Delhi, Agra, and around

Such a busy life - all of this travelling - hardly time to fit it all in (average travel speed on train or bus is 40 - 50 km/hr.). You blast along at unbelieveable speed and then you get stuck in little traffic jams or the train waits for a train going in the opposite direction. Mind you, one doesn't have to travel very far to see major differences and very different things!
Nov. has been wedding month and we hear music from weddings every night - and they go all night. Today is supposed to be the best day of the year to get married - two equal partners and it will last forever - know anyone tying the knot today? To start the actual ceremony, we see the groom on a mare following a noise making brass band of some description all wearing fancy uniforms (not unlike what we see at the Stampede). Then they stop at a hotel or whatever that has lots of Xmas type lights and then the party goes inside. They definitely are loud and we have even got up in the morning hearing the end of the loud disco-type music starting to die down. Thousands of weddings happened in Delhi today (3,000?) - they are expecting major traffic problems.

We enjoyed our stay in Agra (some called it Agro) but since we have been travelling a while, we did not feel harassed and thoroughly enjoyed our experience. A bit of a pity that the pollution and smog is so thick - the great change of light reportedly at sunrise on the Taj mahal is not so evident any more.

We went to a National Park to see birds - it was fantastic - and we didn't know until we met birders from all over the world that this is a prime site. What you stumble upon!! Lots of storks, cranes, egrets, herons, ducks and anything that you can think of were there. People had cameras with lens about 12 inches in diameter and packed their cameras in suitcases. Well, we enjoyed the birds as non-birders and cycled along. There were so many to see and so many species. They used to shoot them and in the 50's this water that fills up in the monsoon was left and it became a park. Since then more birds - and as luck would have it this is the first good monsoon in the past five years so the birders have descended here. ...so we enjoyed.

Spent the last two nights in a small guesthouse with a family who are way ahead of their time into reclycling, solar hot water, and organic farming. We enjoyed the town and their guesthouse (a central courtyard where the car is parked and a big area to sit on the marble floors (without shoes) and cushions and enjoy the atmosphere.

Now we have rejoined the tourist trail.