Hello! We are in Agra now, the land of the Taj Mahal. Ok – so we had just come off a 14-hour overnight train ride, it was really hot and there were a million people there, so I’m thinking my impressions are a bit muted. It was beautiful. It’s so symetrical! The carvings in the stone are so delicate – I think I prefer the details over the masiveness of the building itself. Oh my – that’s just like India! It’s in the details as I wrote on a previous blog. So- I see! The Taj Mahal could be seen as a symbol of the country- massive in size. Overwhelming to the senses. But the real beuaty lies in the tiny carved flowers in the marble, inlaid with lapiz and amber. More musings on that later!

we leave for Jaipur today and on Tuesdsay we head to the airport in Delhi and home by Wednesday morning! I haven’t been able to blog as much as I wanted to. Haven’t been able to do a lot of things I wanted to – like meditate regularly with the group, do more yoga, have a bit more time in certain places. But that’s Inida. Expect the unexpected. Like life. It’s been a busy trip. Ambitous. We saw so many things but I wish we had more time in each place. Bus rides, train rides, altitude changes, hot and cool weather – we’ve seen extremes on all fronts here. I’m looking forward to coming home and really thinking about what we’ve expereinced. It’s hard to do it while still in the middle of it.

One thing for sure – this is a cleaner and greener India then it was last time I was here. It seems the cities are less hazy, fewer people smoke, and less poly bags flying around. I’m really impressed. Even going up to the Taj the deisel powered bus stays in the lower parking lot and a battery-bus takes you up to the site – smart!!

So in our last days here I plan on absorbing as much of India as I can. I haven’t had a chance to write about some things – such as one of the travelers in our group being attacked by a monkey in Shimla, (she’s OK but has to have rabies shots) or the shopping (pretty good!) or many the amazing sites, sounds and people that we’ve met. more to come. time to go.

much love to all! please excuse spelling errors! no time to proof..

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 7:36 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.