Agra, Delhi Mini Vaca

This weekend I went on a crazy adventure.
2hr bus ride to Chennai airport.
2hr wait for flight
3 hr. Plane ride on Spice Jet to New Delhi
               First I would like to marry the flight attendant we had. He was super adorable.
               Second it was amazing that even Indian air is bumpy. There was the most turbulence I have ever experienced on our short plane ride. It was almost amazing.

2 hrs in Delhi- Going to Gandhi's assassination spot. There was a surprising about of peace and calmness here. Considering the tourist sight it has become. I loved all the quotes and getting a better feel for the impact this one man had on the world. He is such an inspiration.

Then we did a bicycle rick shaw tour of Old Delhi.
               This was amazing. We went through the market with these tiny streets, where no cars are allowed. We also went to the Spice market- which was amazing. Even being someone who knows nothing about cooking or spices. It was still fantastic. We also got to tour one of the oldest Jain temples, and were given the tour by one of the Jain priests. He explained a little about there religion and it was great to hear it all first hand.
During all of this I decided to take a rick shaw with our tour guild. So I could really hear about what we were seeing. And it was probably one of my best decisions of the trip. We were all really tired from the night before so most people were sleeping on the bus when he was explaining all the neat things we were driving by. But I was listening and excited. So he was like "I like you, you actually want to be here." Even though I know everyone wanted to be there. They were just to tired to fully express it.
But since our tour guild is a member we talked a little  about the church and specifically dating with in the church in India. Flirting here consists of boys staring at you, and girls not responding. "Love marriages" as the children here call them, are not the norm. So dating isn't really an important thing here in India. But with in the church we have been counseled to date many people before marriage. Which is pretty much unheard of. But our tour guild had what he called a "both" marriage. He dated many people, but always liked her so then their parents arranged it. He was a Branch President a while back. And he encouraged his youth to date, no flirting but to date each other. The new Branch President is more traditional and discourages dating, but the Mission President is fighting him on it because it is what the Prophets have counseled us to do. So that's interesting, having such a cultural against religious issue.
I'm really not sure where I stand on the subject. Because our "Love Marriages" have a much higher divorce rate then the arranged ones here. But who knows who is happier.
In the Spice Market my flip flop broke and I was walking around the muddy streets of Old Delhi bare foot for a while. Which was interesting, but totally fitting. Since so many people here never wear shoes. I later got a pedicure at the hotel for something like 7 dollars, from a very nice man. haha My feet have never felt so clean.
We then did lunch/ dinner at Pizza Hut which was some of the best food I have ever had. :) We may have overwhelmed the restaurant with our party of 17 in the same area. But it was worth it. Did some great people watching here. Lots of teens on group "dates".

After this it was back to the bus. 5 hr buses ride to Agra.- this was just a little bit painful.
Check in to Hotel
Sleep.
5:15 up and ready to go to the Taj Mahal.

This man decided he wanted to be in my photo.

The Taj was amazing. You really can't get the majestic power of it from pictures. To keep pollution down we had to get into an electric bus, and then walk the rest of  the way to the Taj. We were among the first to go in. The Taj Mahal is more than just the white building everyone believes it to be. Its actually a huge fortress of buildings, and the white building is just the Mausoleum. Before going through the second get Neithan told us the background story...So I'm going to share it here. Mainly for my memories sake.
The Emperor who build the Taj had three wives. The second wife was the love of his life, and she is the woman buried in the Mausoleum, along with the emperor. The other two have burial spots at different entrances. The 2nd Wife is the only one who bore him children, she had four sons, and two daughters. She died shortly after giving birth to the third, who also died. This was a sudden and shocking death for the Emperor, and it is believed that in her last moments. She requested only two things from the Emperor first that he take care of her children and her parents, the second that he would always keep her close to his heart. So he then build the great Taj Mahal as a Mausoleum to her name and the love they shared. Later after it was built one of his sons decided to overthrow his father and lock him away so he could rule. His fathers last request was that he be held in a place where he could see the TajTaj and the river next to it. This is considered the greatest love story of all time- to the Indian people. Even greater than Romeo and Juliet because these two were married. And only after marriage does the true and full love grow and form. So I thought that was beautiful, and just makes the Taj Mahal so much more beautiful.

This is the tower his Son locked him in.

The Taj Mahal is breathe taking, seeing its magnitude in person was an unreal experience. We kept saying to ourselves "Oh no big deal, we are just at the TAJ MAHAL!!!" It was great.

We then went to the Agra Fort which is also just an amazing structure/ many structures. Every detail is amazing, and even had some pretty sweet history. We got to go inside the Harlots chamber. The Emperor had an amazing number of them, in the hundreds. And they each had rooms all around a courtyard with a bath in the middle. The Emperor was the only male allowed within the walls, even his guards during this time were female.

We then went back to the hotel for breakfast, swimming, and my pedicure.
We then went shopping at a store called Maxx, it was awesome and so colorful.
Then dinner at McDonald's- where many people got Veggieburger. I got a chicken burger.
Then half of us went to the show- while the others when off for more shopping. The Show was awesome. It was the story of the Taj Mahal, and it was great. I have learned that everything in India is just over the top. And I love it. The introduction to the show said something to the effect of "This will be the most spectacular thing you will ever see..." So that was great. They had so many special effects it was great. But the dancing really was just amazing. We got headsets with the translation of the show, so that also kept me very entertained.
Then we went out to dinner, and since I was in North India I got all my favorites. (Butter Chicken, Naan, and Sweet Lassi.) Since I had drank a little bit of salty Lassi at breakfast and almost threw it up.
We then finished the night at the hotel's Disco-tech. It was so fun. We just had our group and a few other Gentleman who were drinking at a table in the club. We were later joined by an older Indian couple who were so hilarious. I loved it. The wive taught us some moves, then we would teach her some. We even had a cha- cha line going at one point. Dancing is so much fun when you are with so many confident and silly people. I loved it.

Sunday
Eat another delicious Breakfast

and then the Elephant ride. For 200 rupees which is something like 4 dollars. The Elephants name was Malu and it was so crazy. We just pulled over to the side of the road on our Bus got out. And then suddenly and Elephant was walking up to us. It was great.
The Back on the Bus for 5hrs.
Plane ride for 3
Bus ride for 2
Home -its weird that in such a short amount of time Rising Star has truly become our Home. We even all missed it- even though we were gone for only a few days. Its going to be hard to leave this place.

So Much Love from India. Martha