Agra

Okay well I"m not sick anymore (I hope). But it's quite apparent i've been hanging around old people. Talking about bowel movements is a perfectly acceptable conversation starter. The Taj Mahal is amazing, words can't really describe it. It has never been restored because the marbel is very hard and everytime it rains it gets cleaned. I can't imagine the cost. Someone asked about the two worlds of poverty/luxury here.

Official caste means nothing and monarchy is dead. Whoever believes that they are dead needs to be adjusted with a pipe-wrench. Reading the personals ads is very telling. Brahmen seeks Brahmen... Sometimes it is less important but depends on the level of sophistication. Also with the Maharaja's etc, the titles are still passed like in england. I saw the maharana of Udaipur in his speedboat when we went cruising around the lake. Really young guy, actually he's not the maharana because he is the younger brother. That being said the father left 95% of his wealth to his younger son so he thinks it is acceptable to take the title as well. The local maharaja's control most of the wealth in communities outside of major cities where business men control it. The problems with caste are pretty aparrent in the uprising by the Gujjars which resulted in the conplete reorganization of my tour and the counter-uprising of the Minars who thought the Gujjars were going to dilute the benifets recieved. The view from these 5-star hotels is a similar view into the classism of India. One busboy this morning freaked out that I held the elevator door for him. I'm not used to that. Reminds me of Africa but here it isn't a factor of race it's class.

The monuments here are amazing. The king who built the Taj Mahal was planning another one to be built from black marble across the river from the existing one, but his son had him placed under house arrest. That Moghul emporer's son sign the deathnell for the Moghul Empire. I finally figured out how to post pcitures. I've been a complete idiot the whole time. The Elephant and mountainskape are from Udaipur and I'm pretty sure you all can recognize the other one.

Not sure if any of you are familiar with Jeff Foxworthy's routine about old people and drugs. To summarize in a most unfunny way, he claims that old people have access to harder drugs than teenagers, and that he was more concered about his mother than his children. That is so true. One woman on the tour said she was a little sore from the morning's walk. I offered her my advil and she declined saying she had vicodin back in her room. Likewise when I said I was ill I had many offers from my fellow tourists for a veritable cocktail of drugs ranging from medicinal herbs to narcotic painkillers. "You might be ill but you won't care." Needless to say I did not take the painkillers but some of the others that I thought useful I took and everything is ship-shape that I can tell. The power situation here is a little different than I'm used to. Yesterday the power went out at least 10 times. Made me think twice about taking the elevator, and tring to watch the French Open was madening. The capacitors or whatever you call them, in the states they are those cylinders up on the power poles, here they're about 3 ft off the ground and everything exposed. Back home you get the occasional squirel flicker. I jokingly made referance to a cow flicker here but my guide, a hindu, didn't find it as funny as I did. Back in Mumbai our local guide said that indian drivers never have accidents, but according to the BBC world there is a serious injury/ fatality accident every 6 seconds. Like I said previously, driving signals and sides of the road are more like guidlines than anything. They make Bostonian drivers look like how I would imagine Mother Theresa would like driving. Speaking of which we drove by her house. Anyway I must be off this evening we're going to the Taj Mahal again but this time to catch the sunset. It's going to be fantastic. I'll post pictures when I can.

Love to all,

Walker