India!

Ryan and I are headed to India for 10 days! We leave on Friday, April 9th and return sometime Monday the 19th (...or we leave on Monday and travel back in time to return on Sunday??? I still haven't figured that out.) We'll be in Delhi for the most part, then we travel to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. We've been immunized against (and warned about) Yellow Fever, Malaria, Hepatitis, Typhoid, Rabies, Japanese encephalitis, Polio, and the germ-carrying proficiency of mosquitoes. We have prescriptions for Cipro (diarrhea), Ambien (sleep aid), and several Z-packs (bacterial infections). Our Travel visas are all updated and I have auditioned several walking sandals over the last week. We bought a new camera (RIP little Canon SX100) and I even bought myself a straw hat!

Some people have connected India with the fact that we are adopting, but I assure you they are not related. We are not adopting a baby from India - though I have been warned about the poverty and will do my best not to stash a sweet little cherub in my carry-on. My only intention is to bring home a thousand pictures, some awesome jewelry, and a bunch of amazing fabric. Ryan is going for work (I am simply tagging along) so he'll have a totally different agenda. Something about powder coatings and paint and business and I honestly have no idea what he's going to do. So I've been researching what to see and what to do while I'm on my own for 5 days. Here's what I know:

We are staying in New Delhi, which is in Northern India - it's the capital:

Delhi is very congested and the most popular means of travel are these auto-rickshaws. I've been told it is really easy to get ripped off. Awesome. I love a good language barrier and the fear of losing money:

This is the Red Fort. It is closed on Mondays:


This is a hallway in the Red Fort. I'm prepared to pick my jaw off the floor many, many times while admiring the architecture in India:

More hallways:


This is the Jama Masjid:


This is Raj Ghat - Mahatma Gandhi's memorial:


This is a memorial statue of Gandhi leading the salt march:


Another Gandhi memorial:


The Lotus Temple:

Close-up of Lotus Temple:


Taj Mahal as seen from some body's airplane:


The Taj Mahal is apparently the greatest symbol of love ever constructed?? An emperor built it for his 3rd wife who died giving birth to his 14th child. One of his sons over-threw him and tossed the emperor in jail where he watched the construction from his prison window? Eventually he died and his followers returned him to the Taj Mahal where he could be buried next to his wife. That kid has what we call "anger issues":



As Phil Keoghan would say, "Good luck...travel safe...GO!"