We leave tomorrow for Agra.

We have spent the last three nights and will leave by car for Agra tomorrow morning at nine a.m. The first picture you see is the lobby of the TAJ which is the hotel where we are staying. It's really first class with even a butler if we need one. I can't imagine a butler steaming Bob's shirt. Can you!!!!!!!
The other pictures are of a site seeing excursion where we when to the Red Fort, which was the last Mogul's huge living place. He was kicked out of it in the 1857 uprising by the British. I'm told we will see more Forts in the future but this one is the one that Darrimple writes about in The Last Mongul. We also went to Humayun's Tomb. I didn't put a wide shot of the actual tomb but I had read that at least 100 moguls were buried in the tomb along with Humayun, so I nosed around and found only one that wasn't locked. That is the single vault in a side chamber which I posted below. It was very simple and had no name that I could find on it.
We also visited the old part of the city, which is right outside the Red Fort, and I got many photos that you will see when I get home. The men riding bikes are at the beginning of the Old City and the women at the bottom are praying at Jami Masjid, the largest mosque in India.

The streets were really narrow and filled with foot traffic, bikes, and rickshaws. I saw some goats tied up in the middle of it all and various smells mingled as we made our way through it all. We founf a Jain temple in the middle of it all that is one thousand years old. It is still in use and we toured it while people were meditating and doing various other ceremonies. They are an interesting religion where they wear masks across their mouths so they won't harm even a bug if it were to fly in their month. They'd go crazy in Louisiana. I couldn't take pictures but their web site has pics at www.indfy.com/delhi/olddelhi/Delhi Picture Gallery .

It seems like a different world here from Kashmir. I know there are lots of soldiers here but not anything like north. If any of you have found the places on the sat map that I've mentioned, you'll know that the land mass is not that large. Within Kashmir and ladakh there are 750,000 India soldiers, several thousand "national guard, and throw in some, what equals our Special Forces, and you can see why I mentioned soldiers so much when I was there. It's so absorbing when you're there and once we got to Delhi, just one hour plane ride, there isn't any news. I know there are still things happening in Jumu because they are the one's who lost out on the Shrine Board deal. Oh, well!!!!!

I want to thank the Shah family for being so nice to Bob and me while we were in Kashmir. Hang in there for the next report.

Agra-Jaipur-Jodhpur-Udaipur-Delhi-Home

BOB HAS HIS SAY:

Fine hotel. Fresh roses in the bathroom every day. A new toothbrush also. Due to a booking problem we ended up in the security suite next to the presidential suite. They took out the cameras and sound spy gear just for us. You can sit in bed and open and close the curtains by remote. All things provided, and if you happen to feel unloved or unwanted there are at least 1500 neatly groomed and gloved people standing around to make you feel loved and wanted. They turn down the beds each night and scatter orchids. The staff know your name by the second day. After bumping around Kashmir, this does seem a bit more comfortable. He feels much better.-CC