India

I just got back to Shanghai and am happy to say that I will be staying put (well, at least staying in China) for awhile. The direct flight from Delhi to Shanghai was only about 6 hours so it wasn't so bad. But... don't fly Air India if you have a choice, it just wasn't a great experience.

But India, wow! Eddie (my teammate) and I decided to spend an extra day in India to do a little siteseeing. The work had been pretty nonstop except for a few evenings. So, we booked a day tour to the Taj Mahal on Monday that turned out to only be about $80. (4 hours each way, plus driver and tour guide.) There was a bit of traffic and got to spend a few hours at the Taj around noontime. How amazing! The white marble makes it seem like different colors throughout the day. We went inside and luckily our guide had some shoe covers because the floor was hot (and not to mention, slightly gross with everyone walking aorund barefoot). I love how the four minarets were designed to lean outwards so in the rare occurance of an earthquake, they would fall backwards and not onto the Taj. The ironic thing is, we went on Monday, and in China the country has the day off for it is "Tomb Sweeping Day." How better to celebrate this than to go to one of the most magnificent tombs in the the world?! Our guide kept talking about it being "Muggle" architecture... turns out it is "Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman, Indian, and Islamic architetural styles." thank you Wikipedia.

Included below are some pictures from Delhi's lotus temple and a few other Indian shots. (i.e. cow dung patties sold on the side of the road, and an elephant who happened to be walking right on the shoulder)