Delhi and the Taj Mahal, India

After our brief stay in Jordan, Samantha and I flew to India for a fairly busy itinerary we had built with the help of my friend Rohan, who lives in Delhi.  He was generous enough to put us up at his family's house located centrally in Delhi with his parents, Anil and Renu.  It is a beautiful bungalow that, coupled with their incredible hospitality, began feeling like home almost immediately. 

We ate amazing home cooked, traditional Punjabi food for breakfast and dinner, and were supplied with loads of information about how to properly spend our days in Delhi.  We visited both the Mahatma and Indira Gandhi museums, as well as the Lodi gardens and visiting some of the local markets and sights around New Delhi.  They also pointed us towards arguably the best meal we've had so far this trip.  It was an authentic dim sum restaurant, Mr. Choy's, that was truly phenomenal.  Anil and Renu are frequent customers and, unbeknownst to us, had called the restaurant before we arrived.  We were introduced to the chef, and he selected a whole bunch of different things for us to sample.  I know I said this was maybe the best meal we have had, and that it's not actually Indian cuisine, we were also delighted to be in a country that is home to some truly wonderful food.  We ate well for nearly every meal of our 18 days in the country.  

After we spent some much needed time at home with the Malhotra's, we began our itinerary with a drive to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  We have seen a lot of reportedly breathtaking things so far on this trip, some living up to the hype and others not so much.  The Taj Mahal lives up to its reputation.  It is hard to describe in words, so I will let Samantha's pictures speak for themselves.  After our morning in Agra, we continued driving towards Ranthambore, where we would spend a couple days looking for tigers!