::Taj Mahal::

            34 hours on the train.

            Yeah.  That was definitely an event.

            I got really peeved when people kept passing by our seats/beds and pulling back the curtains we’d closed.  One time this guy lifted the curtain up and was looking in and I said (in my head) “Oh, no, you didn’t!” and pulled the curtain out of his hand.

            And then I kicked him in the head.

            Yeah.  That happened.

            Most of the time it doesn’t bother me when people stare or ask for photos, but every once in a while…

            The good news of the train was is that we survived it by ourselves and got off at our right stop and luckily Fahir, one of the hotel cab drivers, was there waiting for us at 1 o’clock in the morning.  We got to the hotel, crashed, and when we got up and ready we headed out to the Taj Mahal.

            The weather is perfect.  It’s just like what people always say London weather is like the sky is full of unfallen rain and there is a cool breeze.

            We bought our tickets to the Taj Mahal and one of the Indian photographers there asked if we wanted some “professional photos in front of the Taj Mahal.”  He offered to do it for 50 rupees.  McKenna bargained it down to 35 for all of us.

            So we went and had a photo shoot, which was pretty fun, and towards the end of it, considering the time and how many photos he took on his camera and ours I was thinking maybe we outa go ahead and give this guy 50 ruppees (roughly 90 cents) instead of 35…

            But once we had finished his poses in the different spots he had predetermined, he said it would be 1,000 rupees each.

            What….?

            Turns out that 35 rupees… was 35 rupees per picture…  So we bargained that down again and he threw in a cd and 15 prints of each of us for 525 each.

            Meh… that’s all right.  Some of the pictures are decent—and it was good because I’m not aggressive enough to get people to take pictures for me even when I really want them… so it turned out well in the end.

            Getting inside the Taj Mahal was a hastle.  There were people crammed together—and really—I feel like Agra meets my previous expectations of India: children and adults chasing you around with trinkets and harassing you to buy them or take a ride on their camel or in their rickshaw, etc. and people on all sides of you everywhere… everywhere there are people!

            “Just for you!  Special price!  First customer of the day!  We’re friends, right?!  All these things I am telling you for free!  Free of charge!  We’ll give you the Indian price—not the foreigner price!”

            Back to the point.   If you don’t know anything about the Taj Mahal this is the brief of the brief: The Taj Mahal was constructed as a tomb for Mumtaz Mahal, the beloved wife of one of the emperors of India, Shah Jahan.

We squeezed (literally) through the inside of the Taj to glimpse the intricate marble-carved flowers and the tombs.  Men scream and blow whistles constantly at people who take photos inside (which is prohibited—but blatantly disobeyed).  We waited after they drained the first batch of people out, and one of the tour guides caught up to us and said, “Look, look!” he had a small flashlight and went to some of the small, orange flowers carved around the outside of the marble gates around the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan.

            He pressed his little light against the flower and each petal that he touched with the light, lit one after the other as he moved it along.  Fahir took us to a modern carving shop where they do the same kinds of marble work like they do in the Taj Mahal, and we learned that this special Indian stone that lights up is called “Cornelia.”  He also showed us the different lighting effects of the Taj at different times of day (it’s kindof pink in the mornings, etc). 

            I asked Mr. Tourguide what the writing on the walls was.  It’s the Koran he says.  And then he walks to a corner and says, “Listen!” 

            “Ooooh!” he moans into the corner—and the sound travels to the exact other edge of the Taj in a perfect echo.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so impressed with an echo since I was a kid—I wish I knew how to describe really how perfect the sound travel was—like someone was at the other corner and made the same “oooh” just a few seconds after.

            He lit up some more of the carved marble and showed how it glowed in the light.

            “Money?” he said.

            I gave him ten rupees because I was impressed.

            I also gave a few street kids ten rupees just because I hate to see kids working in the streets…  This one kid saw that I was sympathetic because he was not willing to let me get away without his snow globe Taj Mahal… I just gave him ten rupees and said “no , thank you,” 30 million times.  I found out his name was Khash.  And he agreed that he was 8-yrs-old (which was my guess—who knew if he actually understood what he was agreeing to anyways?)

            The Taj met all expectations.  It was breathtaking.  Everything I dreamed it would be.  At the stoneworkers place we found out that it took 22 years to build and 20,000 workers (you might wanna double check that fact though).  That the rose and jasmine flower designs covering the Taj Mahal were chosen because Shah Jahan’s favorite flower was the rose, and the Jasmine flowers were Mumtaz Mahal’s.

            We got to see modern marbleworkers doing designs for table center pieces similar to the Taj Mahal’s design and they explained how it was done, which I can explain once I can get you the pictures.  AMAZING!

            First time I saw real art here in India besides the sculptures in buildings.  I was gonna cry…

            Good thing we left, because, that would’ve been weird.

I've got only the pictures that the "professional photographer" took for us.  You'll have to wait for the others because I don't have my camera cord.

I hate this picture, I just have to show you this because it's hilarious.  This is the Indian Taj mahal pose because EVERYONE was doing this.  And we were like... okay... it makes me look like genie in Aladdin about to crush this little Aladdin Indian coming towards me...