Blogs from Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, Asia

I spend the morning on a tour from a tuk-tuk driver. He said his name was Bobbie, but I highly doubt that. We went to Agra Fort where I’m sure had I paid an insane amount of money for a guide I would have been rewarded with endless details about it’s existence. But I actually wanted the abbreviated tour—it was 10am and I was boiling in the heat. Over a hundred and humid…*shudder. The fort was a military structure—built by the Mughals, important fun fact, Mughals are not Indians! I don’t exactly know what a Mughal is, but Bobbie stressed this to me several times so it must be important to them. Maybe equivalent to the Jam is not Jelly debate. Anyways, it was made by the grandfather to the man who ordered the construction of ... read more

I’ve never felt so good leaving a city…I’m sure there is a lot of charm there but I sure didn’t get to see it. The train station left a lot to be desired and it was packed! Looks like I’m not the only one looking to skip town. They have metal detectors to walk through and you have to put your bags through an x-ray machine—but I don’t know why. The 3 men ahead of me all beeped as they walked through and no one was watching the x-ray machine?! I just took it as a hoop to jump through and prayed that no one had ill-fated plans for the Jhellum Express train to Agra that morning! After finding my train car (not as easy as it was made to sound) I bumbled my way through ... read more

Whoever first uttered that nugget obviously never visited Bangkok in April. Sure, it's infernally humid but mix that with nearly 100 balmy degrees (F) and that has the makings of one hot city. I've been here a week and the last couple of days I've taken to staying in my air conditioned hotel room between roughly 11 am and 6 pm while catching up on the New England Patriots productive off season and the Celtics futility against the eminently beatable New York Knicks for which I was not about to wake up at 4:00 am local time to watch live on the internet. The rooftop pool is small comfort from the heat. I haven't blogged since early December 2012 from Turkey. Since then I've been to Egypt for 2 weeks, Ethiopia for a month, Nairobi for ... read more

Who's idea was it to take myself and my fellow client on a 22 kilometer "Holy Walk" at night, through a remote Indian village...Barefoot. Oh right...it was my idea. Sure the Taj Mahal is what everyone comes to India to see...(which we did) but what if you wanted something more than the normal touristy spots and stories? What if you had a chance to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a memory and a story worth telling...one that can't be explained with a simple photo. My first week in India over a year ago, my local Indian friends took me on this very pilgrimage and it opened my eyes to a whole new world I never would have dreamed real if not for my very own eyes confirming the impossible sights around me. ... read more

On the 7th, we woke up a little later than planned because Scott wasn't feeling well, ate breakfast on our hotel's rooftop (where we caught our last glimpse of the Taj), and caught a rickshaw to the public bus stand. Here, we waited in a dilapidated old bus for almost an hour before it finally departed for the ancient city of Fatehpur Sikri, about a two hour drive away. We arrived around 1:30 and ate lunch at a guesthouse that was kind enough to allow us to store our packs there while we toured the ruins, since we were only planning to be in town for a few hours before hopping on another bus bound for Jaipur. We began our tour at the Jama Masjid Mosque, which had no entry fee, but, as our guidebook warned ... read more