India: Agra (the Taj Mahal! And a fort. And an old guy. And stuff.)

Still cranking out the India posts... Here are some more pictures, and hopefully not a lotta talking... writing... Anyway. This is one of our favorite pics to come out of the trip. Ahhhh... the Taj Mahal. Ahhhh... the cute kids. And of course at least ONE of the three has to be grumpy. I mean, it only makes the picture better, doesn't it? So, here is the AGRA post. That's the city where the Taj Mahal is. We drove there (well, Casey drove us there) from Delhi.

On our way...

They were telling "secrets." It was pretty dang cute.

Looking out my window...

We stopped for lunch along the way, and of course there were people waiting for tourists to come by so they could perform. These cute boys and their pet snakes (one cobra, one other type) were no exception. The kiddos and I got to pet the snakes. Even Maeve needed to.

Yummmm... the delicious, and still-cheap-yet-over-priced-for-India-because-Casey-probably-got-a-kickback-for-taking-us-to-this-place food. It was really, really, really good. BUT, even though I am well over my illness, and Z has been completely recovered (we think) for about a week, I still have no desire to eat that. It was soooooo yummy at the time.

Alright, I loved the trucks in India. I forgot to to fix this pic, so the light was better, etc., but they were painted all colorfully, and they all said something like you can (maybe) see above: "Horn Please -- Use Dipper at Night" Dipper is the indicator. And the horn... everyone was honking ALL the time. Not rudely, but just like, "hey, I'm here and I'm coming up next to you..." It was actually kinda cool, and friendly seeming. Such a flow to the traffic there.

Camel traffic!

Bran walking unwittingly through the doorway being decorated with marigolds for a wedding. At least he didn't step on the flowers, my clueless (in this instance, not in general) little fellow.

Petting a brahma bull. After this, some guy told us not to, and at first I thought it was because they were considered sacred, but then Casey told us that only cows are sacred, not these guys nor water buffalo, so perhaps the man just thought it wasn't the wisest move, letting your small children pet a strange bull. Weirdo. (kidding!)

Our first tuk-tuk ride! It was fun. Also, two guys -- friends of the driver -- hopped on randomly and there were four guys squished very humorously in the front seat, haha! ha... Never mind. Sigh. I guess you had to be there...

We met this fellow one morning having breakfast at our hotel. He's American, his name is Roy. Or Ron. I think Roy. He was 72 or something. He was on his last couple of days of a 6+ week adventure that began in Nepal. He was really cool. Usually his wife goes with him, but not this time, so he was just on his own. Tooling around Asia. Well, he was with a group when he was trekking in Nepal. Interesting and sad story: Another group that was trekking near them had one of their members die on them, so since Roy's group was headed back, they stretched the poor guy's body out on one of the bench seats in their van and took him back, too. So Roy's group was all crammed in the van with a blanket-covered-body. The poor fellow was older-ish, also, and had a heart attack or something. It was fun talking to Roy.

It was super, super foggy in Agra the mornings we were there. We were going to go to the Taj Mahal in the morning, but the views wouldn't have been as nice with all that fog, so we went to Agra Fort instead.

Another mobbing, with Maeve at the center.

Bran really wanted his picture taken by the tomb of the last Englishman to live/"rule" at the fort.

Happy Bran, grumpy Nuala...

Annnnd, switch!

The tower behind Z is where Shah Jahan, the emperor who built the Taj Mahal, was imprisoned by his son for 9 years after he overthrew him. Did you know Shah Jahan's wife died while in childbirth with her FOURTEENTH child? I didn't know that's how she died. But that's a lotta kids... You can read a short and interesting bit about it all here.

Maeve was/is quite into photography.

Some pretty little girls and their little bro. And an old guy hovering in the background. Doesn't he look like a monk? He's not. These children and their parents took about 20 pictures of/with our kiddos, and they were real sweeties. Cute, huh?

Nice... architecture. Just try to look past the death glare.

That afternoon we went to the Taj Mahal, after the fog cleared out. We passed these schoolboys on the way.

Ta-daaaa! This is the view from our hotel room. Not what we actually saw after the schoolboys.

This is pretty much what we saw next: The entrance gate. There are 11 little dome-y things directly above the entrance, and there's another gate like this one on the other side of the Taj, also with 11 little dome-y things. That was on purpose. They represent the 22 years it took to build this beauty.

And there it is! That's me, looking at it. I'm probably saying, "Wow..." Or, "where's Bran?!"

Ha! Our favorite picture again :D There's actually a whole series of these, but I'll spare you.

The backside backs up along the Yamuna River. It was really pleasant, up on the "back porch." Z and I had blue shoe covers to put on over our sandals, but the kiddos had to just take theirs off, so they were running around barefoot. Not exactly what I would've chosen for my kids to do in India, but hey, they survived.

Hehehee... This was pretty dang funny. This lady was holding Maeve, and Maeve's eyes kept straying to the bindi (the dot) on her forehead, so what did the lady do? (Rhetorical question, since the answer's obvious.) Maeve HATED it. She was quite perturbed and kept saying "ge-it off!" Even after it was back on the owner's forehead, it was like she could still feel it there, poor girl. Kept trying to grab at it, saying "off!" Later I faked her out and pretended to put one on her. It was funny.

This is Bran's shot. Already with an eye on the pretty girls! Really, they were taking pics of him and Nuala, so he was just getting them back.

Fake grumpy shot.

These two little fellas... Man. They were sweet, but they followed us around the WHOLE time we were in and around the Taj Mahal. They kept trying to help keep the kids safe and stuff. Like running after Maeve if she got too far ahead (in their opinions). It was slightly annoying, but it's not like I could just shoo them away. They weren't after money, they were just really fascinated with us. Can't blame 'em, really... we ARE pretty neat-o. Especially because we use words like "neat-o."

See? Keeping an eye out...

There was lots of good frolicking space there.

Or you could just stand, if you wanted to.

Maeve loves piggy back rides, and Bran loves to give them! It's really quite adorable. Usually he just tries to hold onto her little arms instead of putting his arms under her bum, so she just slowly oozes down his back until he can't walk and her arms are juuuust about to pop outta their sockets... This time he took my advice, though. They both look much more comfortable.

I love this picture.

And the family. With the Taj Mahal behind us! Wow. We went there. It was gorgeous and we loved it. And no one was sick yet, so that really WAS a good time. I'm not sure why I'm bending over. I sometimes do that in pics with the kids, just to get closer to them, but then when I do it and Z's beside me and he doesn't do the bend-thing, I look all weird... like I'm about to keel over or something, using my last bit of strength to smile for the photo while almost doubling over in agony. THAT wasn't until the end of the trip... (and it was mostly Z...poor Z.)

Just some other Agra pics. More camels moseying through the street.

Feeding the local monkeys popcorn...

A bunch of water buffalo and a tuk tuk, cruising down the road.

And next... Jaipur... I'm actually enjoying India again, doing these. I can somewhat relive the experience, but from the comfort and sanitary conditions of my own home. Really, though, India was a rewarding experience, with its ups and downs -- but that all helps make it memorable. Quite memorable.