Camera Shenanigans

Photo fun time!

Taj Mahal to NYC in 30 Hours...Give or Take a Few

It is incredible to think that, a mere 30 hours after today’s misty morning visit to the amazing Taj Mahal, we will be back in New York!

Our visit did not disappoint. The Taj, built over 22 years beginning in 1631, is worthy of its reputation as the world’s great Monument to Love. The mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his third and favorite wife, Mumtaz. In fact, the name "Taj Mahal" is a contraction of her full name: Mumtaz Mahal.

The structure, an octagon posed on a square features three onion-shaped domes (typical of Islamic architecture) and a minaret in each of the four corners. The entire building is made of white marble adorned with intricate carvings and inlaid previous and semi-precious stones, inside and out.

Although we didn't even attempt a sunrise visit due to the layers of fog, we lucked out and got a sunny day by the time we arrived at 9:00 a.m. We also thanked our lucky stars and tour operator for scheduling our visit for after the holidays; We were told that there were waits up to four hours just before and after Christmas Day!

I Hate Cows

I knew I hated cows one day when, I was probably nine or ten years old, I was playing hide and seek with other children in a farm near Verona and I jumped from what I thought was a hayloft onto another lower hayloft only to fall through the hay and into a chute that fed directly into the dairy with all the cows. There I was sitting on a pile of hay with cows all around me who were looking none too pleased to see me in the midst of their lunch.

I know cows are usually fairly stupid and placid animals ( if you do not count the bulls in Pamplona), but all these different types we have encountered here in India seem to know exactly that THEY are the ones who are running the country.

They are everywhere and they cross the streets, even the highways, any time they damn please getting traffic to grind to a halt when you’re already trying to avoid the cars who do not seem to know how to keep in their lane or to use an indicator. The cows are the Indian equivalent of New York rats, they are a pest, they forage through garbage, they are everywhere…the only difference is that you can easily run over a rat, while with a cow you get the short end of a stick in an accident.

Any journey in a car in India is significantly made longer and more irritating by the presence of these horned, uncaring, ubiquitous, large moving targets. If the Indians choose not to eat them I move for building large temples devoted to them and therefore keep them in enclosures where people can feed them, worship them, whatever….and don’t even get me started on their large dumps….

Final Stop: Agra

One thing is for sure: After spending nearly an hour in a car to traverse approximately 15 km in Agra, I will never complain about LA traffic again.

Today we drove from Delhi to Agra, site of the Taj Mahal. Although only 200 km away, the drive takes 4-5 hours because of the insane traffic in both cities, as well as the usual lack of real highway and constant previously mentioned road obstacles, mainly cows, goats, pedestrians, rickshaws, et al. The drive would have taken just under three hours, were it not for the standstill we encountered as we approached Agra. Bobo and I were just about ready to pull our hair out.

Thankfully, the traffic had subsided by the time we checked into our hotel and ventured back out to see the Agra Fort, which features incredible views from afar of the fabled Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, a dense fog has set in here in the north of India, wreaking all kinds of havoc and making our photos rather hazy. We're quite sure we won't get a sunrise tomorrow, but we hope to explore the Taj Mahal in all it's glory a little later in the morning (we won't miss the early morning wake-up call) when the fog lifts a bit.

To be continued tomorrow with photos!