Hello from Jiapur...

We went to Amritsar and saw the lovely Sikh Golden Temple...
Lovely people...
No charge for seeing this gorgeous place, and most importantly no hassles. What amazed us was that everyone wanted to take a photo with us...
Don't know why...
Perhaps they get the WWF (world wrestling federation on TV) here too, like in Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia-where they all thought that Michael was the professional wrestler "Big Boss"...
Also, everyone wanted to know where we were from, and if we wanted to know more about their lovely temple!
Then we were on to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal...
Which they can keep, as it is a rip off and the city has a very corrupt government-but the people at our hostel were just lovely and very helpful and sympathetic to our following plight:

We saw the Taj yesterday and it was lovely, but a major rip off at $20US...
They told us that this ticket would enable us to go into all the other forts/attractions (about 5 of them) on the same day at no charge-LIARS!!! So, we only saw the Taj...

Our Hostel was fantastic we had a rooftop restaurant with a view of the Taj, just 300 yards away-but much pollution!

India has a Bi-Polar personality...
Either you meet lovely, friendly, honest, helpful and fantastic people (about 10-20% of the population) or you meet the people that should drop off the face of the earth-good reason for government instigated birth control!!! The things that we have seen and have said to us have just been mind blowing!

Yesterday, while walking through the neighborhood to the Taj, we stopped to talk with some young boys (about 6-10 years) playing cricket...
When all of the sudden, some, young smart-ass throws a bucket of water off the roof...
And gets who gets it??? Yes, ME!!! I hope that they were trying to hit their friends playing cricket, but odder things have happened to us here, that makes one wonder about this society!

I have always believed in reincarnation, and the old adage-"what comes around, goes around"...
You can love India and Hate it at the same time-and it is because of the Bi-Polar people...
I have never believed in a caste system, but see why there is one here...
We arrived in Jiapur this afternoon, and it has been nice so far...
We are in a lovely hotel that used to be owned by someone that had a title similar to a "lord" in England-very nice, and hot water!!! Huge gorgeous lawn, lovely flowers, bougainvillea in bloom!!! We'll be here for 2 nights and leave on the night train for Jodhpur (16th at 11:30pm) and will only be in Jodhpur till the 11:30 train to Jailsamar-which is supposed to be lovely, friendly, and less hassles...
This is where we will do the camel safari...
Jaisalmar is also know as the Arabian 1001 Nights...

All for now! love and peace!
SG