The beauty of Agra and arriving at Mumbai/Bombay

Well, I can’t remember where I left off, but I’m pretty sure that I didn’t talk about the Taj Mahal, so here goes. It is the most amazing building I have ever had the experience of seeing in my whole life. It is more than a building really. It seems as if it floats when you first see it, it isn’t real. It is so beautifully white and shines in the sun. cliché, cliché, cliché I know, but its true! Its like, when you first see Bucking palace you build a picture in your head about what it looks like and then a bitterly disappointed. Or when you see Windsor castle for the first time and you think it looks nice, but are not overawed by it. With the Taj Mahal it’s different, it is actually the most beautiful man made thing I have ever seen. The building was made as a symbol of love to the wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan 400 years ago. It is a tomb to honor her after her death, and also contains the body of the emperor.

The structure is made purely from white marble, everything from the steps, to the finely carved walls, to the caskets that hold the bodies, are all made of marble. It is situated high above a river, and is built in such a way that when you look at it from the front, you can see nothing behind it but blue sky. Two dark red almost identical mosques stand symmetrically alongside it, whilst an ornate arch precedes it leading towards the entrance to the place. Really, it is really worth going to visit the country just to see it, it is very special.

Ok, we also did the going around the city and looking at the other tourist attractions stuff, which is also very much worth it, although an all day trip can be very exhausting (at least it was for me, I had to carry a small towel and constantly drank water all day long.)

I was also lucky enough to meet my good friend achin in New Delhi, where we ate Pan and drove around the city, seeing a beautiful temple belonging to the bahai religion, called the lotus temple (which is also breathe taking). There are so many beautiful buildings in this country which dwarf the architecture of Britain .

That being said, at least I don’t get ill in Britain every time I drink or eat something liquid based. I am officially ill. And it hit me the day before we were to travel to Mumbai. So Imodium in hand, we made the trip to the train station for the overnight trip. We were air conditioned to the ears! It was great! The food was good and the toilets weren’t filthy. It was nice (but pricey) to travel first class.

When we arrived in Mumbai I immediately liked it more than New Delhi . It doesn’t smell as much, it looks nicer, its not as crowded, and its on the coast so you’ve got the sea breeze too. Being the romantic type I took singoalla on a horse and carriage ride through the city, it was a silver plaited chariot so it looked quite funny and extravagant, and many people were either amused, wished us luck or scowled as they tried to drive past us to get home. We also went to see a bollywood film last night which was really funny, though we didn’t understand a thing. We knew it was about the Indian women’s hockey team being trained up to become world champions though. Its strange when you start to think about things like nationalism and cultural phenomena. Mobile phones are such a luxury everywhere, but 60 million people own them in India . They take them to the cinema and leave them on so that when people make a phone call to them they can answer. Funny no? we’ve go the same thing though, I remember when I went to college and people used to take out their mobile phones and put them on the table during class to let everybody see what make they had. Status symbol frenzy. Anyways the film was highly nationalistic. There is a push over here to really emphasise the greatness of India , emphasise unity, emphasis economic growth. This country’s elite really wants to compete with the rest of asia , but at the same time it doesn’t want to recognize the problems of poverty they engender.

Ok people, I must go, singoalla and I send our love. Be cool, carlos