India!

India is hot and hectic and exhausting, but pretty damn cool.

Our group met for the first time Saturday afternoon, and set off for a city tour.

besides me and dad, there is a guy in his 40s (?) from Sacramento, a grandmother (late 60s/70s) and her granddaughter (early 20s) and their son/uncle (40s) from Australia, a couple from Australia who emigrated from south Africa (early 50s), a gay couple from Australia (early 30s), a brat girl (late 20s/early 30s) and a British guy (mid 20s). All nice, and a pretty well balanced group. This is our guide's first tour for Intrepid Travel, but he was a guide for a French company for 5 years prior. He is really nice, and is really trying hard to please.

We took local bus, rickshaws, and the metro, and we saw the largest mosque in Delhi (maybe India too?), markets, old Delhi and just the hustle and bustle of it all. The highlight was the spice market--a bunch of little dark alley ways with shops filled to the brim with sacks of spices. At first it smells wonderful and looks exotic... but soon you start to cough and your eyes start to water from the air, which is permeated with chilies and all sorts of other spicy pungent aromatic goodness.

we finished off the day with a beer at this bizarre bar with a Texan theme... all the waiters wore black cowboy boots, black jeans, black shirts, red bandanas and cowboy hats, and the stools at the bar were saddles.

Anyway, we set off at 6am the next morning and traveled to Agra by train. We ate lunch and hit the red fort and then the Taj Mahal. Anyone that says it's not that impressive in person either a) wasn't there or b) is an idiot. The red fort was very cool, incredible architecture, and it's very very old. It used to be protected by an outer wall, a moat with crocodiles, an inner wall (70 feet high), and then an area with lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). If by some amazing feat an enemy was able to breach all of this, the road up to the palaces is very steep and they would roll huge boulders down it!

There are beautiful views of the Taj Mahal from the fort, but nothing prepares you for how beautiful and ornate and massive it is. It was truly spectacular.

The whole group went out for a great dinner afterwards and I slept like a rock because the day was so tiring. The heat really saps everything out of you.

This morning we left by local bus at 9ish for a 3+ hour ride to Galion. It was hot and harrowing--the driving is absolutely insane here--but actually kind of cool to see all the scenery.

After lunch we went to a palace of one of the richest maharaja families in India. It was a tribute to excess. The palace is huge, and still used--but a handful of rooms are open to the public as a museum. One of the most elaborate things was a crystal chandelier from Belgium... (Actually there were two!). Each one weighed 3.5 tons. Before they were able to hang them from the ceiling in the reception hall, the maharaja had a 50 meter ramp built so that 8 elephants weighing 1 ton each could be taken up to the roof. After the elephants were up there for a week and the roof didn't collapse, they determined it was safe to hang the chandeliers. Crazy.

After that we went to the Gwalior fort. Again--amazing architecture and gorgeous views of the city. Hard to describe w/o the photos. Unfortunately dad forgot to bring his camera charger and his battery has already run down. Hopefully someone else has a similar camera and he'll be able to charge it.

I think tonight we're going to go to a music and light show at the fort, and tomorrow we head to a small village where I think we'll be for 3 days. Doubtful that there's internet there, but you never know!

Besides the traffic, what's shocking about India is the contrast between rich and poor. It really makes you wonder how rich Indians view the rest of their countrymen, because it seems there have always been fabulously obscenely rich families, while the vast majority of the people just eke by. I suppose the belief in castes and reincarnation "justifies" it all, while also stifling impetus for change.

Anyway, I’m disgustingly sweaty and gross, so I’m going to go try and shower before dinner.