So we arrived into New Delhi late at night and were welcomed by streets lined with people sleeping on them. They were in cars, on sidewalks and curbs, all over. We all knew India was poor but were surprised that the city looked almost as bad as Bangladesh.

We woke up early the next morning to train to the Taj Mahal in Agra. The train station was anything but nice and we even spotted human feces on the ground. So we arrived in Agra and met our driver and guide and our first stop was the Taj.On our way we discovered how ox, horses and some donkeys still use the main roads, both in Delhi and Agra. On the highway later we had to steer around some camels as well. It's crazy.

The Taj was gorgeous, definitely more gorgeous in person and up close. The detailed stones and carvings you see when you get up close are so cool.

After about 10 minutes outside though, we were drenched in sweat, there needs to be a word stronger than hot to describe Agra and New Delhi in August, it's ridiculous. And Bangladesh was hot, but nothing in comparison. So the site seeing was a struggle to say the least.

After seeing the taj we spent most of the day in Agra. We went and saw the Agra fort. It was very interesting because various parts of it had been built by different leaders of a period of 100 years, so there was lots of interesting architecture.

We also went to a marble carving place where they now make gifts and crafts but still use the same stones and techniques that were used to make the Taj Mahal.

We saw one other palace that had many deer and monkeys, though it was too hot for the monkeys so we did not see them.

Then we went back to New Delhi and met up with Andrew, our friend from school's brother. He took us to a great Indian restaurant and then took us out for ex-pat night in Delhi. The night surprising seemed like a night out in New York, a three floor club with lots of Internationals and Americans. It was fun though and it was great to have Andrew show us around.

The last day in Dehli proved to be interesting. Jenny and Lauren ventured into the city to go to some markets and find some food. We saw the Red Fort and then went to the markets. The markets were insane, so dirty, smelly, and crowded. It was disgusting. We had trouble finding the restaurant (every crowded street looked the same) so we ended up taking a rickshaw, which barely fitted both of us. We found the restaurant, and it was basically a street restaurant, cooking was done in the street. But Andrew had told us about it so we went and, and we saw that Time had ranked it as top places to eat in Asia in one of its issues. The food was amazing. Then we started to head home because it was getting dark, though our driver got lost for a good hour regularly stopping and asking for directions, all the while we sat and smelled India in our open air ride. Children would also come us to us and touch us and try to take our waters, beggging and selling very odd things. (i.e.glow in the dark stars) We finally got dropped off somewhere where we could call for a new taxi and made it home about two hours later. We were very ready to leave India.

Next Jenny and Lauren are off to Egypt and Candice is off to London. (Candice had already seen the pyramids so she is heading to London early)