Nepal. The Hindu Festival of Dashain.

Image of of the Hindu goddess, Durga, shown riding her tiger and attacking the demon Mahishasura

I'll start by saying that I don't know anything about Hinduism except that it embraces more gods and goddesses than I can remember the names of!

Itinerary. Agra, India.

No offense to people who live in Agra, but as far as I can tell, the only reason to go there is to visit the incomparable Taj Mahal. The Taj was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in loving memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to his 14th child. Construction on the Taj began in 1632 and was completed in approximately 1648 and I read somewhere that it took 20,000 laborers to complete the job. There's lots of facts that one can read up on about the Taj (the architecture, the precious jewels embedded in its walls, etc) but at some level, I don't really care about the facts. To me, the image and story behind it are enough - in my eyes it's the world's most beautiful mausoleum in the world and for my heart, it was built by a man in tribute of woman that he loved so deeply that he wanted her to be remembered for eternity. Could there be a more romantic tribute?

In planning my trip to Agra, I read that it's best to see the Taj either in the early morning or late afternoon because visiting during mid-day a) can be unbearably hot and b) with the bright sun shining, the monument just looks like a big, white marble building - apparently, not resulting in the impressive vision that visitors are expecting to see.

Planning is so much easier when you have help....

After I settled on my itinerary for Delhi, I decided to see if there were any India based travel agencies offering city tours that would cover the sights (major tourist spots) that I was interested in seeing. Google "Delhi City Tour" and you'll get a slew of hits. I pored over one tour company website after another and finally found the one that offered an itinerary that appealed to me. More importantly, from what I can tell, it is a reputable agency that has been in business for 20 years.

.....and the wait is finally over!

I booked my spot on the Tibet tour on July 5th and at that time was told I would have to wait for a month for final confirmation that the tour would depart as scheduled - we needed a minimum of 5 passengers and only 4 had signed up at that time. If not, I had the option of joining a group that was leaving a few days earlier - which I could do but didn't want to because it would have been smack dab in the middle of the week which, according to my friend Lei, is when all of China takes off on vacation and goes traveling. Lhasa would be a mob scene - not something I would have enjoyed being in the midst of.

So yesterday I emailed Intrepid to find out about whether or the tour was on. I got a reply back that because there were still only 4 passengers signed up they needed to check with the Tibet field manager and would let me know the next day.

Then, today I got the word that the tour was ON!! Potala Palace, here I come!!

......now, all I have to do is finalize the rest of my travel arrangements - airline tickets, visas, etc.