"We are stuck in traffic just outside Delhi. There are no real lanes, just opposing currents of vehicles, chaotic and random, as though they'd been scooped up in a Yahtzee cup and tossed haphazardly onto the asphalt. Every few feet, a cluster of cows has seemingly been Photoshopped into the mix: sauntering mid-lane or lying down in improbably calm, sleepy-eyed pajama parties in the median strips." Mary Roach, "Spook" pg. 25 I can't say it any better than that. As it would turn out, one of my travelling buddies came across that paragraph just as we were sitting in traffic. Guess where. Oh yeah, just outside Delhi....
I've had more than a few people ask, "Why India?" I don't know. Why not India? There's no place like it, that's for sure. Let's be honest.... who wouldn't love a little 115 degree heat while running around the red sandstone remains of some intricately designed mausoleum? Where else can you get women carrying HUGE bundles of sticks on their heads, elephant rides, clandestine escapes into the wilderness in your tour bus in the middle of the night because of possible civil unrest on the highway from Agra to Jaipur, absolutely NO phonecards, extreme culinary vigilence (don't eat dairy unless it's pasteurized, don't eat lettuce because it may or may not have been washed in the water that is contaminated, no fruit unless it can be peeled, no drinks unless you saw them come from a bottle or can), taxi rides in a buggy that is hooked onto the back of some guy's bike, a land where traffic lanes mean absolutely nothing, people who stare at you just as much as you stare at them, hagglers worse than Jamaica, hand carved marble, women dressed in colorful beautiful sari's, a MacDonalds that doesn't have any beef on the menu... ANYWHERE, a Pizza Hut that sells garlic bread that everyone in India puts ketchup on, AND the Taj Mahal?
My good friend, Rebecca, had stayed at the hotel during one of our late afternoon outings to one of the many monuments, because she wasn't feeling so great. (something about having a nut allergy... and WHAT were the chances of that muffin having that nano-nut?) When we got back to the hotel, we told her that all we would need to do to catch her up on the experience was to show her a picture of some red sandstone architecture and put a hair dryer in her face. But really, all in all, it was a great experience and well worth the 18 hours in the air to get there.... Definitely NOT in Kansas anymore....
Oh, and Smange, this is all for you.
Me at the Taj Mahal. (or the 'Dahge)
Doorway... in the Amber Palace
I took this picture while I was riding on the elephant that was kicking this elephant's trash going up the hill to the Amber Palace. 
Hand carved and inlaid marble work at the Taj. 
Red Sandstone Palace. Really, these things were amazing. 
Monkeys. Everywhere. Cute little guys... from a distance.
Ladies at the Amber Palace
Remember that time cows were sacred. Yes, they are and they get to hang out whereEVER they please.
The traffice just INSIDE Dehli.
