By the end of today we will have covered nearly 500 km (300 miles) travelling by road between Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi. But these roads are a far cry from the New Jersey Turnpike, and each mile offers a new source of amusement, visual/auditory/olfactory stimulation, and absolute gut-wrenching terror.

Amusement comes in the form of animals wandering through the streets and highways — cows, dogs and even monkeys — totally unphased by the honking vehicles navigating around them. The animals truly own the roads here. 9 or 10 people on an auto-rickshaw is not an uncommon sight, nor is a tractor towing a bicycle or a donkey hauling a cart with half a dozen grown men on it — generally right down the middle of the highway.

The senses are overwhelmed by the every imaginable color — in dress, on billboards (99% of which are painted, not printed), and in painted designs on the sides of almost every truck. The never-ending symphony of horns (drivers honk pretty much everytime they pass another car or truck) ranges from lorry baritone to Toyota soprano, and even includes musical clown horns to calm the nerves. And distinct smells waft into the car along every stretch of road — incense, smoke from controlled brushfires in the countryside, noxious fumes in the cities, and raw sewage pretty much anywhere.

Lastly fright, with one seeming “near miss” after another, as bicyclists, tractors, pedestrians, trucks and cars all share the same road, each moving at their own pace. The operating norm seems to be that one has the right-of-way so long as oncoming traffic can stop/slow down in time to avoid collision. This made things particularly interesting this morning when the road from Jaipur to Agra was shrouded in the thickest fog I’ve ever seen, and our driver would skillfully hit the brakes just in time to avoid a vehicle suddenly emerging from the white. Given these challenging traffic norms, I have been incredibly impressed with the skill of our drivers, whose seeming near misses would be crushing metal if instead it was me behind the wheel.

Today we visited the magnificent palace and former Mughal capital at Fatehpur Sikri, and the even more incredible Taj Mahal in Agra, before parting with my family to commence the next leg of our trip. Both of these sites deserve a lot more ink than I’m giving them here (and a lot more time than we were able to spend visiting them), but just trust that they were both incredibly fascinating and spectacular, and that my poor photography skills do not do them justice. Nevertheless, we’ll try to get the photos up ASAP.

We’re almost to Delhi, where we will catch an overnight train to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and a large Tibetan exile community. Stay tuned for our next update from the Himalayas!

A few photos from my phone:

Check out our new photos and Trippermap! (We’ll try to get more up when we find a faster connection!)

Today began with a quick elephant ride up to the huge fort in Amber (a 400 year old fort) just outside Jaipur, along with all the other tourists (most of whom are actually Indian). I felt bad for the elephants the whole time, especially when I saw one of the elephant drivers with a sharp metal spike — it definitely seemed like some sort of torture device.

At the fort I was most intrigued by the ornately mirrored walls of one of the rooms, while Jamie was mesmerized by the advanced plumbing, cooling and air filtration techniques used throughout the compound by the Rajputs (he watches way too much Modern Marvels). We also hiked up a long steep path to the top of the fort and got a great view of the city (I felt like we earned the lunch that followed).

Now we’re back at the hotel and excited for some chill time

The good news is I got to India…the bad news is my baggage didn’t. It got stuck in Beijing but will be delivered to Lataa Chitti’s (my aunt’s) house.

Not deterred, I raided Lataa Chitti’s closet (3 AM - photo at right), Mehar Singh drove us to the train station (4 AM — the title of this post is derived from the incredibly annoying and repetitive message that played over the station’s loudspeaker when trains were delayed) and we hopped the train to Jaipur (6 am). The service on the train surpassed our expectations (on time, lots of legroom… way better than Amtrak!). When we got on board we received tea and biscuits, a copy of the Hindustan Times, followed by a delicious lunch of vada, and sambar (Jamie looked confused so I showed him how to eat them).

After getting off the train we met up with Jamie’s family (David, Rusty, and brother Dan) at the luxurious Le Meridien. From there it was off to the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar and the Palace of the Winds.

The Jantar Mantar is an astronomical/astrological observatory, which includes a huge (27 meters high) sundial which can tell time up to 2 seconds. It was also interesting to see the dials which are used to calculate the ascending star sign in Hindu astrology. My grandfather was an astrologer and I’ve been hearing about Hindu stars and signs since birth so it was very cool to see how the calculations are made.