Never Coming Back

Travelling to Jaipur and Agra convinced me that I would like to travel again, so the next weekend we packed up and got onto a train to Varanasi-a city that is considered to be very holy because it is at the junction of three holy rivers. The guide book described Varanasi as a bustling city that can be quite overwhelming. Maybe it's because we are used to Delhi, or because it's not tourist season, but we had quite the opposite experience. We planned the trip with four other people, Lisa, Rob, Eric, and William. The train was set to leave at 18:30, 7:30 pm right? So we left the house at 5:45. At the metro I called Lisa to see if she was on her way, instead she had been locked in her apartment by her roommates! So she called all of her roommates and they were in class about 30 minutes away. Finally her landlord downstairs heard her knocking and crying out, and came to unlock the door for her. But it was a combonation lock, and the landlady was not used to them so it took them 20 ...

The fourth day of our trip, we had some time in the morning to relax and have the buffet breakfast. Then we took a short trip to Agra Fort. Akbar started building it and then each one of his sons and grandsons added onto it. It turns out to be this rather large complex that felt like a play ground where we could explore all the nooks and alleys. It is also said to be the place where Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, stayed during his last final years "inprisoned" by his son. We saw this "prison" and to me it looked like a palace (complete with a marble floor parcheesi board), but who knows, maybe it was a downgrade from what he was used to. It was a lot of fun (although quite hot) to walk around the fort. I even saw a ferret running around! There was a little alley way that looked like the ladies bazaar that we saw before and a "bath house" that looked was a dark room with drains going everywhere. It also has an amazing view of the Taj, which is a...

Soon after getting into Agra we go to our hotel for a quick lunch and change into our 'Taj' outfits. We then got back onto the bus and headed towards the Taj Mahal! To go to the Taj Mahal I bought a special outfit (as promised): a silk purple and gold sari! I had help putting it on--including my roommate Benazir and YouTube.com videos of how to tie a sari. A sari is traditional dress for the women in India, they come in all sizes, colors, and materials, many older or important women wear them everyday, although most of the students at the university just wear jeans. I even bought jewelry and gold shoes to go with it. It was all a lot of fun. It was a lot fun to walk around in a sari. I actually liked the way it felt around my waist. A lot of people commented on it. Because it was not high tourist season for foreigners most of the other visitors there were mostly Indian. I had many Indian women come up to me and tell my how beautiful I looked in the sari-a few asked to take a p...