We woke up early and left for the Taj Mahal at 6am. There are no motorized vehicles allowed in a 2km radius, so we took a battery-powered rickshaw to the Taj. Once inside we waited for the sun to rise. It is a beautiful structure and pictures doesn’t do it justice, made of all white marble. Everything is symmetrical – except the King’s tomb. It was put there, off center, but the same son who arrested him and put his father in prison.
Ryan proposed to Meredith and she said yes. They were twitterpated all day. We had breakfast at the hotel and went shopping. Mom bought a sitar, and I bought bedding and a Star of India jewel.
Then we headed to Jaipur. What was supposed to be a 4 hour drive turned into 8. A robber has stolen a bunch of money and the police had shut down the road trying to stop him. We sat in the car for 2 hours waiting. A group of young boys begged, asking for pens.
India is a world where hard work is expected and school and learning are privileges. If you have a pen and paper and know how to use them, you are worlds ahead of the others. There were camels on the road and more bike riskshaws then in Chennai. In the country, they were growing mostly mustard and wheat. You could see women carrying sticks, mustard leaves, bricks, water etc. on their heads. They were clearing the way to make our two-lane road a 4-lane, so boys everywhere had created cricket fields. We never saw more than huts and rubble used for homes. Cows, water buffalo and camels were everywhere.
We stopped after 6 hours for dinner and a bathroom break. The food was not good and we were the only ones there and we all (at least half) got sick from the food. The final 2 hours of driving was in the dark. Not fun for India driving. Thankfully I slept through most of it.
Our hotel is very nice, definitely worth the money. There is something very wonderful about sleeping in a clean bed and having unlimited not water and water pressure. You can do almost anything if you can come home to this. :)
Ryan proposed to Meredith and she said yes. They were twitterpated all day. We had breakfast at the hotel and went shopping. Mom bought a sitar, and I bought bedding and a Star of India jewel.
Then we headed to Jaipur. What was supposed to be a 4 hour drive turned into 8. A robber has stolen a bunch of money and the police had shut down the road trying to stop him. We sat in the car for 2 hours waiting. A group of young boys begged, asking for pens.
India is a world where hard work is expected and school and learning are privileges. If you have a pen and paper and know how to use them, you are worlds ahead of the others. There were camels on the road and more bike riskshaws then in Chennai. In the country, they were growing mostly mustard and wheat. You could see women carrying sticks, mustard leaves, bricks, water etc. on their heads. They were clearing the way to make our two-lane road a 4-lane, so boys everywhere had created cricket fields. We never saw more than huts and rubble used for homes. Cows, water buffalo and camels were everywhere.
We stopped after 6 hours for dinner and a bathroom break. The food was not good and we were the only ones there and we all (at least half) got sick from the food. The final 2 hours of driving was in the dark. Not fun for India driving. Thankfully I slept through most of it.
Our hotel is very nice, definitely worth the money. There is something very wonderful about sleeping in a clean bed and having unlimited not water and water pressure. You can do almost anything if you can come home to this. :)
The Taj Mahal at sunrise. There is a mosque on the east side of the Taj, so they built an identical one on the other side just to keep it even. The pillars are all tipped slightly out so that if there were an earth quake they would fall away from the structure. 
The perfectly manicured lawns were incredible.
And idea of size, this is my dad in one of the many arches.
After many many sales pitches at different shops this is the chess set that Andrew finally settled on. Still white marble but no carved flowers or anything girly like that. :)
A new way to haul cardboard boxes. :)
Boys playing cricket on the flattened, but unpaved new road. :) We probably saw this 5 times on our trip in different villages..jpg)
Three guards at the Taj Mahal.
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Some of the boys who were begging us for pens while we were stopped. Yes, that is a little boy at the back with a bonnet on.
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