Greetings from Mumbai, India!

We lingered another couple of days in Delhi, getting our Chinese visas 
sorted out, visiting an interesting museum of musical instruments, and 
catching a performance billed as "traditional Indian music and dance" 
which turned out to be disappointingly short and not particularly 
inspiring. We knew we were in trouble when we walked into the hall and 
found a room-full of westerners with not an Indian in sight. 
Altogether, Delhi was rather noisy and dirty and it certainly pales in 
comparison to the other places we've been since then.

On the 14th, we moved on to Agra, primarily to see the Taj Mahal. We 
got up very early to catch it at sunrise and found that the gates were 
still closed. Some guy lingering there said "the view is better 
from the river, let me show you", and since we had time to kill, we 
let him lead us off to the riverbank. This turned out to be a filthy, 
stinking cesspool of a river (the Yamunu) and a macabre experience to 
boot when we realized that the grey 'soil' we were walking across was 
at least partially composed of human ashes. In fact, there were some 
pyres still smoking and Chris claims to have spotted a vertebrae and a 
jaw bone lying about. The view of the Taj was less than spectacular, 
but we coughed up 50 rupees just to be rid of our would-be guide.

Getting into the Taj grounds was an adventure - first we had to cough 
up $20 (the prices for foreign tourists for many Indian monuments went 
up about two orders of magnitude last fall - India is no longer the 
dirt-cheap destination it used to be as a direct result of this; I 
suspect the accommodation and food prices will follow, although 
they're currently still quite low), then we had our bags searched and 
they told us we could not take in our flashlights or playing cards! 
They're also quite anti-video in this country and most temples, etc. 
will either charge exhorbitant fees or disallow it completely (such as 
the Taj). 

All whining aside, the Taj Mahal is truly a remarkable structure and 
quite beautiful, especially in the early morning light. After a hour 
and a half of wandering around the complex and taking photos, we went 
on to see a few other less impressive sights around Agra and then took 
a bus ride out to Fatehpur Sikri, and old fortified 17th century town 
built on a hill 36 km from Agra. We saw the main tomb/temple complex 
there, but balked at the Palace Complex where they wanted yet another 
$10 admission charge.

On the 16th, we moved on to Jaipur, meeting some South 
African travelers, Greg & Anya, on the train. We joined forces with 
them and found accommodation in an old palace which had been converted 
into a cheap hotel. We walked and rode bicycle- and auto-rickshaws all 
over town, visiting the "Pink City", a walled section of broad avenues 
enclosing the City Palace and other landmarks, such as a really 
interesting observatory (Jantar Mantar) comprised of giant 
metal and masonry astronomical instruments, including a 27 m tall 
sundial, built in the early 1700s by the Maharaja Jai Singh. We also 
explored the sprawling Amber Fort and Palace, spread over several 
kilometers on top of and beneath a high ridge, located a few 
kilometers outside of Jaipur and overlooking the city.

On the 18th, the four of us took a train on to Sawai Madhopur, a 
smaller town near the Ranthambore National Park. The park is famous 
for tigers, and we were lucky enough to spot one when we went to the 
park the next morning. Unlike the other cats we'd seen in Africa which 
were either just walking along a trail (the cheetahs in Namibia) or 
lying around on the ground (the lions in Ngorongoro Crater), this 
tiger was actively dining, chewing on a deer's disembodied head about 
50 feet away from our vehicle. He was quite large and I for one would 
not have cared to get much closer. After a while, he sauntered off to 
the nearby watering hole for a drink.

Greg & Anya returned to Jaipur and Chris and I moved on to Kota 
to catch an overnight train to Mumbai. We weren't able to get reserved 
tickets for the 1.5 hour train ride to Kota, so we got "general" class 
tickets. This turned out to be a hellish ride in which we first had to 
nearly fight our way onto the rail car, and then we were wedged in so 
tight that we were unable to remove our packs for the entire journey, 
much less sit down, all the while snack & beverage vendors shoving 
their way through the car and nearly knocking people out the open 
doorways. Needless to say, we were quite relieved to get into Kota and 
have vowed to avoid general tickets again at all costs. In contrast, 
the night train was quite pleasant, with included meals and blankets 
and a berth nearly large enough for me to stretch out in. Heck, they 
even served us ice cream!

We've been in Mumbai for 5 days and have found it to be surprisingly 
cosmopolitan and much cleaner than anywhere else we've been in India. 
There are nearly no cows wandering the streets (unlike everywhere 
else, where they are ubiquitous - even on four lane roads in the 
middle of town!), there's much less trash in the streets, and the 
place doesn't everywhere reek of stale (or fresh) urine. While the 
food has been good elsewhere, it's even better here. We've been all 
over town, seeing a good museum (Prince of Wales), taking a boat out 
to Elephanta Island to see temples carved into the bedrock (another 
overpriced $10 admission fee), and a Jain temple and beautiful flower 
garden on a hilltop overlooking the bay. 

We were about to leave town, in fact had already bought a ticket 
onwards, when Chris spotted a small ad in the paper announcing a  
classical Indian musical festival scheduled for this weekend. We went 
to investigate and decided to stay an extra two days. The festival 
turns out to be five family members staging individual performances of 
vocal, instrumental, and dance over two evenings, and completely free 
of charge. On the first evening last night we weren't quite sure what 
to expect, so we showed up early to ensure a good seat, but there was 
virtually no one there. As the starting time approached, people began 
to arrive, primarily older Indians, the women dressed traditionally in 
beautiful flowing saris, the men mostly in Nehru jackets. People kept 
arriving even well into the first hour of the performance and finally 
the auditorium filled up completely. Apart from one other, Chris and I 
were the only westerners there. The three performances were long 
(about 1.5 hours each) and spectacularly good, especially the 
vocalist, who demonstrated an incredible range and fantastic control 
over her voice. We were suitably impressed and are planning to see the 
other two performances tonight.

It seems that Mumbai (Bombay) is the main center of India's movie 
industry, which just so happens to be the largest in the world - 
they make more movies than Hollywood, and the city is sometimes 
referred to as "Bollywood". Our first couple of days here, we noticed 
a film crew shooting near the "Gateway of India", a large monument on 
the bay resembling the Arc de Triomphe. Then, yesterday, Chris was 
approached in the street by an agent for a movie company and asked if 
we'd like to work as extras the following day for a shoot they were 
planning. We showed up at the appointed location this morning, but 
were vastly disappointed to find they'd cancelled the day's shoot and 
our dreams of cinematic glory have been dashed to bits. Who knows, we 
might get discovered again later today.

So, that's about all the news for now - we'll undoubtedly send out 
another update in another week or two, perhaps from Nepal before we 
leave for China. Take care of yourselves, and look for us in the 
movies.

Namaste,
Than & Chris