Rajasthan, Agra, Hampi, Bangalore, Kerala, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Sparta (con't)

Sporting a supernice, white kurta gifted to me by Puneet and Vrushali, I left the comforts of Rajasthan and headed to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. My overnight train arrived just after sunrise, which was a perfect time to head to the Taj. All the museums and historic sites that I've visited in India have had two prices, a 10-30 rupee charge for Indians and a 100-200 rupee charge for Foreigners. The Taj Mahal had a Foreigner price of 750 rupees (around $17). While the price was steep, it did include a 100ml bottle of water, shoe covers and a well-maintained Taj Mahal. I do not have much to say about the Taj Mahal. It was pretty but not remarkable when compared to some of the other sites I've seen here. It took 20,000 people 17 years to build it. Also, I've heard that the ruler who had it built, Shah Jahan, had the architect's hands removed when it was completed so that he could not design another one. This seems like a completely ineffective way of ensuring that the architect remained mum on the secrets of the Taj Mahal, as heads, not hands, contain secrets. That sort of sounds scary. Hearts contain secrets, too. That sounds romantic. Shut up, Aaron.

I broke my fast in full-view of the Taj Mahal. This rooftop restaurant also had monkeys that attacked my waiter when he was bringing my meal. While he ran to get his anti-monkey pipe, they drank my coffee, hissed at me, and ate some of my omelet. After chasing them off, he tried to serve me what was left of my food and coffee. I graciously declined, making true on my promise years ago never to eat monkey-molested food. I practice Safe Eating. Thoroughly entertained, I paid the waiter the deserved 50 rupees, the going rate for a monkey fighter, ensuring that he would not also be attacked by his boss.

After Agra, I traveled five or so hours to Gwalior, a city known for its fort. I wanted a nice meal after the day's festivities, and so I headed to a restaurant that was highly-recommended by Lonely Planet. It was closed. Close by there was a group of rickshaw drivers who I asked to take me to Gwalior's nicest restaurant. They conferred, and one of them took me to the restaurant...McDonald's. Again, thoroughly entertained, I paid the rickshaw driver who was really just trying to make me feel at home. Then, I called Vrushali in Jaipur, who had visited Gwalior, and she recommended a really nice kebab place.

Unfortunately, I missed seeing the fort in Gwalior, as I was laid-low by yet another case of food poisoning (unrelated to the kebabs, methinks), and started a 42 hour journey back down to South India. After train, bus and rickshaw, I arrived in Hampi, a city of ruins in north Karnataka. Hampi is quite a treat. There are impossible rock formations that remind me of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park. Plus, unlike the sites in North India, I find the sites of South India to be uncrowded and clean. While walking to an abandoned temple that looked exactly like King Louie's ruins in the Jungle Book, I met a couple of fellow travelers. The next day a whole group of us went swimming amongst the amazing boulders in Hampi's reservoir, said to be full of crocodiles. Who knows? It definitely had water buffalo and locals to sell us beer and snacks.

Two days in Hampi were not enough, but I headed back to Bangalore to visit my friends Louella, Varsha, Nishith, Ellen, Harsha and others from Auroville. It was during the overnight bus that I acquired scabies on my legs and feet and contact dermatitis on my arms. Louella offered to take me to a hospital, but I thought it was just another case of impetigo, like the one I had acquired two months before on a bus trip (apparently from biting cockroaches. Who knew they bite?). I should have listened to Louella because after two days of ineffective antibiotic cream application, my itching and rash worsened. I saw the lines in the rash and knew it was scabies, as had seen and made fun of scabies on my friend Max who got them at a hotel in Louisiana. The doctor confirmed my suspicion, and I spent the next two days boiling clothes and sheets, applying lotions and taking pills. While they are a pest, but they are a distant second to bed bugs in my book.

Ellen, a Kiwi, and I, a Yankee, took an overnight bus (luxury, A/C, Volvo, unlike the overnight non-A/C, rash buses I'd taken) to Kerala to travel there for a week. Kavita, my ex-coworker whose family is from Kerala, gave some really good tips on where to go. Here I must apologize to Susan, a friend from Auroville (her picture is at the end of my first blost), who is from Kerala and prepared a whole list of things for us to see and do there. While I'm sure the document was amazing, as she is a generous perfectionist, I was not able to find a computer to open the document, as the computers I'm using these days have only MSWord 1988 loaded on them. As my friend Antim says, no great effort is wasted, so if anyone is planning a trip to Kerala, I have an amazing document to guide you.

Ellen and I spent the first day in Fort Cochin, a pretty port town visited by Vasco De Gama. We then headed to Alleppey, the "Venice of the East" and the beginning of the infamous Kerala Back Waters. We were going to rent a house boat but they seemed to be for couples, too romantic that is. So we rented a gondola type boat with another female traveler, Anna, and spent 6 hours on this fresh water paradise. We saw eagles, beautiful flora and even a couple of snakes. After the tour Ellen, Anna and I had dinner and were searching for an Internet cafe when I guy on a motorcycle drove by and grabbed Ellen's boob. Before we could grab him, he'd motored away. Anna comforted Ellen by telling the tale of the drive-by-boobing she experienced in Fort Cochin. In Alleppey, we also spent 2 days with a group on "Secret Beach" which is about 9 miles north of Alleppey. It was recommended to us by our hotel staff, and it was a truly picturesque beach with white sand and palm trees.

While we could have spent two weeks on Secret Beach, we decided to head to Calicut to visit our friends from Auroville Trisha and Prateek. Calicut is supposed to be the first place where Vasco De Gama landed and is now a dirty, modern city. Trisha and Prateek are both students at the National Institute of Technology, located 16 miles from Calicut. Trisha was able to get an extension to the 7pm (!) curfew imposed by her dormitory, and we had a wonderful dinner at a rooftop restaurant watching a storm off the coast of the Arabian Sea. The male students do not have a curfew.

Wanting to see wildlife, we next went to Wayanad State Park, a park in Kerala bordering Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and one of the few places left in India to spot wild elephants. During our jeep ride, Ellen kept singing "the other day, I met a bear" song, so we didn't spot wild elephants. We did, however, see wild dogs, peacocks, a wild boar and spotted deer. Actually, she didn't sing that song. We were just unlucky.

The same day as not seeing elephants, we returned to Bengaluru to celebrate my birthday. It was great fun, a truly memorable birthday, and I'll post some pictures of the festivities as soon as one of the camerad people posts the pics. A special thanks to Louella, Varsha, Priya, Ellen, Rahul, Nishith, Pria, Suri, Harsha, Priyanka, Santosh and Supria for the wonderful birthday times. An extra special thanks to Louella for making one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever tasted.

It was difficult to leave my friends in Bangalore, but it was made easier knowing that I'd meet up with Pete in Hyderabad, a friend from Brooklyn who is here on business. Yesterday morning we did some sight-seeing, and we plan to hit the town tonight or tomorrow.