AGRA home of the TAJ

We left Delhi at around 10 this morning, and 5 hours later made it to Agra home of the Taj Mahal. The whole time our driver was nagging us (the same guy that drove us around Delhi). See the way it works here is everyone is trying to make a buck (or should I say rupee) if you go into this store or this hotel or this restaurant and someone is making commission just from you walking in. the whole car ride he was talking to us about this hotel and this shopping center and yadda yadda yadda it was like dude just shut up!
We thought Delhi was disgusting, take that multiply it by 10 and that is Agra! Yes a primo shithole! There are wild animal swarming this place, moneys flying through the tree tops, goats, dogs, camel, and cows running along the streets. It is in and of itself a mini zoo! Besides the sites we saw today and the Taj Mahal there is nothing else here, just more poverty, more kids playing in dirt half naked, ore beggars, and more crippled folk. It breaks my heart every time I go outside that there are places on earth that suffer so heavily. Just rips it in a million pieces.
Today we saw two major sites here in Agra, Agra Fort, and Itmad-ud-daulah (also know as baby Taj). They were both very beautiful; especially the Agra Fort was so impressive. Were saving the Taj Mahal for tomorrow we plan on getting there at 5:45am…yes! Haha. We then checked into Hotel Kamal, in Taj Ganj (I swear ganj means ghetto in Hindi). For 10 buses a night our room is decent and the rooftop restaurant has a sick view of the Taj Mahal. I know that when I see it up-close tomorrow it’s going to take my breath away. Right now staring at it from the rooftop it just looks fake circa Disney’s Aladdin. I’m so excited to actually step foot on it. It should be something magical. Sara and I are going to grab some dinner in about an hour. We are having such a good time, just taking it all in, the cultural differences, everything! And, its only day 2!
After our visit to the Taj tomorrow were headed to Jaipur in Rajasthan, a city famous for its jewels (yes! Def gonna get me some of those!). We haven’t shopped at all yet, but no worries, with these prices we will, and hey someone needs to support the India economy!
Just a quick side note, its impressive to see how much Indians like Jews. Some of them even speak a few phrases ion Hebrew. Regardless of the dirtiness, it’s refreshing to go somewhere as welcoming as this, esp. regarding the size of the Muslim population. A lot of cars have Jewish star bumper stickers, most hotels have Hebrew writings. And when we say we come from Israel where we are studying everyone’s faces light up! It’s really great!

Till next time ooxoxoxx