AbbyNolanMaxAva: September 2014

UPDATED October 12, 2014. Finally!!

Ok, I'd like to keep up with day to day posts, but I'm seriously busy here! And when I'm not busy, I'm seriously tired. But, a good place to start would be the site seeing over the weekend. It was great, and interesting, and tiring, and HOT. But mostly great. I think the easiest is to tell it through a million pictures...

First, Dark Fantasy cookies. I think this is super funny, and one of the snacks we had in our van. And they're seriously good.

I'm going to be all out of order, but this was on our way to the Taj Mahal on Sunday. A road sign for Sports City. I thought Nolan would love this! There's a cricket stadium, a soccer stadium and, what I didn't expect, a Formula 1 track.

The Formula 1 track, if you can tell. It's hard to take pictures from the car! This was seriously the nicest road I'd seen. Apparently they finished it within the last couple of years. It used to take 6 hours to get from Delhi to Agra and now it takes 3.

Formula 1...

Okay I lied. It usually takes three hours to get from Delhi to Agra. Unless you get a flat tire. Then it takes much, much longer.

While changing our flat tire, we were joined by a bike gang of some sort. I think it was like a Harley ride, but it wasn't Harley. They were the only women I'd seen riding bikes not side saddle.

The beautiful flower on the side of the road I thought I'd take a picture of while we were waiting. Pretty, yes?

This was the highway we were on. That sign says Oh My God! I'm not sure what campaign was going on, but signs everywhere say that. I learned the translation... it's Alibabwa! So, I took to saying Alibabwa the rest of the trip and have decided I just might need to bring that home to say with the kids.

The toll booth we'd just passed... (I was seriously bored so kept taking pictures)

This was funny. They all stood around and watched him change the tire. That poor guy! Amy is my coworker in the purple. I was traveling with a group she's in called Global Leadership Program, and they're seriously successful people from around the world. They are vice presidents, presidents and executives of various companies, and people here were from Brazil, South America, France and the US. It was fun to be with them! I keep giving Amy a hard time though because as part of this she had the opportunity to go on a retreat to North India, where the Dalai Lama lives, and possibly have an audience with the Dalai Lama himself, and Amy turned it down. What?? I would have loved that. Of course, Amy has traveled all over the world and has never been to Chicago, so there's that. I have made it my personal mission to get her there.

More watching.

Bike gang...

Dogs, everywhere!

Amy and me, by the flowers. And, apparently, my thumb.

Once we got the tire changed, the spare was also a little low. So we stopped at the tire place just up the road. I only know it was a tire place because out front there was a pole with about 6 tires stacked on it. The guy took the tire way in the back, fixed it somehow, and then changed it again. He also fixed our spare.

This is what trucks look like here. They're all decorated, many with decorations all over. Don't worry... there will be more pics of trucks to come!

More food. It was like spicy ketchup.

I couldn't bring myself to try India's Magic Marsala.

Sounds like it could spice up a Friday night!

I have no idea what a bindaas moment is...

Agra. I've taken so many pictures out of the front window because I can't believe how many things are going on at once. Walkers, bikers, motorcyclists, taxis, trucks, pedestrians, animals! It's simply amazing. And the driving is seriously crazy.

Random street pictures...

These yellow and green taxis are everywhere. Clearly everyone here is a Packer fan!

The horse drawn carriage to get you to the Taj Mahal. There's a certain limit where gas powered vehicles are not allowed.

Everywhere you go here, whether mall, hotel, restaurant, the Taj, the men and women go in two different areas. They check all of your bags, and do a pat down and wand search. The women go into a little area separate from the men. You can't bring any food into the Taj, nor markers, lighters or calculators. Apparently they're concerned you'll be doing math!

This is the gate to get into the Taj Mahal. There are gates from each direction, and each direction means something. On Fridays the Taj is closed for restoration, and also as a temple. Only a certain religion can use one of the gates. Apparently this one is for the commoners.

The view of the Taj Mahal through the gate.The Taj Mahal itself is actually a tomb for Shah Jahan's third wife, the only one who gave him children. Eventually Shah Jahan was also buried there, along with his children.

I'm taking a picture of Amy taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal. Before this trip she'd never taken a selfie, so I just had to do it. I made her take selfies with me. Or groupies, as I guess the case may be.

Yup, there it is.

Seriously. I had to keep telling myself I'M AT THE TAJ MAHAL. IN INDIA. How did that happen??

It kind of looks fake, doesn't it?

It was HOT out. And a million people. One of the women we were with almost fainted. But totally worth it.

Aren't I cute, and super strong?

Yes, there's a lot of pictures of the Taj. Seriously, how could there not be?

Looking back at the gate from closer to the Taj.

That's the Taj, between our heads!

These kids were just super cute.

Why Amy, is that the Taj reflected in your sunglasses?

Shoe covers to enter the Taj!

Ok, I need to go to dinner!!! I'm going to publish this, because it's easier than trying to take these pictures into a new post. I'll comment on them as soon as I can!!!

Ok, I'm back. More pictures of the Taj, a different angle.

The writing around the outside is a prayer for the dead wife. The writing looks all the same size, but it's actually about 1.5 times bigger on the top than the bottom, to look the same size. I'm amazed at the technology they had!

This is really beautiful... gems embedded everywhere.

On the backside of the Taj.

Do you see that dark stone nearer the bottom, a little to the right?

Ok, see it now? Now look one stone up and one to the left. See that? Does it look like Albert Einstein? How funny is that??

Here is the Red Fort of Agra. It's where the Shah and his women lived. They had rooms for the women, held dances, dinners, all the fun stuff. It's also where the kids exiled the Shah when he started building the Taj. They thought he was crazy!

We went to the marble craft factory outlet to buy marble. I may or may not have bought something. It may or may not have been a chess board for Nolan. :)

These are descendants of the original Taj builders, making the current marble with jewels. It really is an amazing process.

This is the red fort of Agra. This is where the Shah actually lived, with his family and his wives. They ate, and danced. It's kind of amazing to read the history on the Taj. Very scandalous... his kids thought he was crazy so had him committed, but he still got it built.

Monkey! We'd been trying to get monkey pictures all week. It was hard because we were always in a car when we saw them.

This was the bathtub. Considering I work for Kohler, I thought it was interesting. And I'm glad my bathtub doesn't look like this.

The Taj from the fort. I thought it looked cool from this angle too!

Cool bird.

The red fort was really quite amazing too. You could stand in one area and hear someone whispering in another. It was completely symmetrical in every room.

Puzzle garden. I don't think that's the official name, but it's what I thought it was!

This is where they worshiped. Each person got their own rectangle.

And then we started seeing the monkeys, and the driver slowed down so we could finally get a picture!

Babies!

And then the driver gave us crackers to feed the monkeys, and we really had no trouble getting pictures!

And the cows were on their way home at the same time. These actually had a home.

And then, we got ANOTHER flat tire. I blame the monkeys. Or maybe the cows.

It's been so long since I started this post that I can't remember what I already wrote. But men would just stop randomly and pee. They might be walking, on their bikes, or even getting out of the car. And they wouldn't turn around, they would just pee right out there. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture, but one of the men walking there just finished peeing. It's just crazy.