Taj, Jaipur, and back to my beloved mountains to see the Dahli Lama's residence...

---

Yay, another chance to the internet! I wasn't sure I'd be able to get around to it, but here we are again, and lots to update.

Yes, India gets under your skin. Like one of those worms they kept warning us we could get here. =P Crawled right under there when I wasn't looking, and there it is. I like it here. I probably also especially like it better now that I've had a little Western-world break, having been at Maria's house for a couple of days. She's 1/2 Indian and 1/2 American (*gorgeous* skin mix by the way....) and visiting with her at her house is like a little bubble of Westernization in this sea of India. Arriving at her house I had "upside-down pizza" and home fries for lunch, she had cereal to offer for breakfast (my favorite snack), a washing machine (so underappreciated in the States), and just little decorations around the house that just remind me of home. =) Her family was just wonderful to us, too. We really didn't have any of our travel plans pounded out yet since Zara's been in France, I've been working, and neither of us have any real idea about how best to travel around, and Maria's father was just sooo helpful. He's the principal at a Presbyterian seminary school, and they live in a really homey little complex of buildings together. He did so much legwork helping us figure out train schedules, taxi stuff, etc., and let us stay up late in their bedroom where the TV was so we could watch the World Cup (*What* a match!! And oh, the Zidane incident! How crazy was that???) . Seriously, I wish the US was bigger on soccer. It's just a great sport and almost the entire world other than us is so big on it, I feel like we're really missing out. Anyway, that's another discussion...

So, right now we're in the middle of a whirlwind tour around northern India. We decided in the end it would be easier and safer all around to simply hire a taxi for the entire tour, which in the States would be ridiculously expensive but here only cost us 13,000 rupees total, or about $150 each for one whole week of a private taxi-driving, across distances that yesterday took us an entire 24 hours so... what is that? Like MA to Georgia? Florida? Anyway, left DehraDun on early Monday (like... 5 AM, though it was supposed to be 3:30 AM so we were all up at 3:00 AM and then just sat around waiting for the taxi to get there.... for Agra, where the Taj Majal is. Basically arrived there late, had dinner, went straight to bed, and got up at 5:00 AM so we could get to the Taj at 6 AM, when it opens. Only.... the restaurant above our hotel, which does have a rather nice view, is *incredibly* slow, so by the time we got there it was probably actually around 7:00 or so, but nevermind. The Taj is, of course, beautiful. It's built on platform specifically so that the only background you have to it is the sky, it's all white marble with inlaid precious stones and beautiful carvings, and is (I learned) one of the Wonders of the World. It's actually also got a gorgeous gate that leads up to it, and two red sandstone buildings to each side, one that used to be used for pilgrims to stay in, and another for worship, I think it was? There's not much to see inside - there's the marble decorative casket (with the actual king and queen buried underneath) and a gorgeous marble latticework fence around it, but they don't let you go underground where the real stuff is. Overall it's just a gorgeous area to walk around, there being gardens and pools around it, and everything was built exactly symmetrical. I was hoping for a tour guide, but we'd gotten there too early, so we only got to admire it's beauty and read what was written on the little plaques.

Quick note - the shop guys around the Taj are horrendous - one little boy from a shop wouldn't leave us alone for a good 3 minutes or so but just followed us around, and everyone's always yelling at you to go to their shop. Honestly.... the more they shout the less likely I'll go!

Didn't get to see Agra fort, unfortunately, because we were scheduled to leave that afternoon for Jaipur, the "pink city" where the Maharaja lives. Pink because that's the color of welcome, and the king had the entire City Palace repainted that color for a diplomat that came to the city a long time ago, over its previous yellow. It's pretty cool - even though the Maharaja holds not official political power anymore, they remain pretty busy, owning businesses and doing social work, being appointed ambassadors to various countries, joining the army, and being world polo champions! There we did get a tour, which was awesome, and saw the world's largest silver containers - about my height and maybe 4 feet across? (They carried water, and when one of the previous Maharajas traveled across to the States, the had them filled with holy water with the Ganges, and declined to bathe or drink anything else... can you say too much money? =P ) There was also an armory, which was interesting with all the swords, knives, and guns they used to use, include sort of old-fashioned "swiss-army knives" in that they would be one piece, but with 3 different knives, or knives with guns concealed on them. I also that it as pretty amusing that in the same case they would display all these horrific silver and steel weapons, some for using while you stabbed a tiger in hand-to-claw combat..... next to back-scratchers! You know, like those long sticks with little "hands" at the bottom so you can reach.... right next to a hatchet!

We only stayed one night in Jaipur, which is too bad. We should have planned more days, but were told that it would only take one day so we only got to see the City Palace. There's definitely more stuff that I would have loved to have seen if we'd had the time, but oh well. After that we'd originally planned to drive from Jaipur to someplace between Delhi and Dhamshala, which is way up north beyond DehraDun and where the Dalai Lama is. Our taxi driver, however, who doesn't speak English very well (and obviously our Hindi sucks) either didn't understand what we were saying, or decided he'd prefer it this way (we pretty much said do it whichever way you'd like as long as you stay within blank-blank boundaries, since you're driving) and drove an entire TWENTY-FOUR hours so that we arrived in Dhamshala this afternoon! It was incredible. Of course we stopped every now and then, but not really for more than maybe 10 minutes each time, but he insisted he wasn't tired and he drove all the way through the night when we'd fallen asleep. We woke up still on the road, in the morning, and suddenly in the mountains! Craziness. Seriously, these Indians are such hardy people. Our guide on our hike up to the top of that 4000 m mountain in the Himalayas basically didn't eat, sleep, or drink the entire 2 days but just kept going like some Asian Energizer bunny, and this guy just kept going the entire night, on 2 cups of chai, chewing tobacco, and some dinner! Thank goodness, too, he's a nice guy. Uncle (what we call Maria's Dad - a general title of respect to people older than yourself) made sure of that, of course, but we're having a pretty good time with him (which is good, since we're spending *so* much time together. We're exchanging English words for Hindi, there's a lot of hand-gesturing going on, and I'm so glad I got through at least some of my "Teach-Yourself-Hindi" lessons back home, because those few phrases do help! Also, it's great that both Zara and I are there because (not only would it be insane to do this alone as a woman) together we can usually figure out what he's trying to say, or convey what we're trying to say in some language that he can get. Honestly, alone this would have been impossible!

Anyway, yes, we arrived in Dharamsala today, tired and sticky, but we decided to pay a little extra for a nicer place here since we're staying for 3 nights and it's a really nice hotel. Great view (we're back in the Himalayas, yay!! My favorite part of India =) =) ), balcony, and we have a little kitchenette and lots of room to ourselves. Still only something like $25 a night for us both too... Man I love Indian prices. It's going to suck when I go back to the States and pay $4.00 for just a cup of coffee again =P

Only thing we did today was take a little tour around the Dalai Lama's temple (really different from what I expected... I thought it'd be bigger, for one thing, and like a Buddhist monastery, but it's not really!) and around the town, but I think we're going to really like it here. We're up in the gorgeous Himalayas again, it's cooler, and it's relaxing. I can't wait. =)

---