my head felt like it was in a vice, he didn't get shoe covers (that's what you get for 20 bucks vs 750), and I know for a fact that if the stone pathways were as hot as they were, the marble Taj Mahal would be a million times worse. I convinced him to sit in the shade up close to the Taj while I cooled down. He asked me to ask a foreigner for their shoe covers. I told him to go through the garbage and get a pair out. He said it was gross. Then all of a sudden a whole big group of Indians rushed towards the garbage can and started sifting through the shoe covers. Apparently, the marble WAS that hot. Then one of the shoe attendants went through and grabbed all the good ones and proceeded to sell them to those who wanted them for 20 bucks a pair. Haha!

While we were discussing Mughal designs, how they built such an amazing thing with such little equipment, and what the other building next to it was for, I realized there were MONKEYS in the trees!!! I know Rahul is afraid of monkeys but they were all sleeping high up in the trees and I wanted to get some good up close pictures. He followed me up until one jumped from the wall to the tree to kick another monkey out if it's spot. Dude walked as fast as he could without literally running, back to where the Taj Mahal was. I literally had to jog to catch up with him.

After that we decided to see if the museum's power was back on. It wasn't. Then I realized there was a GeoCache at the Taj Mahal! However, the idiot that I am, left my phone in the trunk of the car so I had less that could be snatched from me. I thought the tree was “156” so we searched and searched for the micro cache but came up short. Rahul was convinced it had been collected up as garbage. I was convinced we didn't look hard enough, got home and it was tree “338”...d'oh! Then we took some more pictures of me with the mighty Taj and decided it was time for the AC car. We took a rickshaw back to the car. He conveniently stopped short so we could buy souvenirs from some crap stand. One kid followed me all the way down to our car trying to get me to buy 4 "marble" necklaces for only 200! Ignoring him did not work. Not only that, I didn't have any small change on me and I wasn't about to be given counterfeit money, a problem at the Taj.

I took some pictures of the Agra Fort as we passed by it. The place was amazingly beautiful and HUGE but I felt like up-chucking so I decided it was not worth the effort. Then I decided that I have to come back when its nice (i.e. not the summer time) and see this all again, with vigour! Rahul kept telling me he didn't want me to regret not doing all this before I leave. Quite honestly, I'd regret dying just to see it. I'm definitely come back and hopefully again this year! Theres just too much here to see in 2 months, even if you were to do nothing but tour the whole time.

I fell asleep in the car and Rahul woke me shortly before an exit where there's a Hare Krishna temple. I thought it was the HUGE statue that we saw coming down. Turns out, that was a different temple. We took pictures of that from the road. He asked me if I wanted to go in and take pictures but I felt it'd be a little disrespectful. He agreed. So we high-tailed it home from that point and stopped off in New Friends Colony (Delhi) to get Pizza Hut, came back to my place, had a quite bite to eat, and then time for bed. The problem is, I am too excited about my day to sleep. So I figured I'd write a blog first and then try to sleep.

Agra was a smelly, extremely dirty town; but it holds such beautiful old charming buildings. I have to come back and visit! And if there's one thing you should do before you die, it's travel to all the world sights that have awe-inspired you during your life. I guarantee you'll be a much happier person for it.

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On a side note, I got home and someone had been in my apartment rummaging through my dirty laundry. WTF?! Aunty and Uncle kept trying to replace the lock on my door cause they didn't have a key. They said it was for emergencies. I figured they wanted to snoop. Last I checked, going through clothes was not an emergency. How do I know it was done? I distinctly remember placing my black PJ bottoms at the top of the pile while I was getting ready to take a bath. And my undies were in the bottoms. When I got home, everything else was in order but a bunch of my shirts were at the top, the PJ's were down lower part of the basket, and my undies weren't in the bottoms. I can't call Aunty and Uncle out on that cause they would deny it and cause more problems. And while it wouldn't bother me if they wanted to search my room because they're snoops – I have nothing to hide in here – it bothers me that the only thing out of place were my clothes. If this is going to happen every time I leave, I don't want to be here!! What the heck should I do?

The Things Which Make Life Worth While

I received an e-mail from my dad in regards to my home sickness. It's funny how parents always know what to say to make their children feel better, even as adults! Basically he told me that how I reacted was a cursed family trait and if I needed to, find some place quiet and alone, cry until there was nothing left, then have a good stiff drink, and go back to enjoying my trip. There was also some encouraging words about how he was proud of me and how people he talks to about my journey are jealous of my zeal for traveling to India, alone no less. To be honest, I've never really done anything I felt was worth my Dad being proud of. It feels good to join the ranks of my sisters in his bragging rights!

Yesterday was good.

The weather was perfect (80-85F) with a warm breeze, no dust halo over the city, it was enjoyable! I turned off the AC/fan in my room and opened the door because it was cooler outside than it was in my room. In the afternoon, the home owner's dog, Princess, was outside all alone waiting to be let back inside. Rahul had surprised me and came to visit early so we could go watch the India vs. Australia cricket match at Moets (super nice but chill restaurant in the market here). Princess followed him in to my room when I opened the door because she didn't want to be outside, and wanted to be with someone. Rahul didn't want her in my room, I think he was afraid she'd get dog hair everywhere. Or he's afraid of dogs, not sure which. So I lead her outside with some bread and closed the door and she came back and started knocking/scratching at the door. At first I thought it was Aunty or Uncle so I opened it, and there was Princess, she rushed inside and laid down again by my feet. It reminded me of Sheila, my family dog that passed a few years back. So I left the door open so when the maid came looking for her, they'd find Princess.

Moets has Corona which helped with my home sickness a bit. It's one of the few beers that I actually enjoy! So I ordered one and a bunch of limes and made myself a lime/Corona beer and watched the cricket game until India was starting to loose too bad. Then the staff didn't want to listen to the game so they started playing really loud trance/techno music. Then Rahul's favorite batter struck out fairly early so then we called it a night. When I got dropped off, I fed the stray dogs that live in the alley behind the house. There's an older one and a puppy. The puppy barks too much but it's so cute! That study that says that having a pet or petting an animal helps reduce stress is true. I miss having a dog and getting to interact with three today (and the Corona, and the cool air) really helped my spirits!

Today I'm making Rahul go Geocaching with me. There's one not too far from me that's a micro cache. I've decided I'm going to plant my gnome travel bug in Goa since there's a lot of foreigners there and a lot of caches that are looked after by local people who think this game is a hoot. After we hit the cache here in Delhi, we're going to go shopping. I need some new flip-flops, a pair of heavy dangle earrings since my ears are starting to close up from just wearing studs, and a few new t-shirts if I can find them. The water here is super hard water and it's eating away at my clothes and leaving bad water stains since I don't have a dryer. I look like a half-hobo most days.

Rahul said we're going to wake up super early tomorrow morning and go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. He asked if I wanted to invite Sid and Shweta but I don't think they could get up early enough. Its supposed to be hot tomorrow so I want to get there when it opens at 6am and get it done and over with before I start to melt! Apparently the whole complex is made of marble so it gets super hot, to the point that your feet start to burn. That does not sound like fun to me!

Then again, Agra always seems to be a cursed trip when we make plans to do it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway!


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I had ordered an Azalea plant for my mom for Mother's Day. She received it today and said it was absolutely beautiful! I think she felt I was going to forget Mother's Day since I'm half way across the world, but I'd never forget my mother! I bought her a card from the equivalent of Hallmark, here in Delhi. The envelope doesn't self seal so I have to find some glue or tape and then a post office to send it. Hopefully I can get that done today as well!

Love you Mom!!! Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes In the Weather

This weekend we had planned to go to Agra. Once again, I think the plans fell through. I saw the weather report and thought it'd be too hot so I decided staying in Delhi would be better. Then we could go shopping! Turns out, the weather is doing a very peculiar thing. Possibly normal to India, but not to a Pacific Northwesterner. We, the people of the Pacific NW, are used to change. There's a saying, “If you don't like the weather report, give it 10 minutes cause it will change.” (I think that saying is true everywhere but we like to use it a lot.) Here, the weather has been pretty constant. The weather is always hot. That's what time of year it is. It's hot now and in July, the monsoons start. India has three seasons: Heat, Rain, Mixture of both. ;-)

So today Rahul came to pick me up. I had just checked my e-mail and received another security alert from the US Embassy. I told Rahul about it but he ignored it. We went to Barista to grab a coffee. While we were talking about the differences in education between the US and India, Rahul received a call from his mother. Apparently because all the national embassies were sending out warnings, the Delhi Police decided to amp up their security as a precaution. It was all over the news. To Indians, it's not a big deal until their own government says it is. Apparently the Delhi Police are so hush-hush about everything, that if they're saying to stay out of the markets, SPECIFIC markets even, then it means something's going on.

Our attention shifted from schools to where to go. We were planning on going to a market or two. I was in favor of going to a mall but Rahul said that the terrorist activities in Delhi usually try to hit a mall but never succeed, a mall would not be a good place. So what to do? He suggest visiting the stores in South Extension (South Ex) as it's not really a market but not a mall. Sid and Shweta came to Barista and suggested a movie. We weren't in the mood to see a movie. I hate movie theaters and I wanted to go shopping. Then Rahul's friend, Karuna had called. She wanted to meet up and would be in South Ex shopping for a Saree. Perfect! We parted with Sid and Shweta, who went to the movie.

Rahul and I met up with Karuna at a store called “Nalli” where they sell cloth to make Sarees, Salwar Kameez, basically any Indian clothing style. Karuna asked me what color I wanted for a saree to which I replied, “A darker blue.”

She asked a clerk to show them. And there it was! An almost near identical match to the saree I wore in my dream a few days back. I had to have it! It's a beautiful navy blue with gold embellishments! Now what's crazy is this dream. I don't remember all of it, just that I tried on this beautiful blue saree at a shop ...I think it had a redish carpet and I was standing on a platform...in front of Rahul and one of Rahul's friends. I'm not sure who she was, so we'll see in the coming weeks. I have to take the cloth to a tailor to have a shirt and petticoat made to wear under the saree as it is a very sheer fabric. I plan to wear this for the wedding I'm going to in the coming weeks. Beautiful fabric, isn't it?

In addition to the saree, Karuna took us upstairs to see fabric for making kurtis. A kurta is a shirt that's worn with Indian style pants, or jeans. I went through all the cotton fabrics they had and found four which caught my eye:



The blue paisley and salmon color fabrics will be worn with a cream colored bottom and matching dupatta. The white will be worn with black bottoms and my black dupatta. The purple with gold trim will be worn with jeans (we couldn't decide on any of the colors they had to match with the top). I paid about $60 for all of it and having it stitched should cost about $20, or so I hope. Karuna said she has a tailor who will stitch everything and have it all ready within a week. We're to go there some time this week to have it done. I'm really excited! I get to have clothes made...just for me! It's considered the cheap alternative to buying clothes already made (labels vs. non-labels) but I'd prefer to have a non-label that fits. No labels were fitting so I'm excited to have Indian clothing which fits! Only took a month of being here. The right people make all the difference!

After shopping, we went to Cafe Coffee Day to get a drink. While we were there, it started to rain. Within a matter of minutes, the clouds literally came and started to pour with thunder and lightening. The past couple nights it's been doing this, so I wasn't surprised. While it's raining, it's quite nice. After, it's muggy and sucks. Rahul and I made the mutual decision to just go to Agra tomorrow as it'd be somewhat pleasant, and to get it out of the way. On one hand, I'm extremely excited to see the Taj Mahal and all of it's glorious romantic beauty. On the other, I think the trip is cursed so it puts me off...

Sid and Rahul dropped Shweta and myself to my apartment so they could go get a suitcase from a relative. The car wouldn't start. Son-of-a... They thought it might be out of gas so they went to get gas but the car still wouldn't start. So Rahul, Sid, and I pushed the car out of it's parking spot. Sid jumped into the drivers seat and Rahul and I pushed the car until it started, half way down the block. Thank goodness for being a manual! However, that means Rahul's car is going in to the shop tomorrow; which means no Agra.

This is what I mean by the trip being cursed.

Rahul asked me how badly I wanted to go see the Taj Mahal. I told him how badly I wanted to see it. His response was, “So you want to see it as much as I want to show it to you?” Yep, pretty much.

He promised “hell or high water” we'd see the Taj Mahal before I leave. We only have two more weekends before we're out of options, unless I find a way to stay here longer. Which reminds me, I've been considering extending my trip a month. I think it would be fiscally feasible and would give me more of a chance to enjoy India. We'll see if it's possible or just a dream.

**Goa tickets have been booked. We're going to Goa and Hampi. I'm going to skip Mumbai since I've been told there's really nothing special there. I'd love to see the elephant caves which is off the coast of Mumbai but we don't really have the time. Not only that, I've decided that regardless if I stay and extra month or not, I WILL be visiting India again, soon. I just have to figure out a way to do it (=

This place is too amazing and I love it too much to want to leave. I wish the Mumbai attacks hadn't happened, then I could do a visa run and stay here for 10 years; or I could get a job without all the rules and regulation.