Taj, Peacock, Mahal

hiii..

so.. things are moving along swiftly. The Orchha stop was a little bit lacklustre- that and Khajuraho are pretty much 'one temple towns' between Varanasi and Agra (which doesnt have an airport) and have grown because they break up the terrible driving. We've done a few segments by flight, a couple days driving in our bus, and a train ride... Agra was a pretty ugly town, but the Taj Mahal made up for it. My picture doesnt seem to want to load- so I'll do it later. We spent a good chunk of the day there and it really is all that you'd expect. Absolutely crazy and huge. It was interesting to learn that Shah Jahan was planning to build another black marble version, where he wife was initially buried- but instead his son (the new ruler) put him in a prison (basically across the road at the red fort) where he lived for 7 years before dying there. Interesting.

From Agra we drove to Bharatpur, which was kind of an interesting hotel stop, in the former mansion home of a Maharaja, Crawling with peacocks. There is a huge bird sanctuary in a National park there, and I saw the Indian version of Canadian geese- that sound and look almost identical, except they have the opposite coloring. We also saw a variety of owls, cranes and whatnot. Its also mating season and we saw some antelope, and jackals gettin it on. (not together)

We have been in the 'pink city', Jaipur for two days- but it looks more salmon to me. elephant ride tomorrow morning up to Amber fort.. so I've gotta go sharpen my spurs.
just kidding!
I'm outta time.
J