The Taj

One of those things you aren't supposed to leave India without seeing. We planned to leave Delhi around 2am to see the sunrise. Great idea. Bad luck. About 20 kilometers outside Agra (the city where the Taj Mahal is located) we hit the most amazing traffic jam I've ever seen. Trucks were parked on the highway, no drivers in sight. There was nowhere to go. When we asked the driver of the car we were in what was going on, he laughed and said "it's India." Still not sure what happened, but after an hour or so we made it through.

Although we missed the sunrise, going in the morning and beating the horrific crowds I've heard so much about served us well. It was pretty amazing to just sit and look at the building and how the light reflected off of the marble, changing it's color from white to pink to gold.

Also interesting-- so many more foreign tourists than Indian tourists. The entire town of Agra seemed to exist for the Taj (granted we saw a tiny part of it). One thing we've been thinking a lot about while traveling is the impact that tourism has on local culture and livelihood. Most of the places we've visited (especially Jaisalmer) seemed to exist for tourism, and that tourism has lots of externalities--exponential increases in water consumption, traffic, pollution and garbage production, especially--that haven't been able to be managed. On the other hand, tourism provides lots of jobs and business opportunities. What should the balance be? What is the responsibility of the traveler when choosing where to visit and what type of footprint to leave?

So these questions are of course important, but emptying my mind and just sitting in the presence of one of the world's most famous structures was pretty amazing. How lucky we are.