Last Day!

Got up early to greet the sunrise at the Taj Mahal!

Because of the heavy rain a few days earlier, humidity was high and the air seemed hazy.Whole books have been written about the Taj Mahal, so it is difficult to know where to begin.  In addition to being, really, incredibly beautiful it is also an engineering marvel.  Built 400 years ago, it displays an accuracy of construction that is partly responsible for its beauty.  It is almost perfectly symmetrical; on entering through the gate, each step you take reveals more of it in perfect stages—the first step shows only the mausoleum through the gate arch, the next step adds the rear columns, the next step adds the front columns, and so forth.  One step to either side removes 1/4 of the structure, another step removes 1/2, a third step removes 3/4s.  The arches of the mausoleum are bordered with script from the Koran.  Each letter (made of black stone imbedded in the marble) is progressively larger, so that the writing at the top of the arch (two stories high) appears exactly the same size as that at the bottom.(Oh, there are monkeys)  There are floral patterns of inlaid stone throughout (see smaller arch above), there is lattice work carved into the marble…  It is really quite amazingly beautiful.

Yes…we were really there!

All the places we saw in Agra—the Taj, the Fort, and Sikandra—were populated by brilliant green parakeets

there was a nest in that tree trunk…  also the maniacal ground squirrels…they look more like our chipmunks, but we were told ‘squirrels’:The sun was up by the time I took this picture…and it STILL looks like a mirage, or a vision from a fantasy….

Left, reluctantly, as we had to, to begin the trip home.  Another few hours on the road back to Delhi—reverse of the previous day…arriving in the city just as the full moon was rising.  Took this shot of India Gate: More shopping, then a dinner at a local restaurant (part of the package tour) then off to the airport, arriving about 10 pm, where we were met by the IndoAsia Tours rep who got our stuff squared away.  Check in counter opened at about 11 pm, then through the security stuff….which was INTERMINABLE!  Took something like an hour and half of standing in line to get the exit visa stamp...and that was BEFORE the ‘xray’ etc…that was just to get a date stamp applied to the passports!  Finally boarded the plane about 2:40 am for take-off at 3:20—on the 18th.  At this point we had been awake since about 6 am, so say 21 hours at this time.  Then a 5 1/2 hour flight to Shanghai (slept a little).  Oddly, Shanghai to Delhi took 7 1/2 hours…dunno why the difference.  Time is very strange over there!  I’ll never figure this out….  Anyway, hour or so layover and then the flight back to Vancouver (10 hours 20 mins—going the other way took 12 hours 5 minutes.  Prevailing winds?)  By now we had been up about 38 hours, other than sleeping on the planes….  Nice to get home, obvious new snow on the mountains…a lot colder than Delhi.  And that’s our story!