In case no one has every told you this: the Taj Mahal is big. Like, really big. According to the new list that was voted upon by some amorphous and vaguely official body last year, it is also officially now one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Which means I’ve seen two so far1.
Our program escorted the entire group around this past weekend, three days between Agra and Jaipur. The most important thing you need to know is that it was hot. Insanely hot. Mind-blowingly hot. Unimaginably, ineffably hot. Nancy-Reagan-dropping-an-egg-into-a-frying-pan hot. There was also far too much activity packed into far too little a span of time, so between the exhaustion, the heat stroke, and the long bus rides, our crowd coming back into Delhi was ready to kiss the dirty dirty ground we walked on.
Jaipur was overstated. It was the place I’d been the most excited to visit, having read about it in the news for ages. We missed Pearl Market, and the markets and stores we did hit were not particularly worth the time. The Ambar Fort was nice; the elephant ride to the top was awe-inspiring. Also, being wined and dined in 5-star hotels for three days was pretty nice.
On the 13th of this month, we are going on a group trip to Kojuraho for three days. I’ll return to Delhi for a night, and then fly to Kathmandu with two of the girls to spend the six days of our fall vacation.
That’s right, I’ll be in Nepal for a week for my fall vacation. How cool is that?!
Other things of note include (but are not limited to):
Last week I met up with Bhavna, my father’s coworker’s niece, for dinner last Thursday. She is exceptionally cool, brilliant – has been a lawyer for 10 years and is currently taking an extended sabbatical from work – and great fun.
Electronics seem to hate me. I lost my power adapter (have been stealing my roomate’s when necessary), got my cell phone stolen in Kashmir, and the new charger for the new phone has decided to not work, leaving me with dead!phoney goodness.
And lastly, for no particular reason besides that I spend way too much time in class, and most of my classes completely suck, I have been bored to tears lately and felt like I don’t have enough time to myself. This has led to my mind wandering 24/7 and me being totally unfocused. I went through a two week period where I was incredibly prolific – in creative writing if not in blogs – and that seems to have run its course for the time being because now I feel more unfocused than inspired.
Hopefully the weather will cool off soon. That would be a great help to getting my feng shui back into gear.
Also, pictures!
