Taj

today was insane...just spent over 10 hours in a car...the front desk said that the drive to the taj mahal would be 3 and a half hours but it was more like 5 hours each way...the drive was interesting though cause we saw lots of cows, donkeys, monkeys, camels, etc. a regular zoo fest~ yah and i think i saw this dude that was like over 7 ft tall but my only frame of reference was one of those electric cabbie cars and viv was sleeping so i might have been imagining things. anyways yah, we get to the taj and apparently the cars aren't allowed to drive to the front gate anymore because they're afraid that the pollution is causing the marble to crumble or something...like i really don't think banning cars from the last mile is a great long term solution but it's still interesting that they're trying to do something about it cause that would never happen in china. anyways, there were so many 'hokkas' there...like fake guides, beggars, street vendors and they're so aggressive...i basically hid behind viv while she gave them the 'pinched look'...we were laughing a lot cause it actually worked; anyone who hasn't seen this look seriously needs to ask viv to demonstrate; i wanted a photo but after seeing the slide show at the indian wedding, viv is afraid i'll hold the pic over her head at her wedding (which actually sounds tempting but isn't something i could have thought of by myself)...yup so the price discrimination at the gate was hilarious; like local people pay something like 5 rps and foreigners pay 750 rps...our ticket even said non-indian...it's still less than 20 dollars but still, it's the principle of the matter...anyways we finally got in and the things guys will do when they're in love...i can't believe the taj was built as a monument to a dead wife...i mean, people died because of it...seriously, that's not quite love anymore, it's like obsession...anyways, going into the building was hilarious cause there were signs all over that say 'don't take off shoes here' and yet we still see rows and rows of shoes...so i didn't want to get yelled at so we compromised and got little covers for our shoes like the ones you see in the hospital...but it wasn't necessary...the marble was pretty amazing and apparently the whole koran is engraved in parts of it (disclaimer-all tidbits are quoted from the estimable viv so all credit/blame should be placed accordingly)...anyways we still got stared at; sometimes i just feel like walking around with a paper bag over my head could not have possibly created more sensation or caused more staring...altho viv's pinched look was invaluable in getting rid of multitudes of people (i'm telling you it's priceless~) yup so afterwards we didn't get to stay until the sunset, which is when the taj supposedly turns pink because it took 5 hours to drive there so we were afraid to be late to the airport and miss our flight; then i really would've cried...yup so when we were leaving all the hokkas came again and as we were about to drive away i saw these elephants, i think carved from graphite or marble...but viv said i shouldn't encourage them so we agreed that i would pay a higher price at the airport...the drive back was cool altho it's really weird to drive with no streetlights...oh btw, people in india drive on the left (the darn english empire!!) other than that everything went pretty smoothly after we got to the airport...oh and our driver was going to drive us to this place and freely admitted that we didn't have to buy anything but he gets something for his efforts so viv bribed him to not take us there and we tipped him pretty well, which i felt was worth it cause really, people are agressive in their begging here...like mothers will bring up their babies to your car and keep tapping on the windows to try and get money...oh and i forgot but this old lady tried to put her hand into my bag while we were at the taj...anyways we have to board now (i'm at the bangkok airport waiting for transfer to phuket) so that really sums up the india part of the trip~
regina