Agra to Varanasi...

After taking in the beautiful and majestic sights of the Taj, Jeff and I escaped the incessant honking and street noise at a very quiet garden restaurant/guesthouse. It wasn't our guesthouse as we were staying in a total rat hole and paying under 6$/night..we realized later that sometimes saving money is not always the best plan!
We had a quiet dinner at this garden restaurant, Sheela Guesthouse, and met a lovely couple from Holland, currently living in Portugal. We started chatting with them and they invited us to join them the next day to Fatephur Sikri, about an hour drive from Agra. The fort in Fatephur used to house the wives of Akbar duringthe 1500's. It became abandoned when there was a shortage of water and is now considered a ghost town. It was a lovely way to spend the day with Wilma and Jan. Especially before another long train ride to Varanassi. We were sadto leave the Taj Mahal but happy to leave the noise of Agra...
Our train ride was rather uneventful, the only thing was that we almost missed our train as we didn't realize that there are 3 train stations in Agra and another one about 30 km's away...ofcourse, our train was departing from the further station and we had to burn some serious fuel to getthere in time. We took a rickshaw there, our driver had that thing floored on the highway! huge trucks were passing us by, but we made it with time to spare and only 2 u-turns on a highway!! only in India!
Many people had told us that we were going to love Varanassi and the culture it had to offer..we were skeptical but in the end it was quitethe experience. We met another great couple, Raquel and Jude. We spent our days there with them and toured around, and I haveto say for a city it was pretty incredible...all the different ghats along the Ganga River, the holy river and all the Saddhus, holy men.
I will update more but my time is up right now....
must go eat...

Varanasi

Lots of Peppers - la!!!!








Gange River








J-Ro, Jude, Raquel and Beck

Bathing Ghat,
Varanasi







Varanasi view of Gange River








Kite flyer
Varanasi

Pushkar, sunsets and Taj

Taj Mahal











Taj, with thousands of visitors
on "Republic Day"






Sunset on small mountain with temple.








Sunset Pushkar, the best yet!!!!
Ok, there are some beautiful
sites in India.








Rebekah on temple looking down
over Pushkar.

Camels, Forts and snakes

Beck on the camel named Michael Jackson (not sure why and didn't ask!)







Jodphur Fort -very big and has never been taken.

India Pictures

Delhi








Bikaner, outside the fort


Jasailmer Fort