India continued.

6. Agra - 1 day
We flew into Delhi super late due to thunderstorms and woke up early the next morning to go to the Taj Mahal. We were under the impression that it would only take 2 hours, but it actually took 4.5 hours. Of course, Jess still had energy to jump too high for the camera. The photographer told her,
"Stop jumping so high!" We didn't only take fun pictures though, our tour guide Sabir Khan was awesome and gave us a lot of history. It was a beautiful day, hot but no rain. The Taj really is magnificent.

This rectangular piece of marble is one piece. ONE piece. I don't know if I've ever seen a piece of marble that big! Each of the semi precious stones in the border and each flower carved out of the marble was laid and cut by hand. No wonder it took 22 years to build the Taj Mahal. Apparently, Shah Jahan, the emperor who built it, wanted to build a black marble Taj Mahal for himself, but his son spoke some sense and told him, Enough Dad. You've used enough resources, human and otherwise, to build this one.

7. McLeodGanj, Dharamsala - 4 days, 4 nights
This was our last, spontaneous, stop on our trip. We bought the flight in Goa. It ended up being one of our favorite places. Dharamsala is where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government have been in exile for many years. There is a big Tibetan community there now. It was cool to see the Indian and Tibetan (and foreigners, lots of foreigners) people living together peacefully. Especially given the Tibetan people's reason for being there in the first place!

There were lots of advertisements for yoga and energy healing and massage therapies and courses. Jess and I wanted to try one but weren't sure which one, because we knew we had to be careful (went to a Thai massage in Nongkhai that was more aggressive than relaxing). On our last day in Dharamsala, we were walking down our hotel street to check out the markets and randomly saw a sign for massage at another hotel a couple doors down. The sign was for Ayurvedic massage which, according to all the posters, seems to involve oil dripping on your forehead. Unfortunately, with the rainy season it wasn't the right time to receive that particular treatment, but we got massages which were great. We felt relaxed afterwards, exactly what we wanted out of the massage.

I included this picture because it reminds me of how the most mundane things can bring so much comfort when you're in a foreign place (I'm just noticing now the pictures of burgers and the Coca-Cola sign underneath). When Jess and I were in Fort Cochin walking around, we got to the pier and found that there were only male tuk tuk drivers and dock workers around. A tuk tuk driver wouldn't leave us alone and it turned us off from walking around. We've been in places before where street vendors are aggressive, but after coming from Thailand where in general, no means no, it was off-putting to be harrassed. That day, in Fort Cochin, we went to Cafe Coffee Day which we had seen everywhere we went in India. It was a little coffee shop chain. The coffee and food were alright, nothing special, but it was so nice to be in there for a couple hours, enjoying the music on the speakers, sitting in a cafe. I know that a year ago, I might not have allowed myself to go to a place like that, because it was so similar to places back home. But I've come a long way since last year and I like to think I've gotten off my own pedestal. I am more able to see now how this Cafe Coffee Day place is just as much a taste of India as the Taj Mahal and the street bazaars. Besides, we saw a lot of young people coming in and had fun people watching!

I was so happy to find that people actually really do greet each other with "namaste" in India, which I didn't know before! We also heard "namaskah" which is just another form. I love this quote from Ram Dass on the meaning of namaste: "I honor the place in you where the entire Universe resides. I honor the place of love, of light, of truth, of peace. I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us."

Dhauladhar is what they call the lower Himalayan mountains on which Dharamsala is situated. I would now love to get to the greater Himalayas someday! It's good to dream :)

More amazing food. One of my favorites. Such comfort food. Masala tea. Homemade yogurt. Aloo parantha which is a wheat bread/tortilla stuffed with potatoes. Mango pickle.

We went to a public audience with the Karmapa Lama, who is the 3rd most important spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama. Really cool! We thought he would give a speech and were wondering if we wouldn't be able to understand it, but he walked in, we all lined up, and he gave us a blessing and a piece of red string. So simple and so perfect! We weren't allowed to take pictures during the audience, but afterwards we went back in and while we were standing around wondering if we could take pictures now, a smiling monk offered to take the picture for us! He kept laughing and asking if the pictures were okay. Jess told him they were great and that he was a professional. I also loved that security didn't seem to be much higher than usual, which I wondered about because a couple days before, there had been a bombing at the place where the Bodhi tree is (the tree under which the Buddha sat). Important places had tightened security, but the Karmapa Lama's temple didn't seem too concerned. We were patted down before entering, but nothing compared to a pat down in the States or at Indian airports. It made me think about how different cultures view safety and security.

I just had to include this shot because it's one of my faves - Jess and the Tibetan old lady frolicking down the streets of McLeodGanj. India was fabulous.