G'day everyone.

News weekly from yours truly! ;o)

I have now done what any genuine disgusting white tourist must do, when he/she goes to India: I went to the Taj Mahal in Agra.

I'll be putting loads of pics on the page tomorrow, but for now you'll have to live with the beauty of my words rather than that of my pictures! ;-)

I tell you, it's been a pretty nasty couple of days. During the last 4 days, I've travelled a total of 800 kilometers - all by bus, all with the stench of masala and curry farts in my nostrils! :-/

The trip down from Rishikesh (and Haridwar) was 400 kms - a long haul of 10-12 hours. I forgot my RayBans in Rishikesh, which is my small tragedy here in India - but something much worse happened to one of my travel companions:

After staying at the ashram, a lot of us kept in contact the next few days. 3 of us were going to Agra, so we kept each other company on the way to the bus. Eden, an Israeli guy just out of the hell hole that is Israels military, got on the bus half an hour before us - obviously, someone thought he was all alone, with noone to watch over him. Cause! Along the way, some arsehole drugged him and stole all his money $200, his pasport incl. VISA of course, his creditcards, and even his bloody glasses!

SO! When we arrived in Agra, all of us unknowing of the disaster that had happened (incl. Eden - he was too drugged even to walk) we had to sort out Eden, sort out hotels for everyone, find out what the h*** to do (!) and then relax and feel the shanti of India! :)

We spent our first day - oh, and who are we? Carolina from Costa Rica, Alan from Argentina, and yours truly - visiting The Red Fort in Agra. It wasn't anything fantastic, but I think I enjoyed it more than the two others. They hadn't seen the Great/Red Fort in Delhi, so they couldn't see the similarities, etc. The thing is, the guy who built the Taj was imprisoned in the Red Fort by his wanker son, Aurangezeb. This was actually the same year as the father had finished the Taj Mahal - that must suck!: you build one of the World's most fantastic symbols of love, then your son imprisons you and takes over your kingdom. So much for love, eh!? ;o) Well anyway, the fort in Agra was built before the one in Delhi, so it's a smaller and in some ways more beautiful building. It was quite interesting going there, and the view of the Taj Mahal from the towers (where the imprisoned father sat for 5-10 years) was wicked!

Enough history. We bought a couple of very expensive beers for dinner (they were terrible, but I loved them anyway after 3-4 weeks with no alcohol!) and went to bed early.

Going to the Taj Mahal, the sacred Lonely Planet (or The Book, as people call it) tells you to come early. It made sense, so we got up at 5.30am and were at the ticket office at 6am. We then spent half an hour waiting, cause even though there were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to buy a ticket, they only had one guy at the counter! He took his time, checking every 500Rs-note for authenticity. Then we stood for another 45 minutes to get through the gates. The guard stopped me - he found my CamelBak very suspicious (or interesting) and had me take it out and assure him that it wasn't a bomb! I could have smuggled a number of bombs in on the rest of my body, since the guards here in India only fondle the girls, not the guys! ;o)

And the Taj Mahal - was it fantastic? Absolutely. I'll give them that, all the fat rich tourists, seeing the Taj Mahal is fantastic. It isn't India, not at all, but it's like nothing you've ever seen. I guess it's like seeing the pyramids of Egypt, just a tad better. The architect behind the Taj was an utter genius. The whole thing is on a huge marble daze/platform which means that you can only see "clear blue sky" (= polluted grey smog) behind the famous onion-shaped domes. And, eventhough it's not sparkling Colgate white anymore, it still looks pretty darn good.

After visiting the Taj, I got a serious case of Delhi Belly - incl. serious fever, serious diarrhoea, serious stomach cramps, and pain in all my joints and my spine. I stayed in bed from 9am 'til 6pm but it didn't get much better. And the great thing of course, was that Carolina and I were catching the bus to Pushkar at 8pm! Another 400 kms in a farty bus!

That's all for my Agra adventure. Don't worry, as I've said, there'll be loads of corny perfect postcard pictures in here soon.

Keep the greeting coming, I'm loving them!

Simon E