so, for any of you still reading, i thought i would share some more pictures. on our last full weekend in india, we flew to delhi and then drove to agra, to the taj mahal. it was, i think, the best idea we had. delhi is huge, but it had nice wide streets and much less obvious pollution, and seemed so orderly. it was also filled with lots of interesting tombs, etc. and the taj was the most beautiful thing i have ever seen. seriously, the pictures you see do not capture it. we also stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast run by a wonderful woman who orchestrated a friendship between us and two other medical students from unlv, and it was overall fabulous.
so, some pictures:
this is the area outside the qutb minar in delhi (ca. 1300's).
next, water buffalo roaming the streets in agra. this was taken from our car with no zoom, i would like to point out. the water buffalo are everywhere!
in addition to the taj and water buffalo, agra is also home to the agra fort, built roughly around the same time as the taj (started earlier). the fort is enormous. here is a tiny corner of it. if you had x-ray goggles on, you would see the taj on the riverbanks just behind this tower.
finally, the taj. if you ever have the chance to go, seriously, take it. from a distance it's spectacular, and then when you get up close and see the work that went into it, it's even more spectacular. interestingly, the government's banned traditional cars and other pollution within a few km of the taj to protect the marble, so you have to take little battery-powered shuttles over to it. one of my favorite parts was the way they designed the entrance gate to frame the entire structure, so that when you're walking in, you come up to through this giant sandstone structure and all of a sudden:
so, as i said, a weekend well spent, and a nice break from mumbai. look, delhi is even having it's own mini-green revolution!
