U guys should see the computer I am using now...pretty funny.
So, got to Agra at around 8 am and went straight to the Taj, after leaving my backpack at the hotel, 50 m from it. Got to see it all before all the tourists started arriving, so that was cool. It is really amazing and I hope the pictures do it justice. What can I say about the Tak that hasn't already been said...? The guy had a lot of marble to spare, that's for sure...
Met a new friend, the rckshaw driver, Bobby. He took me to the hotel from the train station and then waited for me at 2pm to take me to Agra Fort, nice as well. Then he insisted on tasking me bo the banks of the Anyuna River, behind the Taj, for sunset. That was an experience. ON the way there one girl wanted to marry me...She was sitting on the back of a horse carriage with two little girls and two older women. Then I touched her hand and they all went crazy. There was a big traffic jam so we weren't going that much faster than them...At one point I thought she was going to jump off the thing and joing me on the rickshaw...Thank the Lord Shiva that didn't happen...
When we actually got there it was as Bobby had said, no tourists at all, just him, our friend Sadu, the holy man, and three girls that were working on some weeds to feed the camels afterward. They didn't wante me to take a picture of them but I shot a little video without them realizing it...Also got a picture of a funerary pire from a distance. That was happening on the banks of that river as well. So i got to see the Taj for sunset, too...I can see it from the rooftop restaurant of my hotel also. Not much of a restaurant, but certainly a rooftop..
What s country, such poverty..It really is heartbreaking. I mean, I saw poverty in Cambodia but I didn't see dead people on the streets like I did in Delhi, not joking, saw two, covered in flies, and yes, they were pretty dead.
I am having a lot of fun, specially talking to the people. These two guys that were trying to sell me all kinds of shit at Agra Fort were hilarious. As soon as they realized that they weren't selling me anything we kicked it for a little bit while I waited for Bobby to pick me up. Of course they speak all the languages. "Oh, Spanish!? Teta, culo, polla! Jajajaja" One of them was missing the right hand, so we shook with the left one instead, he seemed happy about it.
So, as I was saying, it is fun, but I really can't wait to get out of these really touristy places and start walking around other cities a bit more relaxed and without so many must-see-spend-all-your-ruppees places. More than anything I am looking forward to the desert and the beach...got sand?
This is all for now, tomorrow I am getting on the bus to go to the city of Bharatpur, one hour away where I'll board the train for Rhantambore National Park, try to find a place for the night (didn't make a reservation) and see me a tiger the next morning in this safari I did book.
Geoff, I will try that cashu leche when I get to Goa.
C ya!
