: observations :

The last leg of the trip was to fly to Delhi and hire a driver to take us four-five hours to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We were going to miss the celebrations in Kathmandu for Buddha's Birthday, but we had experienced that in Bangkok a few years back. By continuing on to Agra, we were to attend a full moon viewing of the Taj late that evening.

I randomly had chosen a travel company out of Delhi that had cars with drivers for hire. I got to pick the car, an Ambassador, that based on the internet photo, seemed much more regal than it actually was. Our driver met us at the airport ready to take us on yet another adventure simply called "driving the roads of India"! (We did not get in one accident in three days, which really says a lot.)

Oh, India. What can I say? Men peeing on the side of the road completely exposed. Children playing in heaps of garbage. Toxic rivers. Cattle roaming freely anywhere they please. Women in beautiful and colorful saris sharply contrasting the dusty streets. Cars and animals and people and cargo trucks and strange inventions of motorized vehicles in near collisions and constant horns blaring. Poverty. Pollution. Heat (112 degrees the highest when we were there). And then, an oasis.

We arrived at our hotel in Agra late in the afternoon, and after considerable security measures, were welcomed with refreshing watermelon juice and bindi (a red mark as a sign of luck and health) on our foreheads. We were then taken to our room and immediately our eyes were drawn to the balcony door, where beyond we could see the Taj Mahal! And floating in the hot air were dozens of kites flying and the sounds of the call to prayer.

Then, that evening, we saw the Taj by moonlight, with a handful of other tourists and uzi-toting soldiers. The next day, the temperature climbed to record levels in India, and our driver waited for us outside the Red Fort with the air conditioner on. Afterwards, we decided to go back to the hotel, hang out at the pool with some pina coladas and wait to see the Taj Mahal again for the sunset viewing. Which we thought would be at a cooler time in the evening. If you can call 102 degrees cooler.

The whole time we were in India, we thought of my grandparents, who had traveled there in 1972. We wondered about how different it was, if at all, and when photographing at the fort and Taj, we would suddenly think "hey, we've seen this before!" - through their eyes, of course.

Our last day, we requested a very late check-out so we could linger by the pool before our four-five drive back to Delhi and then fifteen hour plane ride.

It was time to go home.