Delhi Trip

This will be a post that I am sure is incomprehensible due to how tired I am, but I need to update, it's been almost a week!
We went to Delhi and Agra this weekend to see the Taj Mahal, it was incredible. The weekend was packed full, and I think it is catching up with me now. I met a man on our flight from Chennai who travels back and forth from New Jersey to Delhi and Chennai every couple of months for business. I asked him how he got through those flights, as it just about killed me getting here, he said that " You just learn to get really drunk really fast". When we arrived in Delhi we went straight to old Delhi and took a ride on bicycle rickshaws through the really narrow, really crowded marketplace and spice market, I thought I had adjusted to the sights of India, and has stopped staring at everything in wide eyed wonder, but Delhi threw me right back into amazement. The bus ride to Agra (where our hotel and the Taj Mahal are located) was about a six hour bus ride from Delhi, and we arrived at about 11:30pm, and needed to be up by 4:45, so that we could see the sun rise over the Taj. (It turned out to be overcast, so this didn't matter, but at least we beat the really big crowds). The Taj Mahal is made entirely out of Indian Marble, with precious stone inlay. We watched some men do this work later in the day, and it is understandable now why the Taj took 17 years to build. It is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, and I even sat on the Princess Diana bench attempting to look at forlorn as she did. To think that this mausoleum was a testament of love makes you realize how special it truly is, and how much Seth better mourn me after I die. ( I am expecting a tomb of equal grandeur).
We did some shopping, ate at Hindu McDonald's! (Number one here is a Mc Veg, I kid you not) and then some of us decided to be delighted by the talents of the local Dancers at a show depicting the very romanticized version of the love story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. I couldn't take pictures during the show, but there was a lightshow Taj Mahal rave at the end that you do not want to miss. As Shannon one of our other volunteers so accurately stated, every time something came out of they hydraulic lift from under the stage, she pictured herself throwing her rupees into it, It was a very magical evening to say the least.
Sunday we got to sleep in a little, gorge on brunch and head out to catch our Elephant ride before taking off to the airport. The ride reminded me a little more of the depressing circus scenes in Dumbo than of the crazy carnival in the streets scenes of Aladdin that I pictured, but I now have pictures to prove that I have been atop an Elephant, and I will just brush away the feelings of depression that accompany it. We are back into the swing of things here for a few more days before we leave on Friday, and then I have two more days in Chennai before coming home a week from today!