Traversing the Golden Triangle

Having been to China a bunch of times, I easily drew the parallel between Agra and Xi'an, a dusty city with little to offer beyond the world-famous relic that it houses. In the case of Xi'an, these are the terra cotta warriors of the first emperor of China. For Agra, this is the Taj. My impressions of the Taj are almost identical to what Ellen and Wenjun already described. It really is not to be missed, even if you must tolerate Agra for a day or two to experience it. Let's just say we've been there, we've seen the Taj, and we're not likely to be back.

We got on the road to Jaipur at around 9am and stopped at the Mughal ghost town of Fatehpur Sikri. It was interesting but upon entering the palace courtyard we were harassed by a very persistent guide who did not ask for money but claimed to be a volunteer who would take us around for free. It sounded too good to be true and we noticed other foreigners being similarly pursued by other "volunteers." After we ignored him for a few minutes, he eventually left us alone.

Actually, pretty much the entire time that we have been outside our car, we have been pursued by people trying to sell, beg, and guide their way into our hearts and our wallets. Our feelings have ranged from pity to frustration to anger, especially today when a small crowd of people descended on us as we were leaving our car for dinner. They looked innocent enough at first and David got stuck briefly in their midst. Ellen "came to his rescue" in a few minutes and extricated him from the situation. We have decided not to give anything to beggars because we cannot be sure whether our donation would actually support a good cause or contribute more to putting children in harm's way or subjecting more tourists to harassment. It has been truly heartbreaking at times to not be able to give, and I for one have decided to give money to a charity helping poor people in India upon our return. That way at least I can be reasonably sure it will be put to good use. 

Now we are at our homestay hotel in Jaipur, which is a lovely place and we have been having a great time chatting with the lovely retired couple that runs it, along with their son. This place is really wonderful, especially after the drab and noisy, albeit mostly clean, hotel we stayed at in Agra. Jaipur look far cleaner and nicer than Agra, and probably even Delhi, so far. But more remains to be seen tomorrow!