Agra!

I am finishing the last leg of my trip in Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort. I was worried that leaving the Taj until the end of my trip would be a mistake, that I would be all toured out and bored with India. But that wasn't true at all. The Taj Mahal is just as magnificent as I hoped it would be and I was not disappointed. I was a little surprised at the size, of course. From the front it appears to be a huge structure, but when you get inside you see that it is simply a mausoleum with a really, really high ceiling. I took a bunch of pictures and I will post them to facebook soon and leave you all with a link to view them.

After visiting the Taj I returned to my hotel to take a nap. I couldn't sleep the night before due to a combination of excitement and the noise of a construction crew, still going strong at midnight right above my room. The hotel I am staying at doesn't hold a match to the other hotels and guesthouses I have been to in India. I was in a room for two nights until I noticed a curious section of one wall that seemed to be open to a room next door. It's a little hard to explain, but the wall was wood paneling with one inch gaps and screening between. At one point I saw a light from the other room and realized that my room gave the workmen's storage room full view of whatever was going on in my room. I immediately pointed this out to the guy at the front desk and only after asking if he had a daughter, sister or wife did he seriously think about switching my room. The second room was a slight upgrade. The toilet has a seat and the room has a small window. That'll do.

The day before my birthday I splurged and spent the day at the pool of a nearby three star hotel. For the last ten weeks my bathing suit shoved at the bottom of my back pack looked like a preposterous waste of space. I probably would have thrown it out back at Gram Chetna if it wasn't mildly expensive and fairly cute. But I finally made use of it and the day was great. For the small fortune it took to get into the pool as a nonguest, I resigned myself to spend the entire day there, swimming and lounging about. Muna gave me her sunblock before leaving Udaipur and I apparently put a little too much faith in the label advertising the product as water resistant. So, for my pictures in front of the Taj Mahal I am wearing a long sleeved t-shirt under my tunic shirt to cover my sunburn. For generations my progeny will pass down photos of their mother, aunt, great aunt, or whatever else looking like a wreck in front of one of the most beautiful monuments on the planet. Ha ha. Oh well.

So that's all the news for now. I only have three days left in India, one day left in Agra. Tomorrow morning I will board a train at 7:35 a.m. and arrive at the New Delhi Rail Station in the late morning. I have about two days in Delhi before heading to the airport. Those two days will be spent buying souvenirs for my friends and loved ones. Souvenir shopping is one of the hardest things for me to do. After spending two and a half months in this country, I can hardly bring myself to pay the inflated tourist prices in Delhi. This is one of those things I shouldn't have waited till last minute to do. But I did wait, now I am forced to haggle and haggle hard.

Later gators!

MCC