SUPER LATE POST!!

Here it is!! Enjoy!

Hi! Here is another post. My Grandparents on my Dad’s side came to India last week. Early Sunday morning, we went to Delhi, and then Agra, (two cities in India) to see the Taj Mahal. I will give a short (okay, semi-short) description of what we did:

Sunday Morning: 3:00 am, up and getting ready to go to the Bangalore airport (we live in Bangalore). We were all packed up, because we had time Saturday night to pack. At about 3:30am, we went out of the house and got in the car, and headed to the airport. Long drive, maybe an hour or so, but that’s normal. The plane was fine, but you had to pay to get anything-food, beverage, etc. It was not cheap either. I guess it was not too expensive-but idk. The plane was to Delhi, and it was two and a half hours long, so it was not bad. I did not get any sleep on that plane. When we got to the airport, we picked up some food (BREAKFAST!!!! :) and then walked to our car with our driver. It was a small bus, or a large van (same difference) with 11 seats, including the two in front. There was a bench in the back, (the trunk!) but nobody needed to sit in that, because there was only 8 of us. The drive was awful. Our driver must get a raise if he honks more than 100 times in one hour. So with a 6 hour drive, we all had pretty bad headaches. Just in case you did not get that: The drive was six hours, and our driver honks like crazy. We stopped a couple of times to use the bathrooms, but we did not get any food, because we had some in the car. (m’n’ms, cookies, cereal bars, water etc.) I saw a lot of huts on the way, and I thought about it-mud huts, and people lived in them. It’s so sad! L

When we got to the hotel, we were given pretty flower wreaths, comfy couches to sit on, and some tea/juice beverage. After ten or fifteen minutes, we were taken to our rooms. The rooms were so pretty, just like the rest of the hotel. We had three rooms: One for Grandma and Papa, one for Addi, Holly, and Mom, and one for (can you guess? =) Dad, Kensi, and Mac. The rooms were very nice. Inside each one, there was: two chairs, one king-sized bed, a few small tables, a couple phones, a couple windows, a wardrobe, and a bathroom with a rain shower. Ahh….. My room had a nice poolside view, and I don’t know if the rest of them did, because I did not look out the windows of the other two rooms. At 7 that night, another bed was brought in, so Addi slept in that one. After we had dumped our stuff and explored our rooms, we went and had dinner. I spilt mushroom cream penne pasta, and fish and chips with mom. It was really good. After dinner, we went to see the Taj Mahal (from here on out will be abbreviated as TM). We stopped to pick up our tour guide on the way. We stood across the river and saw the backside of the TM. This was at 6:00ish. Our tour guide (sorry, I don’t know his name) told us that the two buildings on the right and left side of the TM are exactly identical. The one on the right is a mosque, and the one on the left is a guest house. That is from the back of the TM, so if you saw it from the front, the right would be the guest house and the left would be the mosque. A mosque is sort of like a temple. I could have easily skipped that little visit. We took a couple pictures, and then headed back to the hotel. Dad was feeling crummy, so he stayed in his hotel room while everybody else got desert.

Monday morning was anther early one. Up at 5:00 and out of the hotel at 5:30. We picked up our travel guide. (I have not made this very clear-our travel guide does not stay at the same hotel as us. Just so you know.) And went back to the TM. It was really dark, and it was cold. We were the first ones in line, and since it was like, 5:45, that’s not a shocker. Our travel guide walked away with our money, and went off to “Buy our tickets” Of course, not really knowing this guy, and not knowing how much tickets cost, or where the ticket counter is, we were more than a little nervous. Who knows! Maybe he would take our money and go get coffee. Nervous or not, all went well, and we got our tickets and stood in line. We waited till 6:30, then got our tickets stamped, and went through useless metal detectors. (Like what you see in airports, only they were turned off-hence, useless.) Then saw the TM! It was pretty cool, and the best part was the outside (for me). I loved the huge domes, and the cool color of the marble. Our tour guide made sure that we knew: INDIAN WHITE MARBLE IS THE HARDEST ROCK IN THE WORLD. He repeated it so many times it wasn’t even funny. But it was cool; the way the sun reflected off the semi-precious stones and made it sparkle. It was pretty awesome. If you ever get the chance to go, take it, and be ready for a pretty cool thing. If you never go, don’t feel like you are missing out on anything. =) I know this is a little brief for a description of the TM, so if you want to know more, email me please. Honestly, though there is not much to tell. After we finished the TM, we dropped off our tour guide, and then went back to our hotel.

We ate breakfast, and really, it was amazing! There were hash browns, pancakes, juice, fruit, cereal, bread, eggs, and a lot more. It was really a fantastic breakfast. We checked out of our hotel, and went back to the car, around 10:00am. We headed to pick up our tour guide, and went to Agra Fort. Like the TM, the Agra Fort was just ok. Some guy was prisoner by his son, and we saw the prison. It was the nicest prison I have ever seen. (Not that I’ve ever seen any prisons, but I doubt any look like that!) Also, it is not something you are missing much if you never go. We dropped off our travel guide, and on the road we went! We went to McDonald’s (Yes, we did!) And then we were on the road! About halfway through, we stopped at a place where people like, carved white marble, and used it for coffee tables and just plain tables. There was a really nice guy there who showed us some cool carvings and such. It was really cool.

Okay, I have to tell you about what we saw on our way out of that white marble carving place. Sitting on the side of the road, a man sat-with a snake. A snake charmer! And a real cobra! YAY!! (Right- yay..)We did not get out, but we saw enough. The man sat with his snake and started playing his flute-thing. He played, and the cobra lay in his box…

Man: *plays flute*

Cobra: *Comes up slightly*

Man: *Hits cobra in attempt to make it look like he was cool*

People in car: “Oh, epic fail!” “You call that snake charming!?”

Yes, I’m serious! Anyway, we got to the airport, and we arrived safely in Bangalore. My dad is feeling OK, but he is still not all the way well.

Thanks and more to come later!

Mfun!