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Published: July 21st 2008
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Taj Mahal
It was smaller than it looks...honestly! Well, we finally made it to a place where we..well I can post. Katie keeps threatening to do one of these but somehow never gets around to it.
We are finally on our own, offically. All the people that we met on the Himalayan trek have gone their seperate ways. We met backi up wioth Lykke and Regitse in Agra and did a few things with them. I must say, that personally, i am getting abit tired of indian cities. The country itself, the "flora + fauna" are amazing and really pretty. But the cities (apart from mumbai, which i'll get to later) just aren't looked after at all. The streets are lined with garbage and dirt. The most noticeable of whichis the red fort.. it was really really reaaaaaaaaaaallly hot, we had even waited till gone mid day. Now.. i've smelt some bad smells working on a few farms etc.. but wealking over that bridge was something else.. Katie actually ran past it was so bad.
Now this paints a bad idea of india, which it shouldn't, because i/we are reallly enjoying ourselves. It's just takes abit to get your head around.
Before the red fort, we went
Red Taj
To the side of the Taj Mahal.. to see the Taj Mahal. We got up and got there for 7am in hope of seeing it at sunrise. Alas it was cloudy when we got there, but still hotter than hell. It has to be said, it is definatly worth going to see, although somewhat smaller than i imagined it to be (something of a contrast to what others thought) it was without a doubt a work of art. If anyone reading this is thinking of going to see it, i would recommend to go soon as signs of wear and tear are finally starting to show and i worry they may not doi the necessary maintenance till it is to late. Agra is something you really only need one day to see all of the "tourist destinations".. so it's kinda a good idea to plan to see it on the way through to somewhere else as we ended up with a day lingering around a little bit unsure what to do before we moved on.
Thankfully during this time, we had managed to have a driver for us. Krish, and he was great.. although he thought i was a little to quiet.. but then who doesn't reallly.. He drove us from the point when our train got into Delhi > Agra and then also from Agra > Jaipur. He stayed wth me kate Lykke + Regitse for 2 days in Jaipur to show us around the different sites.
Needless to say, the journey to Jaipur was somewhat cramped.. 5 of us in a normal car. It amazes me how.. sometimes, people in poorer countries can be scraping the bottom of the barrel financially, yet this guy, had a movie system in his car..it was quite surreal. Occupying our time there (6 hours or so in total) watching kingdom of heaven, which was every bit as bat as i had read it was.. but never mind. It passed the time eh?!
Jaipur is famous for it's pink city. The city itself is spread into 3 sections, Old, New and Pink city. We didn't exactly do the most in japiur it all honesty. We walked around the markets and went to a few castle's a temples but nothing of major interest. The weirded thing i guess was going to the monkey temple just outside jaipur. This is actually a temple associated with the sun god. But monkey's decided to make it their home and apparently there is a reported 5000 or so monkey's there. I wouldn't say i saw that many.. but there was defiantly ahell of alot of monkey's there.. some more amiable than others.
The next day we left for Mumbai.. our currently destination for the next 3 days before we head down to Goa for a few days on the white beaches under palm tree's.. we hope.. if it's not raining like it apparenlty is.
I must say, the 18 hour train ride to mumbai was worth it. It's is unlike any city we have encountered so far. Once you work your way through the slums (which it boasts some of the biggest in asia.. well i'm not sure boasts is the right word.. but you get the idea). You reach the old colonial centre, which is really nice and such a breath of fresh air. We have resigned ourselves to the fact we havn't left our western standards behind and feel far more comfortable here. You still get the odd beggers and guys with giant balloons asking you to buy stuff. But that part we don't mind. The streets are clean, the architrecture is nice, and, it's not that expensive.
So there you are, up to date. I'm not totally sure when we/i will post again. It all probability it will be when we hit singapore. So if i don't before hand, behave yourselves and don't do anything i wouldn't do..to quote Imogen from another site she wrote about me, be "Reckless and silly but in a lovely way 😊 And a good shoulder to fall asleep on."
Speak soon - Love to all
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