Tha Taj, Red Fort, & Palm reading

---

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. It was a very busy weekend and busy nights at the

hotel. Last night in particular. Mayur is currently living on the streets because of

some mix up with the hotel. OK, well he's not on the street, but we are shuffling him

around our hotels rooms for the next few days. It's kind of ridiculous, but as we told

Vasan, we're handling it American style.

So, I should update you on our weekend to the Taj Mahal, or Mum Taj Mahal I believe is its

full name. It means beautiful crown palace.... I think. Don't quote me on that one, I was

again sick as hell. This time I trace it back to the Pizza I had on Friday night before the

plane trip. The plane ride was ridiculous. Horrible. I was so nicely seated next to a baby who

cried, wailed actually, for 1:45mins of the 2 hour flight.The father tried to calm her down by

violently shaking the baby and shushing her. I won't get in to the diaper details, you can thank

me later. Anyhow we landed, and made our way to the hotel.



After we got our rooms settled, we retreated to get some eats and hang out. I was going to stay up

a few extra hours to call my brother, who had a hockey game that day, so everyone hung out with me.

Everyone meaning Tiff, Pat, and Charissa. My stomach only got worse through out the night, so I doubt

I would have been sleeping much anyway. The night ended rather poorly when we stayed up for nothing

because I had the time of the game wrong. Big surprise.



Saturday, I would not have gotten out of the bed if I had not been going to see the Taj. Not at all.

After everyone drug themselves out of bed, we made our way to the Taj. The ride was supposed to be,

let me stress supposed to be, 2 and a half hours. If we didn't have to dodge 3/4ths of Noah's Arc on

the way there, I think it wouldn't have taken almost 5 hours like it did. Anyhow we finally get to

Agra, which is the main city near the Taj. We were treated to a Pizza Hut lunch... Dave and Chris didn't

want to chance on Indian food while the were here. Sorry, I'm going to jump around for a second. This not

chancing the Indian food came from Wednesday night when we went to a traditional Indian restaurant.

I personally had a great time, there. Food was marginal at best, but the ambionce made the trip to the

middle of no where worth while. I got my palm read while I was there. Apparently, I will become famous

"being in the newspapers and tv", I will always have money, but never saving because I like to spend,

I will have twins; but here is the kicker. I will get married, AND!! have a mistress. Hysterical. For those

of you counting at home, he never answered my question about whether the twins would be with the mistress

or the wife. Then he tried to sell me a ring to protect against stomach ailments that I will be having.



Anyway, back to the Taj trip. After our adventure to Pizza Hut, we finally made it to the Taj, not the

one run by Trump, but the incredibly magnificent one. I think it is one of the 7 wonders of the modern

world. Anyhow, just some quick facts about it: It took 22 years to build with 20,000 workers pretty much

working 24 hours a day. It was built for this King's wife, sorry I forget his name, she died and he erected

a momument to her. After the construction, the King had all of the workers' hands cut off so they couldn't

create another. Kindda messed up if you ask me. After our visit to the Taj, we went to a shop where they

showed us how the inlaying of marble is done. A good portion of the Taj appears to be painted. It is actually

marble and precious stones layed into other marble. It is incredibly beautiful. Much like the hand blown

glass manufactorer in Venice, these guys were just showing us so that they could sell us stuff. Personally,

I wasn't a big fan of what they had, it was all gorgeous, but not my style, and I couldn't think of anyone

who would really like the items in the store.



After the marble place we began our 4.5 hour journey home. Again, I slept for 3/4th of it. The one laugh I

missed because I was sleeping was Pat mentioning he would like to have a beer when we got back. Suddenly the

driver pulled right over near a place where Pat could get a beer. That's service for you.



Sunday, we visited the Red Fort of Delhi. It used to be covered in white marble over the red sandstone

but the British stole it. They also stole the gold that covered the ceilings. Damn Brits. Now it doesn't

look nearly as majestic as it once had. They had a museum in the Fort but I had no clue what I was looking

at, so this really made no impact on me. There were also little shops in the Fort, souvenier type places.

I didn't really do much shopping.



On the way home we got to see more monkeys, this time not attached to leashes. They were running about in

on of the parks, and on a grassey area on the side of the road. I was suprised at how big they were. About

as tall as a 3 year old or so.



In a nutshell, that was our weekend. I, thankfully, did not have to sit next to a screaming baby on the

way home. I did sit behind Pat though 😉 There is also a story about Pat threatening some guy who shoved

Charissa. I didn't see it happen, but Tiff tells the story hysterically.



Finally, some updates about this week and this weekend coming. We had a very nice going away dinner

celebration for Milt. We will shopping at a mall tonight, we'll see how that goes. And Charissa and I will

be jet setting it to Goa Beach to enjoy our extended weekend. There is an Indian holiday, and the office is

closed on Monday. We decided to make best of the weekend and head to a beach resort. 7 star hotel? CHECK!

"Best room in the hotel"? CHECK! Private Beach? CHECK! It should be an amazing time. I have uploaded new

pictures, so check them out!

---

Comments

[James]

Nice
Enjoy Goa you lucky bastard. I'm so jealous that it physically pains me.