India Love . . . 3, 2, 1: Taj Mahal.

It took about 4 hours to get from Delhi to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located). And then another 5 hours to get from Agra to Jaipur (where I am now). I woke up at 4am and my driver picked me up at 615am. And I have to tell you something: I'm a bad tourist. While I love being in really crazy, loud places with lots of people or hanging out with large animals like Wanalee, I'm not so good with the whole being drug around to giant architectural masterpieces with guides. I know this sounds completely horrible and perhaps I even sound a bit spoiled. But sometimes I feel like the absolute best things to see are less exciting because there are billions of other people trying to see that very same thing. It's like with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Because I love hanging around with people, I became more interested in the variety of people that were there to see it: how many of them took pictures of themselves "holding" up Pisa, or "pushing" it with one leg, whatever. I remember all of those people and the different stunts they were demonstrating more than I even remember what the Pisa actually looked like. The same can be said about the Taj Mahal. The most fun I had--being in the presence of this ginormous structure--was watching all of the people and how they would arrange their families in front of certain areas or take awkward selfies. And it became a competition between some families, with people cutting off other people's pictures. It was kinda weird, honestly. But I thoroughly enjoyed the story behind the building of the Taj . . . It was apparently created based on an architectural plan in a dream that the King's wife had. But she died before he even started building it. You know it was sort of fairy tale-ish, which is quite lovely. After seeing the Taj, we hopped back in the car to head for Jaipur. About halfway there, we stopped for lunch at a roadside motel. I was completely infatuated with this motel and had the manager walk me around so that I could take pictures. No one was staying at this place, but I thought it would make a hell of a movie set. They brought tables out to the front yard, so when I had my lunch it was sort of like I was having a picnic. And there was this man sort of walking around playing this violin-ish type instrument. I was completely obsessed with him, and asked to take his picture. After lunch, we hopped back in the car and my driver was getting a bit cranky because of the traffic . . . Oh India: you and your traffic. It was on and off the whole way to Jaipur. I know this probably sounds like the most negative post on the planet. (Car rides are draining, people: whoooowheee!) But tomorrow will be filled with lots and lots of exciting experiences! More soon!