I feel like a movie star

The Taj Mahal is amazing.  I highly recommend going there.  It is so beautiful and it was a bit surreal to be walking up the path thinking - oh my god, we're at the Taj Mahal.  Seven wonders of the world and all.  There were a billion people there with us and all of them were dressed to the nines - it was a Saturday, so I guess a big day for sightseers everywhere. But the saris! The boys all want to look like westerners, but the women all still dress in these beautiful colourful saris (their best ones, I'm sure - those things don't look like wash and wear garments, if you know what I mean) - they know something about colour here - and oh, the richness, the beauty! We took as many pictures of them as we did of the structure itself - and the structure is a sight to behold.  It's a whole complex, not just the Taj - there are gardens and gates and mosques around within the walls.  The inlay in the marble is so beautiful and intricate and colourful - they still make it the same way around Agra and I'm not sorry to say, I bought a trivet with some of that inlay.  The store I went to (Nathan didn't feel like shopping - probably a good thing, because I would never have gotten anything if he had been along) had some of the most GORGEOUS table tops and cups and dishes, all inlaid with mother of pearl and malachite and lapis lazuli and carnelian - ach, so beautiful! And expensive.  I won't tell you how much I paid (Nathan had to go through my bag to find out) but it was probably too much, but I don't care! I will enjoy it forever. 

 

There were a billion people there, as we have come to expect in India.  The funniest thing was that while we were taking pictures of all the beautiful people in saris and the Taj, people were watching US.  Then people started asking to take pictures of us and with us.  Like we were some kind of attraction!  The first time it happened, I thought it was funny.  But I think I got my picture taken with about 30 people that day!  Mostly teenaged boys.  The general consensus was that they were from places in India that don't see a lot of tourists, so they are not used to seeing white skin.  And, as previously mentioned, my skin IS pretty white, though by the end of that day I was more red than white, it was so hot.  Of course, they wanted pictures with Nathan too - it must have been his pretty blue eyes, because he's starting to tan.  One young girl just wanted to shake his hand! Now I know how the big movie stars must feel - glad I'm not a movie star!

 

We took the train today from Agra to Jaipur.  We ended up in sleeper class, which is the non-airconditioned part of the train that mostly the locals take.  It was crowded.  And hot.  And I think that we'll try to never do that again.  But the scenery was fascinating.  There is so much that you don't see when you're a tourist, but some things you would definitely miss if you didn't take the train.  Did you know that peacocks are native to India?  They just walk around, in the wild! And there are miles and miles and miles of shanty towns along the tracks.  They look like actual communities with mosques and schools and corner stores, but made out of scrap material, and cow dung bricks and straw.  People go to the toilet right out in the open - it seemed like perhaps they all decide to do it at once, because there were about 30 people crouching at the same time as we rode along one stretch.  Sometimes mothers on the train platforms with their babies would get a look at me and they would point me out to their kids "look at the foreigner!" and I would wave and they would smile and wave back.  They make these cow dung bricks here - I think maybe they also use them fire material?  and they are all the same size with a hand print on them.  They dry them on the walls that seem to line areas around the tracks. 

 

The train ride was very interesting.  Well, it was late - why?  because people kept pulling the emergency brake.  Why?  Because people without tickets get on the train in between stops and get on the roof or just find a space on the train.  Then, when we come to the place where they want to get off, they pull the emergency brake, jump off, and run like hell.  It happened about 10 or 25 times during the trip.  I can see why - the train goes through a lot of country.  One Australian woman asked one of the locals why this happened and why the government didn't do something about it.  "What would they do with these people if they caught them?", he said.  "This is the way things are in India".  He has a point.  They wouldn't be able to afford a fine.  The jails aren't big enough to crowd in the offenders.  So that's just the way things are.  Can you imagine what would happen in Canada or the US if someone kept pulling the emergency brake on a train? 

 

Out of Delhi and culture shock is beginning to wear off - or perhaps I'm just numbing to the poverty.  It's good to be really travelling and seeing things - though it's interesting - we aren't as focused on seeing "sights" this trip as we were when we went to Europe.  Here, just wandering around the markets and seeing the people and eating the food and just living is enough, it seems.  Not that we won't see some sights - there are temples and forts and camel markets and wildlife sanctuaries - but that doesn't seem to be our interest as much.  We spent the morning, for example, just watching people at the train station (because the train was 1.5 hours late) and consider it to be a worthwhile day.  I love my life.