We've spent quite a bit of the last few days at ease exploring old palaces and forts. We stayed in a few places that resemble castles and learned lots about history. these weeks can be best described in pictures which we are excited to get the chance to share. soon.
We've been to "the white city", "the blue city," "the golden city" and "the pink city", which were all painted these colors for various reasons related to different historical and cultural events. needless to say, rooftop views have been awesome.

Travelling in Jodhpur, also called "the blue city": the first night we arrived, trying to make our way to a restaurant for dinner, marcie almost got caught in a "crossfire" between two angry cows, ready to butt heads. jumping out of the way, and trying to make it through the thick traffic, we found our tour leader surrounded by police officers. after trying to make sense of the situation we realized that the police officers deemed it "illegal" for our tour leader to be leading without a local guide present. India is apparently very obsessed with this idea of hiring local guides in order to keep people employed. Anyway it's all confusing but in the end the officer said "who knows, this guy (our leader) might end up behind bars". he was taken away and we went to dinner alone, hoping that we would see our leader the next morning.

Luckily, the town happened to be our guide's home town and he had a relative in the police force, so he explained everything and was easily released. There were no problems at all in the end of time, and we were so happy that we were not stranded. (carmen and I would have taken charge, being the "veterans" of the group? hahaha). 6 weeks in india and we are just getting the hang of everything... just in time to move on the next leg of the trip!

The next day we headed off to more amazing historical sites. we've spent these last few days keeping busy and safe, learning more and more about this massive country.

one of those days included a camel ride into the desert. somehow there were not enough camels for guides, so while everyone else had a camel and a guide riding with them, carmen and i "had the privilege" of riding together. The only problem was that we had no idea what to do, seeing as we were only told to "lean back when the camel stands up." We had a guide walking on the ground, but this did not stop our camel from lazily lagging behind the group and stopping for a random munch on bushels in a farmer's field. camels are so funny looking! and also uncomfortable. carmen and i definetely had some "saddle sores" after the event. we stopped for a break to go for a run into the sand dunes. this was so amazing! so breathtaking. our favorite was running down the steep slopes of sand...it is so hard to describe how amazing this feels...everyone just has to do it themselves- and barefoot!

the next city we visited was very pink- painted in the 18th century to welcome a British prince.
apparently pink is the color of hospitality.

Somewhere in here we saw our first Bollywood movie. Even in Hindi we could basically get the just of it and thought it was very good...at one part I almost cried! it was about the effects of war on the soldier's family and friends. it was crazy to hear the enthusiasm of the crowd who cheer and scream and clap at their favorite actors or funny lines that are spoken.

yesterday we wandered through an abandoned city, which was again awe-inspiring- but nothing compared to today.

we woke up in the darkness of the morning, stood in a long line, endured many "hawkers" (people who practically ambush you to try to get you to buy souvenirs) all for the unspeakable beauty of Taj. Standing at the foot of that massive palace of white, you just don't want to talk, you just want to stare. the Taj Mahal ("crown palace") took 20 thousand men 22 years to build. pictures really don't do this thing justice. it is a beautiful piece of art and it was so awesome to stand in its shadow.

so that's where we are now, in Agra, ready to head off to Varanasi later tonight...