Day 5 (for us, I think)

Two days ago we left Delhi at 430am and went to the train station where we took a 2 hour ride to Agra. The train station itself is quite interesting seeing all kinds of people from Sihk men in tailored suits to poor women dressed in old saris. Once in Agra we went immediately to the Taj Mahal to avoid the rush. They do not allow any polluting vehicles or industries near it to preserve the white marble.It really is a huge magnificent creation with tons of intricate marble inlays. Our knowledgeable but rather pushy driver took us next to a marble inlay workshop after we ate at a huge American hotel just outside of the taj. The workshop salesman showed us how all the semi-precious stones are cut with hand wheels so there "are no gaps" when set into the carved out white marble. He then brought us into his huge showroom where he had servants waiting in the wings to bring drinks or turn off the lights to show the brilliance. We felt bad that we didn't buy anything if only because he knew how to make a sale so well!

Before we left Agra we visited a couple more shops and also had a tour of the Agra Fort given by one of the locals. It is a huge fort built by the Shah emperor for his three wives (one each Hindu, Muslim and Buddist I believe) and 365 harem! It has two defensive walls and a moat in addition to a huge garden, architecture drawn from all religions (there are stars of David over one entryway) and an "air-conditioned" room built with plaster of Paris with water cooled piping. After our extremely long day we took a 4 hour train ride to Jaipur where we are now.

Yesterday I was not feeling very well and slept most of the day while the rest of the family went clothes shopping at the market and befriended one of the shopkeepers. Today I am feeling much better but my dad has fallen sick pretty badly (which leaves me way too much time to write this).

Although we have been staying in clean places with mostly American and British travellers we go through a lot of very filthy streets and markets and we must still make sure all our food is cooked well, water is either boiled or bottled, and we wash our hands frequently.

--Reid

(P.s. This is via Blackberry but we'll upload some more pictures soon.)