India Update

I have now been in India for over a week. I thought I would enjoy India given how much I enjoyed Vietnam. However, I've not been too fond of it here. I have been in the city of Chennai mostly, and there isn't much for tourists there. It is very dirty and has poor infrastructure. This weekend, I traveled to New Delhi and found it to be much more advanced (infrastructure wise) but still very dirty (but not as bad as Chennai). Throughout the city you will find areas where people pile their trash right next to the street...and the stray dogs, stray cows, stray pigs, and stray goats all gather round to eat it. I now know why many Indian people are vegetarians. It doesn’t really make you crave a burger when you see the cow sifting through trash and eating paper. In fact today I even saw a wild monkey eating from the trash piles. I also haven’t felt very safe here. In Vietnam, we went everywhere and did everything without a worry for our safety. But here, I am much more cautious.

The highlight of my trip was definitely today, I visited the Taj Mahal. I traveled 4 hours by car to Agra to catch a glimpse of it...knowing that it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is far more wonderful than I imagined. Evidently the Emperor of the Mughul’s wife died in child birth (her 14th child in 14 years). He was crushed! His love for her was so great that he ordered a mausoleums be built for her. It took 22 years and 22,000 workers to complete it. Construction was completed in 1654. It is made of all white marble. Changes color throughout the day, in the morning it appears pink, in the afternoon it appears white, and in the evening it appears yellow. It is absolutely amazing! Without a doubt it blew away everything I saw in London.