Random Travel Update 9

Last location: Delhi, India

Arrival Date: October 31, 2007
Departure Date: November 02, 2007

Current Location: Agra, India
Arrival Date: November 02, 2007
Departure Date: November 03, 2007

Next Stops: Rajastan, India (Ranthambore, Jaipur, Pushkar)

The UAE was great. We visited Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Both modern, globalized, desert cities on the rise. I am a big fan of the desert. Though, as it turns out, sandboarding is not nearly as fun as it looks. Indoor snowboarding however, is a wonderfully good time. Camels are very dirty and smell horrible close up. I intend to post photos, but the connection speeds here in India are tragically slow.

Mark and I left Dubai late Wednesday night on a red-eye to New Delhi. India is pretty much everything anyone ever said it would be. Dirty, crowded and poor. Beggars are rampant and the pollution is sickening. Still the sites, when you get past the touts, are beautiful.

I am at an internet cafe now, fewer than 100 meters from the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is truly breathtaking, despite the thick layer of smog that surrounds the place. I have taken many photos. Hopefully, I do not lose my camera before they are all uploaded.

The food here is amazing. Better, perhaps, than anything I have ever tasted in the United States or anywhere. It is very much a vegetarian utopia with over half the restaurants serving only pure vegetarian meals. Even the McDonalds menu is over 50% vegetarian.

I am devastated that Webshots continues to hide my photos. I may have to re-upload everything to Flickr when I return to a first world nation.

Cheers,

Melissa