Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort

This morning I left at 7a.m. on a train to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. On the train ride there I sat next to a woman from Japan, named Meg (the easy English version of her Japanese name). she was feeling sick so we didn't talk much but when we arrived she asked me if I was going to the Taj Mahal, yes, I said, and you? She was, and she told me about a tour that she was going to take of Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, and the Taj mahal. I was feeling tired and knew that it was going to be an intense day so i decided to join her on her tour. We paid our pricey fee and got on a tour bus with three other people, also Japanese. Our tour guides name was Zameer.
-My name means, 'voice of the heart', he explained.

He was very knowledgeable and it was nice to learn a bit about Indian culture. The bus ride to our first stop of Fatehpur Sikri ('Fate' means victory and "pur" is a suffix for "place" used for the names of many towns in India) was an hour long, ugh. We passed more garbage and people and poverty, but also big open fields where barley, wheat and sugar cane is farmed during their respectable seasons. We finally arrived to Fatehpur which were the government grounds for the kingdom during a time and date that I don't remember. The kingdom lived there for 16 years until a water shortage led them to move to where the Taj Mahal was built. During that time th eking and queen tried to unite all religions so there were headquarters for Hindus, Muslims and Christians. What a great concept. I asked Zameer what happened, why there is no longer such tolerance.
-"The British empire arrived", he said. The following are a few pictures. The one of the ground is actually where the king and queen played chess, and they used actual people as their "playing pieces". The king and queen sat above in their headquarters and made their "moves" from there. In fact, the king and queen would never descend to the common grounds, as they were royalty and always sat above.









After that, we visited the tallest gate in Asia, shown below with my fellow Japanese tour companions.


After that, and lunch at an overpriced tourist restaurant we went to Agra Fort, another long drive of an hour and a half. We had to take a detour because there was a big traffic jam. Agra Fort became the new headquarters for the kingdom after the water shortage at Fatehpur.


At first, it just seemed like another monument and I wasn't that impressed. Then, we entered another area that resembles the Taj Mahal and I learned that it is also the place where the king that built the Taj Mahal was imprisoned. The king built the Taj Mahal after his wife died in childbirth. He was so stricken with grief that he decided to build it as a monument of his love for her. When he completed it he intended to build himself a Taj Mahal but black. The building of the Taj Mahal had taken 22 years utilizing all the resources of the kingdom. his son knew that building a second one would be frivolous, an unnecessary use of the kingdom's resources so he put his father in prison.
This is where the father was and where he could see, via a reflection of a diamond that he had, the Taj Mahal.



Ironically, as I said, these headquarters were made from the same material as the Taj Mahal, which must have been painful for the king. The Taj Mahal is layers of brick, sandstone, and then the marble of the building. What makes it so beautiful, and so romantic are the gems that decorate it. The gems were donated from different kindgoms all over the world as a gesture of honoring the queen that had died. Here is a small example of what they looked like.


Throughout the day I took notice of all of the beautiful Indians, especially the children. There were so many Indians visiting these historical sites and they were all dressed so exquisitely. however, I was afraid to take pictures, especially of the children as I didn't want to offend anyone. Here is one that I took of some women at Agra Fort. I wonder about their lives, especially their relationships with their husbands. Do their husbands love them so much that they would build a Taj Mahal for them?




As we left Agra Fort, we were bombarded again with more people trying to sell us things. I bought a lemonade and opened it and took a couple swigs. A little girl was following me, asking me for the lemonade. I don't know why, but I felt compelled to acquiesce, and I handed it to her. she looked so happy.
The little things.

India Intro--A country of So's

"Welcome to New Delhi, India where the local temperature is 39 degree celsius". Yes, that is 102 degree Fahrenheit. After I found my bag I was picked up by a driver from the airport, yet we had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the taxi because he didn't want to have to pay the airport fee. As we began driving an intense hot breeze entered the car and the driver told me that this is the low season in India because of the heat, great. 102 degrees doesn't sound that hot actually but it just seems so much hotter, in fact everything in India is just so much more soooooo.
And it is a constant so.
There are so many people, rickshaws, cars, and SOOO much garbage.
There are so many sounds: cell phones, music, both Indian and pop rock, chanting at mosques, women and children begging, men trying to sell you something "hello m'am, how are you? would you like to buy something?"
There are so many smells: urine, garbage, petrol,shit, and this sour smell that I can't explain, probably a mixture of all of the above, that comes without warning and lingers for a bit, kindof pierces you, and then it leaves again. But then every once in a while there is a also a nice smell of sandalwood or jasmine incense burning.
The constant professionalism of con-artists is also apparent. When I arrived at my "hotel" i decided to quickly go and buy my train ticket for Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal where I wanted to go the following day. The reception desk guy told me to "walk straight down the street and the train station is there, then go to the first floor to buy your ticket". Simple enough. So i walked down the street and easily found the train station. But, I didn't know how to get to the first floor so I asked what looked like an "official", and who had just helped another foreigner with directions how to get to the first floor to buy my ticket. He said "come with me", and we proceeded to leave the train station and cross the street. Hmm, he walked ahead and me and we kept walking down the street but the "go the first floor of the train station" was echoing in the back of my head", so I stopped. "This isn't right", I said to the man who was actually leading me to a travel agency to get commission. So, I left him, he followed me insisting that where he was taking me was correct. I ignored him and told him to leave me alone and crossed the street again. I tried to go up some stairs but another "official" asked me for my train ticket. "I don't have one, I want to buy one, on the first floor". No, he said, you have to go down the street (the other direction from where the man told me). He also said "don't listen to anyone trying to tell you differently, there are many people who want to get commission off of you". I got frustrated with him as well but his argumetn was convincing so I went down the street to look for this place. Another guy followed me there and when I got there, I saw a sign saying "tourists, please go the first floor of the train station to buy your ticket". Oh yeah, I forgot, there was one more guy in the midst of all of this who also told me to go down the street. Anyways, after I saw this sign I knew that the ticket office was at the train station and I would find it. So, I returned and went to the train police post and asked what really was an official where to go. And, he said, yes, just go up those stairs over there.
Damn, they were good. When I went upstairs I was a bit shaken and the ticket vendor knew it.
-"Take a moment, and breathe", he said. I did and proceeded to try and purchase a ticket. And then he asked me for my passport.
-"What? I don't have my passport, why do I need my passport, I didn't want to carry it around with me."
-"I'm sorry, you need it to purchase the ticket."
I took another breath and walked, quickly, looking down for most of the time to avoid the "hello, where do you want to go", "hello, do you want to buy something?", hello, where are you from?"

I entered the hotel, got my damn passport and walked back, with the same background noise and pestering.

So, yeah, got the train ticket as well as a train ticket out of New Delhi for two days from then.
And then, I did some wandering through the streets of Patchanj. I don't know if the pictures do it justice. After, I took a tuk-tuk to another area that said they had coffee shops. I just wanted to sit in a place and write. The area is called Connaught place and it is strikingly different to where I had been. shopping malls with fashion shops. Ah, India.
What will I see next in a country that is so big, so diverse, so intense.
I am so anxious and excited to find out.

Sorry, it has been so overwhelming in Delhi that I haven't taken many pictures.

Pokhara and Nepal

Wow, I am not very good at this blog thing. I left my Thailand days on April 1st and landed in Nepal on April 2nd. Yes, it was a long journey for such a short distance but that's the way it goes on a budget. I left for my Everest base camp trek on the 4th and you can see pictures and some information at www.elfede.org. The impetus for going to base camp was to do some research for the foundations efforts to improve mountain rescue on Aconcagua. It was an amazing experience wherein I met many people who support me in my endeavors. Unfortunately my camera battery kept dying so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have wanted.

After I returned I decided to go to a small lakeside town called Pokhara. I was there for 8 days and did a lot of writing for the book. I stayed at a wee guesthouse called Guari Shankar where I would wake every morning at 6a.m. and write in the gardens.