We drove ten hours to see Taj Mahal. I am not sure it was worth it,but it really isincredible.

Mostly, we saw camels (the biggest I have ever seen, probably 12 foot tall) and cows and water buffallo and men with cobras in baskets, and yes monkeys, not in a zoo, no no my friend, but on the side of the road. They were also randomly wandering around on tops of abandoned buildings. The monkeys are squatting Agra. Also, very small children wandering around barefoot in the city, some begging, some just playing in the squalor. It looks sometimes like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie, but with the occasional wedding party on white horses with a million flowers to brighten the scene. These scenes weigh on me, as does the level of pollution and the sheer numbers of people. There are 15 million people in Delhi they say. Especially contrasting this to the bollywood scenes which I love so much.

We were also diverted yet again by a "guide" who took us to his friend's shop. I was unamused. But we had a fantastic vegetarian Osho (Buddhist guru) cafe lunch, which was clean and cool and healthy.

Tomorrow is our last day in Delhi, then at 5 am-ish I am losing my partner in crime back to the world of work and I am heading into the long string of flights home.

For now, I am so tired I am barely walking.

So we are on day three of Goa, and I haven't left the area by the beach hut we are staying in. It has a really nice vibe in this part of Goa, pretty calm and not too many tourists. We met a nice american girl with whom we went dolphin spotting this morning. We saw maybe 6-12 swimming and playing, but no jumping. Vasyl really wanted to find a way to urge them into jumping, but the boat guys said that they are moody. They were dark black wild dolphins, different than what I have seen in the states or on TV. So today I am getting an ayurvedic naked massage and hopefully we will arrange a trip to a spice plantation for tommorow, because I am getting a bit stir crazy sitting in one spot too long.
I am also having trouble getting a fast enough connection to upload photos, so sorry there are no shiny pics still.

The plane took about 6 hours and was mostly comfortable, although full of middle class Indians and their small crying children.
We arrived here at 1am and immediately got caught up in a scam. I was amazed by the amount of smog, and I have a bit of a cough because of it.
So the car we got from the airport took us not to our hotel, but said the streets were closed and they couldn't find it, then took us to a tourist office which they were 'in business' with and then managed to get us to a hotel called 'blue sapphire' in a very bad area of town which proceeded to charge us 150$.
We finally got to bed at 4am and THEN the adventure really began. When we woke up we immediately got a cell phone card, and since I had passport photos I had to procure it and my god, it's good I am used to blatant staring. Heads were whipping around to look at the white girl with no hair in the Delhi ghetto.I went into the shack where they sold phone packets and started filling out paperwork and one guy takes off with my passport. I am having a inner panic attack but I just ask the guy why he took it. He said they need a xerox copy of it. So ten minutes I am trying not to hyperventilate until he brings it back. But, the guy was really helpful and even let me make a free call to Jeremy's mom to tell them what happened. They didn't want to let us leave, they offered us a free sponsored taxi but the driver would only take us to the tour agency or back to the hotel, and Vasyl spent half an hour pretending to want a tour so that they would just let us leave. Then we finally stopped the driver and got out in the middle of the street with all our bags (i.e. most of my stuff from ukraine) and flagged down a couple auto-rickshaws who took us for 10$ to the hotel we had booked in the first place.
So the rule I have about Russia holds true here ; things that don't look sketchy often are, (aka my english club in an almost abandoned building) and things that look nice and normal are often mafia-held or petty criminals.
So, it comes with the territory I guess but it was indeed a very stressful first 18 hours or so. Then our luck turned as soon as we came into the Tibetan enclave. Incredible and peaceful, the place is full of smiling monks and is about a quarter of the stress that the rest of Delhi puts on the senses. Our room is basic but clean with a convenient 'the whole bathroom is a shower' effect with a drain in the corner of the room. Good thing I have my flipflop tapki I guess.
Also there is a cafe in the bottom with such great food at decent prices that I might not eat anywhere else! I have been loving their banana crepe things, Tibetan flat bread and vegetarian spicy goodness.
This is where last night we met an Iranian named Matdhi that has been in India for ten years with his friend from Manchester. We ended up with his Lithuanian dance student girlfriend Kristina at a cultural exposition center courtyard watching beautiful Indian dance on the theme 'The Beloved'. So georgeous. Some of the movements were the same as ballet but the music was much better than western classical (in my opinion). It was live and was written for this dancer who is internationally famous. So we had to get home to rest but we may go out again for smoking shisha (kolyan, hookah) with Matdi and Kristina. They were really interesting, she is here by choice for the dancing etc, and speaks Hindi quite well and Russian and English of course.
Matdhi was very fun to talk to about modern Iran and the state of the world in general- and he joked with me about my headscarf (smog protection).
He said he feels trapped here because there is nothing for him in Iran but it is so hard to get a visa anywhere else so he will just continue to study and then find out what comes next. He feels trapped in India and has a love/hate relationship with it (like me and post-soviet land!).

So anyway, we breakfasted with some interesting Australians and now are off to take care of some logistical things.
Our plan is to see Delhi for a couple more days then fly to Kerala for a boat trip on the river and then some beach time. ( My first beach vacation!)