Back to NYC (Not me)

Mom and Ellie with Manu, their driver for the week, on the way to the airport to return to NYC. It was a great trip!!!!

Taj Mahal and King Akbhar's Tomb (Father of the Shah who created the Taj)

AGRA

With the Taj Mahal in the distance.

Photos from Fatehpur Sikri (City of Victory)
"Built during the second half of the 16th century by the Emperor Akbar, Fatehpur Sikri was the capital of the Mughal Empire for only some 10 years. The complex of monuments and temples, all in a uniform architectural style, includes one of the largest mosques in India, the Jama Masjid. It remained untouched for over 400 years now and its palaces are a remainder of the extravagance of the Mughals."

Who Would've Thought?

On to the Taj Mahal tomorrow. More pictures to come.

Indian Wedding Photos and Host Family

1. Some photos from a typical Hindu wedding. The groom is paraded in on a horse and family members dance and chant around the groom. My apologies for the poor picture quality.

2. My host family.

Qutb Minar

Ruins From The Former Center of Muslim India

More photos of the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

Monkies on the roof of the train station (Taken from an overpass)

Another tomb.

Inside the red fort, where the ruler who commissioned the Taj Mahal was imprisoned by his son.

Indians love to take photos with white people. I have no idea what they do with the photos, but it happens to me here in Delhi and it happened to us a fair amount while we were traveling this week. Most will ask to take a photo with you, though on a number of occassions we found ourselves being followed by Indians with video cameras. It's a bit sketchy, though must admit, also a bit flattering. In the photo above, an Indian family asked if we would be in their family photo. We agreed and asked that they be in ours, as well.

VARANASI, INDIA

We visited the city of Varanasi for 2 days. Varanasi is a city along the Ganges River and a very sacred place for Hindus. It's approx. 3000 years old and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Ganges itself, while important to the Hindu people, is terribly polluted. Over 89 million gallons of pollution are poured into the river daily. The 400+ million people who live along the river use it as their toilet and waste bin. Yet despite the high levels of pollution, we saw hundreds of people bathing in the river, including many babies.

We hated Varanasi. The narrow streets, extreme filth (streets littered with human and cow excrement) and the massive amount of (sketchy) people made it unbearable. While walking down a narrow street, we had to move aside to allow a funeral procession to come through. They were bringing the sheet-covered body to the banks of the Ganges for cremation. We watched as bodies were dipped into the Ganges for "purification" and then burned on top of wood in the open air. The problem, apparently, is that they don't completely burn the bodies, so when they throw them into the Ganges after burning them, there's a very high level of bacteria or whatever released into the river. One person in my office told me about a friend who was swimming in the Ganges and suddenly got her leg caught in an object which turned out to be a cow carcass.

We ended up spending only a few hours in the city and then escaped to our hotel. It was too much.

The airport (pictured below) was no treat either.