The Taj Mahal and quite the interesting drive

We woke up at 5 am to get to the Taj Mahal by sunrise. We made it on time to see it bathed in the golden morning light, and it was fabulous!

It's a world heritage site, so we had to walk quite a distance in (no vehicles can get close). The vendors and visitors crowded around us, and hundreds of monkeys gamboled around the grounds outside. We were so early in the day that we didn't have to wait long for security. And security was pretty much airport level, although we didn't have to take off our shoes.

When we walked through the giant red stone gateway arch, the view was breathtaking! The sun was rising on the right side, making the white marble glow and shimmer. The marble is so reflective that it actually lights up the sky around it, so it hurts your eyes to stare too directly. In front of the dome, which is up on a massive platform, is a long garden and several reflecting pools. There is a viewing platform halfway there, and we took some amazing photos on that spot.

We put covers on our shoes to go inside. The interior space has an outer ring of rooms with windows and carved marble screens open to the inside central room. In the middle are the two graves, marked by raised marble coffins side by side.

The walls are inlaid with precious stones in intricate patterns of flowers, including some lovely irises. In fact, there was quite a lot of purple and gold, and the entire building is a giant octagon! So Elmira College was not far away from us today.

Seeing the Taj Mahal was a definite high point for the students, and we were in a fantastic mood despite our early start.

We had a long drive to the tiger preserve, way way way out in the countryside. The ride was crazy interesting the whole way! While some students slept, others watched rural India slide by. And we saw some really fascinating things.

We started on a new 4-lane divided highway, where we drove towards Jaipur for several hours. But even though the posted speed limit was 120 km per hour, we surely didn't get over 40. This is because there seemed to be no rules and no order at all. For example, even though it was 4 lanes and divided by a median, every now and then a motorcycle or even a massive truck would come barreling straight at us on our side in our lane! Trucks or cars would just be stopped right in the middle of the road. We saw a truck inexplicably just dumping a load of gravel right in the middle of the fast lane. There were bicycles, working camels pulling carts, dogs, goats, water buffaloes, cows, and pigs walking or crossing wherever and whenever they wished. Overloaded busses with people clinging to the roof putt-putted along slowly. In the small towns, shop stands randomly extended out onto the pavement. Produce spilled across the lanes of traffic. It was crazy and amusing and we were just laughing and watching it all go by.

When we turned off the highway, it got even more interesting, if that's possible. We had to slow way down, and at points our bus had to drive completely off the road to avoid obstacles. In one small town, we got boxed in by a wedding bus, a small soda delivery truck that had just stopped in the middle of the street, and a huge truck tied with giant fabric sacks that lurched off the top and sides of the truck making it almost doubly wide. The sacks seemed to be filled with some kind of plant material, and we saw a number of these crazy giant sack trucks throughout the day. They pretty much took up the whole road as they came toward us, so it was always interesting to see what our driver would do.

Our bus horn came in mighty handy today, I might add. Although for such a large bus, it was a curiously high pitched tootle-loo.

It was a quiet day. And it was nice to relax on the drive. We did stop to see the palace of Fatepuhr Sikri, which was very impressive, but I think most of us were happy to get back on the bus. It was 115 degrees today, and we felt it. And with our early start, and the excitement of the Taj Mahal, a little down time was welcome.

And now we are at the hotel near the tiger preserve. We wake up at 5 am for an early morning drive to look for tigers. We are hopeful that we'll actually get to see one!

Most of the students are in for the night, although a few are sitting up talking on the giant veranda of the main building. This is a lovely old-fashioned safari hotel, and the scent of roses and jasmine is in the air. I can't wait to see it in the daylight!