Traveling in India - July 10-13

Our original plan was to hang out in Delhi for three or four days with a side trip to the Taj Mahal. After talking a little with a travel agent who was recommended by the hotel and seemed a bit more reputable we revised the plan to do a day each in Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra. We got a driver who took us around to all the best historic sites, and restaurants where we were less likely to get any sort of food poisoning (and he got a free meal for taking us). Some of the places we visited in Delhi were: Qutab Minar, Baha'i Lotus Temple, Hamayun's Tomb, the India Arch, Parliament House, Jama Masjid (a mosque), and Lal Qila. In Jaipur we saw the City Palace where the Maharajah of Rajistan still lives, and an old hill fort outside Jaipur. In Agra we spent most of the day at the Taj Mahal which is absolutely spectacular. Unfortunately one of the best reflective pools was not filled with water and the sky was rather bland so my pictures were not quite what I had hoped for. Rather than try and describe everything, I'll try and upload my pictures to give a good idea of everything we saw in India. One thing I will say since I didn't take any pictures of it, is that I was surprised at the level of poverty and dirtiness. I had been expecting something like China, where I spent a year studying abroad, with fairly developed urban areas at least in the major cities like Delhi but it seems as if India is still years behind the kinds of changes and development china has had.