Holy Ganga.

If anyone has any aversions to seeing dead bodies, I don't recommend reading this post.

Varanasi is so gritty and in your face. I am fascinated by this city and everything is so natural and cyclical. When I first arrived, I walked out of my hotel and down to the ghats. I am staying right next to a burning ghat where bodies are burned 24 hours a day. I can smell the smoke from my hotel room. One of the first things I saw in this city was a body wrapped in some cloth being tossed onto a fire. It seems like that should have phased me, but it didn't. There are hospices near the burning ghat where people come and stay, waiting to die.


Last evening I took a boat ride down the river at dusk and we stopped on the other side and got out to walk around. There lying in the sand was a human skull. Right next to that, men bathing, and a group of boys were running around in the sand flying kites. They even let me take the string for a minute and I tried to fly the kite, not so successfully.


This morning on my boat ride, I looked into the water and floating next to our boat was a body. Maybe this is insensitive for me to photograph these things, but I am fascinated by everything taking place next to each other.


Bodies are burned, bodies are washed. People are cleaning their clothes and setting them out to dry, people are relieving themselves in the river. They are selling food, lighting candles, throwing flowers, offering puja. Little boys swim up to our boat to say hello. All of these things are happening on top of each other.


A couple of guys were trolling around in a boat this morning watching television. I don't even know how that is possible. We have power outages constantly in our hotel and yet they are watching television in the river.

My country is way too sterile... and at the same time, there is no way I am going to even dip a foot in the ganga. I was laughing last night as a bit of water splashed up from the boat and hit a foreign girl in the face. She unloaded most of her water bottle on her skin and mouth trying to wash off the toxic river. (Apparently, not a believer in the holy water.) But with the latest newspaper report of fecal content in the ganges, I don't blame her.

Varanasi

Arriving in Varanasi after being in the cool mountains was like a slap in the face. It is scorching hot and by 10am it is too hot to wander around. So I have been getting started around 5am when it is a bit cooler.

My not so luxurious hotel does have a couple of luxuries. One is a free boat road on the ganga every morning at 5:30am and every evening at 5pm. So far, this has been the highlight and a good way to see a bit of the city without too much physical exertion on my part. The other luxury was the free pick-up from the train station so after my night journey it was great to have someone approach me with my name on a sheet of paper and escort me to an auto rickshaw. No hassles or stress.

The not so great thing about my hotel room was the first room I had was somewhat of a cell block. In fact, other travellers had written things on the walls and drawn pictures and that was written above the door. At about 11pm last night, I changed rooms. So now I am paying for two double beds, but I have A/C. My first room was only equipped with a ceiling fan, which more or less just stirred the heat around a bit. At night, it becomes not only hot, but very humid because of the river and the pollution.

Goodbye monks and McLeod Ganj.

On Sunday I said goodbye to my monk friends, the cool air of the mountains, and my amazing view of the himalayas from my hotel room. Joseph and I took a sleeper bus from McLeod Ganj to Delhi, which is a 12 hour journey. The word "sleeper" for me meant no sleep. I thought having a bed on the bus would be useful for night travel, but it turns out it is a bit hazardous. I also didn't realize that they book 2 people per bed. Umm, let's get cozy. So Joseph and I crammed into our compartment and did our best not to roll out of the bunk or have any more spouts of vomiting on our way down the mountain. I am not sure if Joseph posted his epic tale of vomiting on the airplane to Amritsar on his blog, but if you like that sort of thing, you can follow his blog. http://eatpadek.blogspot.com/

Oh yes, and to be clear, I didn't end up swimming with the monks. I only watched, which was for the best. Later I saw a foreign girl swimming in the proper attire, shirt and pants, and the entire crowd of men at the pool stopped to watch her. After scoping out the situation, I figured less attention for me would be best. But we did have a lovely afternoon walking to a waterfall.

Another side note, and moment of amazing coincidence, I was in Delhi for just a few hours after taking the night bus. I had purchased a ticket for a night train and was walking down the bazaar in Paharganj to gather my things and I saw Frieda walking in the street. She had come to Delhi to pick up her daughter from the airport and meet with the publisher. It was amazing to see her even though for just a few moments. Who would have thought that was possible?

Free Tibet.

I am sure that many of you are aware of the issues in Tibet right now with the Olympics approaching this summer. It is difficult to travel and to talk with so many people and see demonstrations and not feel some responsibility.

Every evening in McLeod Ganj there is a candle light procession with the Tibetan monks through the streets, which ends at the temple with some chanting and prayers. We joined the procession the other night, which was very peaceful.

It is incredible to see such a peaceful religion and people who have experienced so much brutality. One of the monks I met the other day trekked for 44 days across the himalayas into Nepal to escape with a group of Tibetan refugees some 15 or more years ago. He stayed in Nepal until just this year when he came to India to learn English.

We walk past tents everyday where Monks are sitting in a hunger strike to protest against China.

Monk friends.

In my opinion, everyone should have some monk friends. These are the fellas that I practiced English with in the meadow outside of our hotel the day before yesterday. They are also responsible for throwing the best birthday party ever. Joseph and I also have a special invitation to join them at the river today for washing clothes and swimming. I didn't even know it was legal to swim with Monks. Don't worry, I won't be irresponsible like some of the other foreigners I see. I plan on wearing pants and a t-shirt for my bathing suit. Especially after I spotted a group of drunk Indian men spying on the other foreigners in their bikinis yesterday on my way back from my hike.

Birthday celebration.

Today was my 27th birthday and was by far the best birthday I have ever had. For one, I am in India, so that was a guarantee. Also, I have been wanting to be 27 for a long time. Odd numbers are way better than even numbers and 27 is specifically appealing to me. There is an entire psychology I have developed behind that, but I won't go into that now.


Here is how my birthday went down. I hired a guide named Pinku, who was really more like a mountain goat than a man. We did a day trek in the Himalayas. I hiked up to Triund from McLeod Ganj, which is typically 3.5 hours, but we did it in 2 hours since I was hiking with a mountain goat. On the way, I learned several things, one of which is that rhododendrons are edible. Who knew? And we have plenty of those in Seattle. They make them into chutneys or teas or eat them with chillies. I can verify it because I ate several with Pinku on the trail today. But you have to be careful and eat them at the right time or they will make you vomit or get a headache. This was explained to me anyway.

I was feeling quite in the Himalayan element when we had to squeeze through several hundred sheep and goats on the trail. The sheepherders were moving them to a different area for this time of year.

After we reached Triund in just two hours, I decided I would rather go on further than turn back to so early. The trail was difficult and exhausting, but only an hour further and I could reach the snow line so we pressed on. There are several chi huts at different stopping points along the way, where I met some other foreigners. We had lunch at the one located at the snow line. It was totally amazing. There were thousands of ladybugs on the ground and I think I was responsible for stepping on quite a few because they couldn't be avoided. And there in front of me was Moon peak, a snowy mountain pass that was my stop sign for my hike. Several people had attempted to climb it that day with crampons and ropes, but they turned back for whatever reason. My legs were already feeling it just making it to the snow line.

And just because I am in a country of complete contrast, the hike couldn't end with this perfect scenario. On the way down we went a different way, which was sun exposed the entire time. I was sliding over loose rocks and gravel, no real trail for a good portion of the way. I was feeling a bit aggravated that we didn't go the same way we came because it was so perfect--really hard and challenging, but completely worth it. The other side of the mountain was my nemesis. My knees were aching from all of the pounding and sliding. We finally made it down near this waterfall, but I was feeling too tired to walk over and even look at it. I just wanted to make it back so I could take a hot shower. After the trail leveled out I began to feel better and soon forgot that I was feeling grumpy. It only took us a couple of hours to climb the mountain and it took me nearly 3 hours to make it back down because the trail was so tedious. It usually goes faster on the way down, but that was not the case. We also had to end with an uphill climb since we came down a different way. When we made it back I asked how far this hike was. I was told it would be 9 km round trip. So I was thinking I was really out of shape and pretty lame for taking so long, even though I made it faster than what they said it would take. But then I learned from Pinku it was actually 9 km to Triund, the first stop.... another couple of kilometers past that was the snow line. So it was more than double what I had thought making a total of 22-23 kilometers. That made me feel a bit better since there was justification for my worn out body.

After I got back I treated myself to a hot shower. We have the luxury of having a shower in our hotel room this time and there is hot water for the first time in weeks and weeks. I met up with Joseph and we went out to a birthday dinner. He had scouted a couple of restaurants during the day while I was on my hike so we sat on the rooftop of this hotel and had a really nice meal. That's right, we ate chicken. Oh, the goodness of non-veg. Just as I was getting ready to order dessert he said, "okay, we have a party to go to. We will have dessert there." I was very surprised. Now, if you haven't stopped reading at this point out of boredom, then you will be surprised too. I spent my 27th birthday at a surprise party with some Tibetan Buddhist monks. That's right, I said monks.

Yesterday, we were walking on the road and we met some Monks along the way coming back from an English class. They have been speaking English for three weeks. We went and sat with them for a couple of hours and I helped them practice English. They were so fun to hang with and had a great sense of humor. So tonight, they wanted to celebrate my birthday with me. We went to their apartment and had some birthday cake. You can't imagine how hard I was laughing listening to them attempting to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. They also surprised me with a special white scarf that is to signify good luck. I was also given a bracelet, a hand drawn card, and a blessing on my birthday cake. It was very memorable and the best and most interesting surprise party I have ever had.

Himalayas.

Yesterday, I took a seven hour bus ride from Amritsar to Dharamsala. It was a long ride with no AC. But I was feeling energized as we gained altitude and escaped some of the heat. I had a little friend sitting behind me whose fingers made their way onto my shoulders many times. I enjoyed the company. You are never alone on a public bus. They are packed beyond seating capacity.

I suddenly felt very flexible and at ease when I saw the white peaks of the Himalayas for the first time. This is out the bus window. We are staying in McLeod Ganj and I hired a guide to take me on a one day trek tomorrow for my 27th birthday. Seemed appropriate.

The border.

Saying hello to Pakistan.

While in Amritsar several days ago, Joseph and I went with some Punjabi acquaintances to the Pakistan border where every night there is a parade and some national pride is displayed by both the good people of Pakistan and India. Separated by an iron gate, the countries military "representatives" (I say that because they look pretty ridiculous) march off and lift their legs to each other while parading around. I am not sure what this is supposed to mean, but I think it might be a little too much nationalism for me. I did enjoy watching the civilians fight over who was going to sprint down the street to carry the flag.

Flattering or not?

During my travels in India, on about a daily basis I am asked to be in a photograph, which I don't complain about because I am constantly taking photos of other people. I just figure it makes everything equal--mutual curiosity. However, I think sometimes situations become a bit extreme. For example, I was visiting a Jain temple in Ajmer last week and one photograph turned into an entire fashion shoot. The family continued to increase. Suddenly there was another sister, a mother, a grandmother, more sisters, brothers, uncles. The next thing I knew there was a baby in my arms. Then I was being somewhat undressed and a fancy scarf was being wrapped around my head. My earrings were taken off and replaced by the ones the daughter was wearing. Then some blinged out necklace was placed on my neck. This entire photo shoot seemed to last forever. The funny thing is this was all done on my camera because they didn't have a camera. The family didn't speak any English, but from our sign language I think I am supposed to mail them all of these photos when I get home. I have an address written in Hindi, which I need to have translated at some point. So there I will be in all of my white glory in ALL of their family photos.

Good people of India.

I have met so many lovely people during the past couple of weeks. Here are a few highlights from my time in Rajasthan:

Some Jehovah's witnesses who wanted me in their family photo in Jaipur. I am guessing they will be sending me some brochures int he mail because they were fresh out. A lovely family.

Joseph talking to this Sikh guy who plays field hockey for India's national team. He is planning on being a famous player and gave us a good lesson about his religion. Good preparation for our pilgrimage to Amritsar and the Golden Temple.

I was escorted through the vegetable market by another man to take this photograph of his friends.

A beautiful woman in the vegetable market outside of our hotel who was incredibly friendly and pulled me aside to take her photo. I so wish that more of the women here could speak English, but the men are usually the ones with education.

Several young Muslim boys in the bazaar on our way to Dargah Masjid in Ajmer.

By motorcycle, rickshaw, train, bus, and plane.

So I have attempted on numerous occasions to post photos, but for some reason I have had a spell of bad karma with the internet places. I probably didn't say everything right when I was forced to offer a puja at the bathing ghats. But Joseph has had a bit better luck so if you want to see a few photos of your journey you can check his blog. http://eatpadek.blogspot.com/ You can find out about our adventure with a blind bicycle rickshaw driver.

I am currently at an airport in Jaipur getting ready to fly north to hopefully cooler weather for a little bit of a break. We are on our way to Amritsar to the Golden Temple and from there we plan to take a long bus to Dharmasala in a couple of days. Since my last post I have been to Jaipur, Ajmer, Pushkar, then back to Ajmer and Jaipur this morning to catch a plane to Delhi and then on to Amritsar. Since last night I have been on a motorcycle, a rickshaw, two buses, and now I will go on two planes. No trains today, but I have had plenty of those. Our bus ride to Jaipur was amusing. They overbook the buses so our seat numbers didn't even exist on the bus. We met another American and all sat up front next to the driver on a side seat that was over the engine. Our feet were melting from the heat of the engine. Thankfully, it was only 2-3 hours.

I have plenty of stories to tell but I think I have to wait until I have better computer karma. Maybe one of these days I will explain why if I weren't Christian I would be Muslim and if I weren't Muslim I would be Sikh.

Wrong impression.

I may have given a few people the wrong impression in my last post. We actually had a really fun time in Jaipur and were highly amused by the effort to scam us. But we really were not in any danger. But, just for fun, our scammer is in this photo. Can you guess which one he is?
A. To cool for school in blue.
B. I'm a cowboy belt buckle boy dressed in all black on a hot day.
C. One of three small boys selling reject photos of several Asian people riding an elephant.
D. Pasty white guy.

Dehradun to Delhi to Jaipur to Ajmer.

(Photos will come later. What kind of computer doesn't have any USB port???)

Four cities in four days. I said my farewells to my dear friends in Dehradun on Monday night. It was strange to leave my home in India to head out on the next adventure. I had an email when I returned to Dehradun from the boys home at Selaqui that Joseph was already in India, so I made plans to meet up with him.

I took a night train to Delhi from Dehradun, and my good nature got the best of me. I gave up my seat so two sisters could be in the same section. However, my new seat/bed wasn't as nice as the one I had before. Instead of being one long seat/bed like the other ones, it was two seats that folded down into one, placing the metal frame in the small of my back while laying down. All night I was trying to sleep on a metal bar since the cushion was thin. I could barely sleep. But it was my fault so no complaining.

I found Joseph when I was walking up the bazaar in Paharganj in Delhi. He was riding like a king in the seat of a bicycle rickshaw on his way to check on tickets at the train station for us. So I hopped in and we booked tickets to go on a night train to Jaipur for that very night. I was exhausted after our day of sight seeing and was hoping to sleep well on the train that night. However, I was afflicted with 4 snoring men. Why?! That was the one time since I have been in India where I was wanting to escape. I was fine with bed bugs in Agra, I could handle taxi drivers and touts, but I was not patient with the snoring men. I actually thought about chucking my water bottle on the man sleeping in the bunks across from us because I was so impatient and desperately wanting to fall asleep. I think I got my fingers wet considering splashing it in his direction. The chorus of snoring men was an assault on my soul.

We arrived in Jaipur at 5am. That is when our day of aggravation began. Although, I will say upfront, I take everything as an experience rather than as a bad memory. My one day in Jaipur went something like this...

We couldn't get the hotel we wanted so we were taken to a hotel by the rickshaw driver. It was 5am and I needed sleep. Suddenly he was ours for the day. What was I to do? We slept a bit and then our rickshaw driver came back to be our tour guide. Ali, the driver, was friendly, 24 years old, and spoke pretty good English, however a bit shady. We went to some sites and he kept pressing for us to go to this textiles shop. (So we knew he would be getting a commission for taking us there.) We told him we didn't want to go and he took us there anyway. Joseph was upset and told him so. Then there was an apology. You are my bother. Jenni, you are my big sister, etc.

Somehow, during the day, which wasn't all bad, he invited us to come to a party with friends. A farewell for a friend going to England where there would be lots of travellers, etc. I wouldn't have gone on my own, but with Joseph I decided it could be okay to meet some people and we would just leave if we didn't like the party. So we went, and there wasn't any party. We sat there wondering when the party was going to start and were having a nice conversation with a couple of the guys about politics, voting, arranged marriages. One of the guys had two wives and seven children. He was 26 years old. Then they started in about being business partners with this gem business. I could not believe it! Not the notorious gem scam! I thought, there is no way I would ever deal with this. If anyone approaches me asking me to sell gems it will be easy. NO! So we told them flat out it was not going to happen. But it was irritating that the entire day was a setup to meet up with these guys to try and dupe us into reselling gems in America. At that point, we had Ali take us back to our hotel. I went inside and watched out the window as Joseph had a little heart to heart with Ali, our driver, "our friend, our brother." (I say with sarcasm.) Joseph told him he was upset. The price had been left open to us and so Joseph said he was going to pay him more, but that he would be getting less because he was trying to be dishonest with us and was disrespecting me, and wasting our time. Ali wasn't happy about this, but we really paid him well, especially for all of the run around. More than what any of the guide books say is necessary to pay for a day tour. Plus we bought him and his friend lunch and paid for a ticket he got from the police earlier that day. He was really getting out ahead. The heart to heart was a matter of principle and then we were done with it.

Let me tell you, gem scams are alive and well in Jaipur. We cleansed our system by playing cricket with some boys in the park this morning and took another teenager out to breakfast after talking with him and all of his buddies. Then Joseph and I caught a bus to Ajmer, which is where Thalis became my new best friend--an enormous plate of food with a variety of dishes and a stack of naan bread. Oh that cures everything. We love Ajmer so far and the people here are very friendly. I refuse to believe that everyone is going to scam me so even though we watch out for these things, we are still traveling with the idea that we can make friends and meet lots of interesting people.

Farewell small boys.

This last week was also my last week with my boys. I am leaving to meet up with my friend Joseph to do a little traveling before I head home. The boys that I have worked with, eaten all of my meals with, and tucked into bed every night continued to ask me all week, “Mam, why you go? Don’t go, mam. Mam, when you come? Mam, I will never forget you. You are a nice mam.” These were all of the words that melted my heart. I felt terrible to leave my boys. But even though they were asking me to stay, they were never really sad and they still had so much joy.

I wrote the boys letters and gave them some photographs on Friday. I wanted to do something nice for all of them before I left and they always ask for photos. But, once again, they showed me up with their love. I have never seen any children more excited. They came home from school and were laughing and reading their letters and looking at the pictures, trading them around, reading each others, showing me… for hours. It was more excitement than Christmas in the west. Some of the older boys had received new bibles that day from their house parent so they put their letters and photographs inside the pages to keep them safe. They save every letter or photograph they have ever been given.

That night they had a going away party for me. The boys did a choreographed dance for me holding tree branches. It was hilarious. On Saturday, I had to leave and said my final farewells to all of the children. The boys wanted to try on my backpack, which they couldn't lift.

They were so good to me, giving me their pencils, drawing me pictures, whatever they could think of. Ankit, one of the boys who really attached to me this week and constantly asked me not to leave, drew a picture that I think sums it up. There is an airplane in the clouds and down below are lots of little boys playing and some of them are bathing in a pond. I am floating down to them out of an airplane with an umbrella in my hand and off to the side Jesus is on the cross. It is amazing what these boys think about.

I leave Selaqui feeling like I have accomplished what I set out to do. Now I have the challenge to make the rest of my travels in India just add more meaning to my experience so far.

Physical Education.

The students have Saturday school every other weekend and for some reason all of the students have to wear white. This just is not practical for so many reasons. For one, it is the day they do exercises and sports. Also, it requires them to buy and own another uniform just for one day. Not to mention that white is the worst possible color for children to keep clean, especially when most everything here is washed by hand.

Amanda and I had a pretty good laugh watching the children in their exercise class. One student was required to bang on a drum while the other couple hundred students moved their arms to the beat. Their exercises didn’t look like they could possibly stretch or workout any muscles, but who am I to judge. The teacher walked back and forth with a stick calling out the exercises. He stopped once to say to the class they needed to be in unison and to not be so timid. Then he said the following, “You wouldn’t go into Pakistan like this.” He backed up timidly to demonstrate. He said, “No, you would go in like this!” Then he held his stick in front of him as if it were a gun and marched forward boldly shooting his gun. Wow. That is all I had to say. Wow. I could not stop laughing and feeling somewhat disturbed by that for the rest of the day.

Short lived school teacher.

At Selaqui, it was the first week back to school. I didn’t have as much filming to do, so I went to school when my little boys had to go to school and I helped out in the second grade for the first three days. It was exhausting even just assisting. I was highly amused walking into the classroom the first day and the teacher said, “You have something you want to teach?” I looked at her kind of confused. “Do you have something you want me to teach or are there books? I am happy to help.” She said, “How about you teach moral science.” I am thinking, okay, what is moral science? So I had five minutes to prepare something with a moral. She asked that there be a drama for them to perform. So in five minutes I wrote a script about not cheating, because in a class with 40 second graders and most of them don’t speak English, they all copy each other just to survive. Once I had written the script, that was the law. The children were given their dialogue and they had to say it word for word and take it home to memorize it for the next day. I felt so bad. Then she said we would perform it in front of the school at the assembly the next week. What!

The next day I walked into her class and she asked if I had a song to teach them to go with the moral. I had been trying to remember the words to a song because she had mentioned this the day before. I was hoping she would forget. But first thing in the morning, I had to command the attention of 40 students and teach them a song I could barely remember. I taught them “Choose the Right,” a song I learned in church when I was in primary. But I think I made up one of the lines to make it fit the rhyme scheme and I left off a good chunk of the song and just taught the first six or seven lines. I was actually surprised at how well they did. Especially since I had to sing the song solo to teach them the tune. They had to write the words in their planners so they wouldn’t lose it and memorize it for the performance.

However, the next day, typical to the school systems here, everything changed. The teacher was moved to a different class and the students had a new teacher. She told me I would have to teach it all over again to the new class. But on the way, I was told there was no first grade teacher. So, I had to teach 40 first graders for an entire day without any lesson plans or preparation. I won’t go into all of the details, but discipline was a constant problem. I searched through a bag of one of the students and found two textbooks. So I taught English first. Then we moved onto math, which was “special.” Science, uh, what to do for science? I searched the classroom and found a book that had leaves in it. So we learned about plants and leaves and went outside to collect leaves for an art project. Getting leaves for 40 students has its own problems. Part way through their art project, their Hindi instructor showed up. So I had to quickly get the students to put their crayons and supplies away. By break time we had already finished their four main subjects. I didn’t know what to do for the second half of the day. I found an environmental science book that had pictures of the human body, so we labeled a picture on the chalkboard of eyes, nose, etc. I tried to make this last as long as possible, including a game of charades and singing “head shoulders knees and toes.” All out of subjects and with one hour to go, I taught them “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” since it is a Christian school. Then we had story time and colored pictures. I was so exhausted by the end of the day and I won’t go into all of the discipline issues you face when there is a class of 40 first graders who don’t speak my language. But I refused to use some of the Indian methods for disciplining, which I had witnessed the previous day and was completely stunned.

Cycling.

Last weekend I went on a bicycle ride with Nibha to the FRI (Forrest Research Institute), which is located in Dehradun. It was exciting to try yet another form of transportation here. You have to be on your guard for rickshaws, vikrams, cars, fruit carts, people, motorcycles, dogs, boars, cows, anything that might possibly appear and crash into you. We took fairly quiet streets and did not encounter any problems.

The FRI is an amazing structure. It was built by the British and is extremely clean. Hundreds of archways. It is a very large complex with several museums and I could see several scientists in their rooms working at their microscopes.

Agra bound.

This past week the two other volunteers (Amanda and Liza) and I ventured out on our own on a journey to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We took an eleven-hour train ride to Agra from Dehradun, where we stayed with some contacts of mine. They were amazing hosts, if not extremely entertaining—Brahman status and proud of their heritage. They were master craftsman on the Taj Mahal, a trade that you have to be born into; therefore, their family has been doing the precious stone inlay for generations, which can be seen on every corner of the Taj and baby Taj.

(Taj Mahal inlay.)

(Baby Taj)

We were able to tour the workshop where they practice their trade. It has been the same process for 400 years. The apprentices have no fingerprints because they are ground away by the sanding wheel.

Now the master craftsmen continue with renovation on the Taj Mahal as well as create tables and other artifacts for VIP's.

The grandfather of the household took charge of our itinerary, which was fine with use. He came right out and said, “tomorrow morning you will walk to the Taj at a quarter to six. Be back by 9am and then you will have breakfast. Take a small rest and I will give you more instructions then.” Okay. That is what we did. And it was the best time to go. The morning light was perfect and the heat wasn’t so unbearable. The crowds were less chaotic at 6am.

Tourist exhibit.

At the Taj Mahal, we found the most entertainment from watching other tourists. You definitely see all types and I was mostly interested in cataloguing a few of these.

A woman from Mexico who was definitely in love with the Sari and feeling beautiful and confident.

And her counterpart, the umbrella woman.

A couple ready for a bit of meditation.

And my favorite, this old woman who will never be old wearing a white off-the-shoulder dress and posing at every corner.

Your typical cute, “I’m in India and coordinating my colors” fashionista.

Hippie guy given away by his orange blousy pants.

An Indian family on vacation.

A group of colorful Indian women. Out of ignorance I will just call them beautiful.

The men who mow the lawn and encourage you to take their picture and then demand some rupees.

And my last of all, my touristy mug shot.

Bed bugs.

The only negative part about our stay in Agra was an encounter with bed bugs. I, fortunately, had my sleep sack that I had made before leaving the west, which I slept in so I wasn’t affected. However, Amanda and I woke up itching in the night from mosquitoes and feeling like there was more in these beds than just three westerners. We moved out to the roof and slept on a couple of tables for a few hours, but mostly didn’t sleep.

Poor Liza, who can sleep through anything, woke up with 400 bed bug bites all over. As we left the house that morning to take a bus to Delhi, other travelers had arrived and we were somehow wishing we could give them some sign language about the bed bugs, but couldn’t figure out a subtle universal gesture so we hope their encounter wasn’t as bad as Liza’s.