India, Day 3, Part 1: "Wait, it doesn't open for another hour?"

Get ready, I took more pictures today than any other day so far. I'm going to split this day into two parts, otherwise I'll lose my wit and patience by the end and pretty much leave you with untitled pictures with no explanations. Just a "Here's the Taj. Here it is again. And again." And so on.

Less than 9 hours after leaving the Taj Mahal to view the sunset, we were back at 6:00am to see the sunrise, from the inside this time. Except it doesn't open at 6:00, it opens at 7:00am. A bit of a wait. Even the stray dogs seemed surprised to see us so early.

But the good part was that we were First In Line. We'd have the best chance to run inside and get pictures in front of the Taj on the Diana Bench, with no people in the background.

I swear to you, while we were waiting, a little door opened and this dog came out. The Taj Mahal has a doggy door.

Around 6:30 it started getting brighter, and the floods of tourists started lining up. But we were still first!

This is Rajah, who took care of us while we were waiting. Hair perfectly combed, and very charming.

The doors are open, go go go! And stop. Everyone had to be patted down and all the ladies had to get their bags checked, which took more than a few minutes.

First glimpse of the Taj Mahal, not another soul in sight.

And first on the Diana Bench!

Keep in mind that the Taj Mahal is not a palace, but a mausoleum. It was built starting in 1632 by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to her fourteenth child. Words written about the Taj by Shah Jahan himself:

Should guilty seek asylum here,

Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.

Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,

All his past sins are to be washed away.

The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;

And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.

In this world this edifice has been made;

To display thereby the creator's glory.

We went around the side to watch the sun rise. It was a beautiful morning.

And here we are again on the way out. It looks a bit dim because of the pollution.

We passed this family on the way back to our bus. India is a land of such extremes - you leave one of the most beautiful places in the world, and then meet up with the poorest of families living on the side of the road.

And take a close look at the mother - she looks about sixteen.

And on that note, we were headed back to our posh hotel to grab a big buffet breakfast and into the second of three changes of clothes for the day.

Yes, I saw the irony.

India, Day 2: "We've been Holi'd!"

India Day 2! We all loaded on the bus early and were on our way from New Dehli to Agra. It's normally about a 5 hour drive, but when you have a bus full of adventurous ladies with cameras, it takes about 8. Our first impromptu stop was at one of the local markets along the side of the road. Why? It just looked interesting.

Along the way you'll start to notice people that appear to have gotten in a water fight with food coloring. That's Holi, which is an annual festival celebrated throughout India, mostly characterized by people smashing brightly colored powder all over each other, and then dousing each other with water. Like this guy:

These kids were hamming it up with smiles until I turned the camera on them. Then they were all tough guys.

I managed to escaped the powder for the first few minutes, unlike Cara and Kim...

But then ran into these guys who were waiting right outside our bus.

I've been Holi'd!

We were only at the market for 15 minutes or so when we were shoo'd back on the bus by the traffic police. It seems that tourists never stop there and we were causing a bit of a traffic jam with people stopping and wondering what the special event was. So we were on our way again, but but stopped shortly wanting to see whatever this was. A huge statue of Shiva out in the middle of nowhere.

And then you turn around and there's horse carts zipping by!

And then there's this! Our guide wouldn't let us get out of the bus for this one, but it's a temple built to "rival the Taj Mahal". I don't know if they quite succeeded, but it was pretty cool.

Stop again! Water buffalo just roaming around! We don't have those in Singapore!

You know what I like the most about Indian women? Their everyday wear is a floor length dress with sequence and rhinestones.

Finally Agra. And our first view of the Taj from the bus window....

Here is the East Gate to the Taj Mahal, all ready for the Holi celebration that would start that night.

We headed to the Taj for a sunset viewing. We didn't actually go in, but this might have turned out to be a better view.

I liked these kids because they let me take their picture and didn't ask for money. They only asked if I had any pens, strangely enough. I gave them two I had taken from the last hotel we had stayed at, and they were thrilled.

There is a small muslim temple right next to the Taj Mahal, and while we were waiting for the sun to set they had a horn blowing for the call to prayer. The dogs seemed to enjoy it the most...

India, Day 1: "Can we go to bed yet?"

Goodness, where do I even begin? Let me start by saying that this was not my first trip to India. In 1998 I spent a few weeks in India traveling around with 10 other people I didn't know. On that trip I got sick (salmonella poisoning, it took me months to recover), found bugs in my cereal on a regular basis, was woken up terrified by monkeys pounding on my window in the middle of the night, and didn't bring nearly enough money because everyone and their mother expects a tip for even the smallest of services ("helping" you carry your bags off the train whether you want them to or not). I was so tired of the dirt, noise, smell and lack of any personal space that I ran screaming from that country, swearing to never go back. Well, it took me 12 years, but I have finally worked up the courage to give India a second chance. When Kay, the Indian lady that I take cooking classes from, announced that she was taking a group to India, I said "I'm in!", and went home to tell David that I was going, no question. This time, I would do it right. Hotels where you don't have to use that extra sleep sack to make sure the bed bugs don't bite you, local tour guide so you don't have to fight with the cab drivers to get them to take you where you actually want to go and not their brothers'/uncles'/friends' rug shop, money for some real power shopping, and a kick-ass camera. And a plan to not eat meat the entire time. From the words of my doctor the last time I was there: "You ate meat? You never eat meat when you come to India, you have meat in your own country!"

A small caravan of 14 women (11 Americans, 2 Germans, and 1 Singaporean-Indian) took a midnight flight to Dehli, arriving at 4am and rising at 8am, ready to rock. My sisters-in-crime were Amanda, Kim and Cara:

Inside the grounds of the Trident Hotel, pristine and calm:

Outside the hotel, the real India, noisy and chaotic. And fascinating.

We only had one day in Dehli, so our guide didn't waste any time taking us to the see the sights. The first was Qutab Minar, a 240 foot minaret in red sandstone inscribed with excerpts from the Qur'an.

You used to be able to climb to the top, but it's closed now. Too many suicides, we were told.

There is a nearby mosque that was built in the 14th century.

The mosque was constructed using the remnants of Hindu temples destroyed for just such a purpose. The inside is a hodgepodge of ancient and even-more-ancient Hindu carvings, with all the faces of the gods and animals chiseled off to make them okay for the Muslim temple.

The mosque isn't used anymore, but is home to some beautiful little parakeets.

We left the mosque just before the masses arrived, including several groups of school kids, hamming it up for the camera.

Also seen on the way out: the first of many, many beautiful Indian babies:

On our way to the next monument, we passed by this gorgeous temple, built in 1938. A posted sign reads "...ALL HINDUS MAY PARTICIPATE IN THE DIALY WORSHIP...IN MUTUAL HARMONY AND GOOD WILL." And then further down on the same sign: "...BEGGARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN OR NEAR THE TEMPLE." So all are welcome except the super-poor, I guess.

We also passed this happy guy on the way to India Gate, our next stop:

India Gate, the all-India war memorial, commemorates the 90,000+ Indian soldiers who lost their lives fighting for England in WWI.

The names of 13,000 Indian and British soldiers who lost their lives in the 1919 Afghan war are inscribed in the sandstone on the arch...

...and an eternal flame burns beneath it for those who died in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971.

It turns out that India, land of Hindu vegetarians and Ghandi, has a pretty bloody past.

On our way from the monuments and as we heading toward our main event of the day (shopping!) we were pulled over by the police. Our guide noted that it was the end of the month, and they were probably harassing our driver for some money. Our guide stepped out and told them that there were Embassy people on board and the police scattered pretty quickly.

Our little bus was too big to fit down some of the alleys that would get us to one of the shopping centers, so we all piled on bicycle rickshaws and headed out.

Sari festivus!

It was about 6pm by the time we were done, and we hadn't had time to stop for lunch. Luckily, there was a McDonald's right next door. They make a mean veggie burger, which turned out to be our go-to snack for the rest of the trip when we got tired of granola bars.

8pm and completely exhausted, we still had one more stop - the sound and light show at the Red Fort in Dehli. It might have been interesting if a.) we didn't miss the first half hour and had no clue what the story was about and b.) we weren't going off of less than four hours of sleep and had to get up early again the next day. After taking one picture, I leaned back on the bench and fell asleep.

Namaste.