The Taj

Truly one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal.


We hopped a train from Jaipur to Agra, home of India's most popular tourist attraction, the Taj Mahal. The Taj was built by Shah Jahan as a tomb for his second wife, and after his son killed him, he was buried next to her too. Some kid... It was really impressive, right on the bank of a river and raised up on a massive platform. It was built by hundreds of skilled workers from around the world around the end of the 18th century. Agra has little else to offer, so we went on back to New Delhi later that evening. After watching Old School at a cafe, hilarious.


Bam.



Side view, the Taj was built to look identical from every side.




Yes, I know my head is blocking the building, and I need a haircut. But just wanted to show that I'm still alive, and is in fact me updating the blog.



View of the Taj from the Agra fort.

Fun times:
We're in Delhi at the moment, and had really great night out yesterday. We met a cool girl, Priyanka, on a train a couple of days ago, and she recommended club Dublin at the Sheraton hotel in Delhi as a good spot. So, the three of us headed there last night in the hope of meeting up with some other Aussies and Priyanka. We got a cab from the backpackers ghetto, Parhan ganj, and headed to the Sheraton, which just so happens to be the poshist place in Delhi. We rolled into Dublin, and as the name suggests, it's a typical looking Irish pub with a small dance floor club attached.
I mistakenly brought only about 800 rupees, about $20 USD, with me... didn't know quite how exxy this place was. With that I could afford only 1 Guinness, which was 450 rupees, well over the cost of our room at the hostel. We were pretty much about to leave when we started chatting to the guy next to us, who was there on business. Make a long story short, Tom (guy we met) works for Cisco Systems on wireless networks and travels all over Asia-Pac on the company coin. So he shouted us the next 4 rounds of beers and Cisco picked up the tab! Priyanka and her friend Aprajita showed up around 11 and we all had a great night and got good and tossed for free.
Today were taking a overnight train to Bombay (16.5hrs) we'll spend a day there and then take another train down to Goa. Goa's on the south west coast of India and has some really nice beaches on the Indian Ocean, it's quite well known for it's traveler scene, and should be excellent. I'll update again from there!

TRAVEL PLANS and IMPORTANT DATES:

December 7th: Tim turns 27! He's a old, old man.

December 18th: I turn 25, I'll be somewhere on the beach, with a cold beer in hand.

December 22nd 5:40am: I fly from Bombay to Zurich, Switzerland, and then get a train to Wengen, and meet back up with Tim and his crew from London in an alpine chalet. Matt flies in the the following afternoon. My folks are meeting us in Wengen on Christmas eve, should be spectacular! Hope to do a bit of skiing and a lot of snowball fighting vs. my Australian snowtard mates.

December 30th: We fly from Zurich to Berlin, stay in Berlin for New Years and then the crew splits up for a while. Tim goes back to work in London, and Matt travels around the UK. I'm not sure of my plans yet around Europe, hoping that MEGAN MILLER will come to visit for a bit. Everyone is more than welcome and totally encouraged to come visit if you can! (TIM HOGAN where are you?) I have to make my way to London (by Channel Tunnel I hope) by January 10th to meet back up with Matt and fly to Nairobi, Kenya.

January 10th: Fly from London to Nairobi, spend a week traveling around Kenya, visit a game park or three, and gear up for our attempt to hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro, one of the seven summits, and the highest free standing (not part of a mountain range, it's a volcano) mountain in the world. Planning on the Machame route.

January 17th: Andrew Eckert, 'super strong' climber and overall great guy, flies into Nairobi to meet us for the Kili climb and a little safari action afterwards. He sadly heads back to the states on January 30th, to continue messing with DNA at the National Cancer Institute.

February:
After Andrew departs, Matt and I are currently planning to head to Zanzibar for some beaches. Sometime after that Matt heads back to the UK and then onto Chile, in hopes that his Engineering firm will give him a job in Santiago.

As of now, I'm planning to travel overland through south eastern Africa through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. That should take me through to April and then I pretty much have no idea... But I'm thinking about, depending on the timing, crewing on a sailboat from Cape Town, South Africa to Rio, in Brazil. I have about as much sailing experience as I do astronaut experience, but I'm a quick study. No worries Mom. If that doesn't work out, I may work my way up to North Africa and into Morocco for some trekking in the Atlas mountains. Depending on my financial situation of course. All fun ideas so far.

Speaking of the financial situation, if you've been enjoying the blog and feel the urge to contribute to my travels and Internet Cafe fund, I've set up my Paypal account to accept donations. You can use your Visa or Mastercard and a couple of other options should you feel the need and are just super cool. You can send me as much or as little as you'd like, totally not necessary, but greatly appreciated!!!! A couple people had mentioned this as a good idea, especially with birthday and Christmas on the way... :) Just click on the button below:

It's super easy and quick. You can use Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. It's totally secure, and instantaneous. And will increase your chances of getting a really cool gift from a far off land by 100%. Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and hope all's well back home. bye for now.