where's a poet when you need one?

Today I saw the Taj Mahal in Agra. It truly is beautiful. Last night Lila and I treated ourselves to a "fancy"buffet dinner at the Sheraton in Delhi. Unfortunately it was already dark when we were driving there because it looked to be a completely different Delhi than what we are familiar with. The dinner itself was nice, the restaurant was great and the bathrooms were almost top notch. It felt like a timeout from Delhi; as if we were stepping into a different pocket of the universe which we understood. It also showed us that travelling in India could be a lot easier and nicer than what we've experienced. That sort of trip would also be a lot more expensive. Dinner cost the same as a few nights at our current hotel including meals.

To jump around a bit, the rest of Agra is not at all pleasant. Not only is it the home to the Taj Mahal, it's also home to a lot of people who prey on tourists and greatly detract from the experience. That's life.

Purell-er-ific

I don't even know how to start this. Purell, I bring it everywhere I go. I use it all the time, all over. I only brought one bottle. This is not even close to enough. Fortunately, Lila brought another 4 or 5. You see people urinating and defecating all over. There's no facilities to wash and if there are, odds are the water isn't any good. Kids love to come up and say hello and shake our hands. I've seen where they play. It's necessary. So far I've seen cows, horses, donkeys, camels, pigs, dogs, cats and elephants walking around the streets. This ignores the pigeons, rats, chipmunks and other "normal" animals I'd expect to see looking around. Most of the animals wallow in rotting garbage and crap. Both sleeping in it and eating it. At times, the smell can be overwhelming.

On to better things, in Jaipur, the pink city, we saw lots of nice palaces and other sites. We went to a bollywood movie (all in Hindi) and even had a bit of an idea of what it's about. I've had masala flavoured chips and eaten lots of food on the Shibati Express trains - it's the only train where they serve you food and it's ok to eat it. Right now I'm back in Delhi, staying at the Metropolis in Paharganj. It's going to be a slow day. Tomorrow we're hitting up the Taj and then we fly out to Goa.

so, since i last wrote we also went to McLeod Ganj, up in the Himalayas. We met a Tibetan monk Dawa who showed us around and also visited the Dali Lama's temple. All in all, a great place. I went for walks in some of the local villages (no cars, just paths on the mountain) and we also went to a waterfall where we met a bunch of overly friendly Sikh men who invited us to their house in Punjab. We're constantly being photographed by people. We now reciprocate and take their picture too. hmm, not a very interesting post.

I'll end it by stating how unprepared I was for India and how glad I am that Lila is here. She's a walking pharmacy. Imodium, anti bacterial wipes, purell and everything else under the sun. there's nothing like a very upset stomach and 19 hours of travel with either no bathrooms or very gross ones to make you appreciate the marvels of modern medicine.

Here's to surviving and thriving.

p.s. Yes, i'm going to Purell my hands after leaving the Internet Cafe, I can feel the layer of grime transfer from the keyboard to my hands..

a shout out to all my homies

This is a very quick hello. I'm in India and thriving. It's hot as hell hear and it's all I can do to stay hydrated. I've only been ripped off twice. After getting off the plane a sneaky government taxi official convinced me that i gave him a 100 ruppee bill instead of the 500. i'm sure he does this to all tourists. someone should take him out back and shoot him. I also purchased water that both Lila and I are convinced was a refilled bottle despite the plastic covering. needless to say we didn't drink it. the moral of the story is that your hotel is your friend and the rest of the world is trying to rip you off. The other moral of the story is that it is best to hire a rickshaw, auto-rickshaw or a driver to take you around. it's all the rage and makes everthing possible. Finally, I give my heart felt thanks to the person who invented air conditioning. When the days are above 40 and the nights not much cooler, it's a life saver.

I've toured New Delhi, checked out some bazaars and am now in Amritsar which is close to the pakistani border. Today we'll go to the border to see the changing of the guards and then check out the Golden Temple which is Sikh holy place.

Namaste.