India in our rearview mirror (which BTW no car has in India)

I don’t think I’ve still totally comprehended the time I spent in India. It is an amazing country and, though my experience wasn’t what I had hoped for, it is a place I will have to make it back to one day. I saw things in India that I can’t even start to describe here without taking up hours recapping and since we are already almost to Myanmar I just don’t have time. Here are some of the more interesting side notes:
The trip to the Taj was very cool but also not without road bumps. We took the train out of Delhi to Agra at around 5 am and the train station was an experience in itself. There are just so many people in India all the time. When we arrived in Agra we found out the Taj was being closed after 1 pm so we were unable to go at sunset like the itinerary had said. Instead we went in the morning after we visited the Red Fort. The problem was that since we were there around 9 am the early morning fog still hadn’t worn off. Normally the Taj is visible from the fort but once again our trip was screwed out of something. After wandering around the fort for a while we went over to the Taj. The gate we were supposed to go in was packed so after some confusion (not a shock on this trip where we had the worst guides ever) we were taken in a back entrance. In order to get there though we had to walk though this tiny winding pedestrian side street where all the locals stared out the window at us. We were walking past goats tied to the wall probably waiting to become lunch. It was interesting.
When we finally got to the Taj it was pretty amazing. After the morning fog burned off we had a blue sky as a backdrop for an amazing structure. I ended up walking around the grounds for a bit and then just sitting on the front side with a small group of students. How cool is it that I can say I just chilled out and relaxed on the cool marble of the Taj Mahal? Of course while we were sitting there some Indians came up and wanted their picture taken with us. This was the third occasion of a stranger wanting their picture taken with me and I now just embrace the situation and go along with it. It’s funny the way they just came up to me and smile and point to their friend with a camera. (I’ll try and get the photos upload at some point but with Burma’s strict restrictions on internet usage I won’t even be able to check my hotmail or yahoo accounts. I actually broke down today and bought an hour of internet from the ship.)
The rest of the day in Agra was another frustrating day of miscommunication but I did get to see some of rural India on our drive to the abandoned city. There is nothing like seeing cows just wondering down the street and eating garbage while people starve in the streets. By the time we got back to the train station that night most of us just wanted to get back to the hotel so we could go to sleep and get up to fly home. The train ride ended up giving me one good story. I decided to get the meal on the train and try some authentic Indian food and it wasn’t too bad. The food on our trip was pretty good and not as spicy as I thought it would be. The dish was some rice and curry combination as the main course and then a desert which was a brown goblet filled with a white substance. In my head I thought, “Mmmm a chocolate cup filled with ice cream.” The student next to me said she wasn’t sure that’s what it was but I was convinced so I broke off a piece of the cup and popped it in my mouth. “Nope that’s sand.”
After returning to Delhi and boarding our buses to go back to the hotel we got to see a fight between two Indian guys, one with the craziest eyes I’ve ever see had a belt and whipped this older guy in the head. The old guy grabbed a giant stick and chased after the guy with the belt. By this point our whole bus was watching and I think someone was taking bets in the back. I had five on the crazy eyed guy. Or bus pulled away before we could see the outcome but the last thing we saw crazy eyes was chucking a giant rock at the guy with the stick. Maybe they were just playing some crazy Indian version of baseball?
Adding to the misfortune of the trip our flight was delayed almost three hours because of fog and then on the landing we hit a pocket of turbulence that dropped us about a hundred feet in a second. All I saw was the stewardess hit the ground and assume crash position and I knew that wasn’t good. When we finally got back to the ship it was the sweetest site ever. I had to run out and go shopping but I did manage to find my patch (or badge as it’s know outside the US) and a magnet. I wish I would have got a patch from the Bahamas but I’ll order that online at some point I guess.
That’s all for now. Sorry family I won’t be calling home until at least Vietnam since calls from Burma are about $12 a minute. We arrive tomorrow night but we can’t get off the ship until Friday morning. Kelly and I are going to go out in Yangon to celebrate our birthdays. Kelly will be 25 on Saturday. How odd is that?

PS A few funny signs from India that I have to mention: “Don’t speed unless you have an appointment with God.” “Get your local STDs here.” (STD is short for Standard Telephone Dial)