In India

You can probably do Agra in one day and retrun to the relative sanity of Delhi...but I didn't want to rush it, besides I'd been to Delhi.

The monuments in Agra are beutiful. Agra is a mess. The people who live outside the Taj claim to be the decendants of the people who built the Taj (which begs the question...why can't theybuild anything else). The beast to vehicle ratio is about 1:1 on the streets.

And not in the tour guides: The traditional hindu funeral involves cremation. Jammed among the bullocks, donkeys and bicycle rickshaws on the road are funeral persessions, carrying their dead covered in flowers and linen on their way to cremation in a temple by the river. It's the most surreal traffic jam ever. o not go strolling around Agra, there's no place to do so. I asked my driver about Agra's lack of ...well ..just lack.

"Oh Agra is Mughal city...very dirty"

"The mughals are dead right? That was like 400 years ago, why is it messed up now?"

"Mughal people....muslim people...filthy"

I didn't even venture a comment about the rest of sparkling India...just nodded at my bidi-smoking, muslim hating driver.

MiniTajThis monument is called the 'mini-taj' ( not to be confused with the other'mini-taj' in Aurangabad)...or the jewel box. It's a small tomb for one of the Mughal royals. It's covered from floor to cieling in inlaid marble. Those homeycomb screens, carved marble. Everything is marble. Here's some more work...in marble: