Agra with Laiah

5:00am. That was when I started today. Why you might ask? As if I haven't talked about it enough. Laiah and I went to see the Taj Mahal in Agra, which is about five hours away from Haus-Khauz. We had to start early because we wanted to get there before the traffic (I know, I didn't think is was possible to have no traffic in New Delhi but remember, it's all relative haha).

So we went on our way with a driver named Jassi who is very entertaining and enjoys showing us the sites. We basically slept most of the way but when I woke up there were monkeys ALL OVER THE PLACE. I seriously thought it was a big deal to see a money on someone's bike the other day but no.. monkey's in Agra are like squirrels in America. They are everywhere.

So anyway, we saw lots of camels and again.. monkeys as we got dropped off at the gate of the Taj. When we got to the ticket counter we got scammed into bringing a tour guide with us. Honestly, I think it was worth it and it only came to $2 each. He showed us the entire Taj and told us the beautiful love story of Shah Jahan the man who built the Taj as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz who died in child birth.

To describe the Taj, I can't, it's indescribably beautiful, does that help? It was absolutely mind blowing and amazing, I can totally see why it is one of the seven wonders of the world. *must see them all before I die*. Unfortunately, a lot of my pictures came out bad because of the fog.

After we left we got some food and headed to the Agra Fort, which apparently connects underground to the Taj. This fort was again, gorgeous. A lot of the things were blocked off for safety and I was upset about this because in Portugal (I know the castle has less history but...) you could walk along the edges of the castles walls. I think you should be able to do the same at the Agra Fort. It was very peaceful there (less of a crowd) and we enjoyed the sun.

I didn't mention that New Delhi has.. zero sun. This is thanks to the smog and pollution from the city and that this is fog season.

So on the way back to Delhi we stopped at another fort where we learned it was common for young Indians to ask Americans to take their pictures/take pictures with them. I mean..... hahaahaha. About 5 little boys were stalking us a taking pictures of us, most of them asked if they could and we always said no but still, a lot of them felt it was fine. We asked our driver why they did that and they said that people like to do this as a past time and feel it is lucky to have these pictures. He said that some of them even post them on their walls, I hope he was joking haha.

Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at my attempt to find a prince to marry, maybe when we visit the palaces in Janpur, I will strike gold!

On the way back we saw lots of camels and I will leave you with a very important lesson I learned about Indian religious worship.

There are many different types of temples in India. The ones with the red flags at the top are Hindu, the ones with the yellow flags at the top are Sikh, the ones with green flags at the top are Muslim... and the ones with all the flags, those are hotels.

Well the power just went out haha.