took a side trip from Agra to the former capital of Akbar the Great in Fatepur Sikri. The area is in ruins, but still magnificent. This is one of the cartakers of the guest house we stayed at near the gates to the main Mosque.

The grounds of the Taj are a great place to escape the hussle and bussle of Agra. We spent the entire day sight seeing in the compound. We enjoyed lunch on the lawn.

The Taj Mahal is a wonder to see. It is located in the middle of the city of Agra. We had always had the impression it was in the middle of nowhere and were surprised to find this out.

Since cows are sacred (to the Hindus at least), they can be seen roaming all over town, having the run of the place. The cows often go from door to door begging for food.

Instead of putting an old cow out to pasture, they take them to the city and turn them loose.

Cows and children wander the streets of Varanasi. The cows often create a traffic hazard if they all decide to sleep in an intersection.

As you can imagine lots of them had been in traffic accidents. It was common to see broken horns and hoofs.

A quatter. You WILL have to learn how to use one of these if you visit India or Asia for that matter.

Actually we grew to prefer the squatter, especially for a public toilet. It is a more natural way of going to the loo, and a lot easier on the body.

We took a side trip from Varanasi to nearby Sarnath. This is the site where the Buddha gave his first lesson after enlightenment on the "middle way". There were a bunch of Buddhist temples here run by all the different Buddhist countries (except China).

Sarnath was a pleasant diversion from all that is Varanasi. It would be a good place to stay a while.

Young boys at a monastery in the city of Gangtok, Sikkim. When families have too many children, they take them to the Monastery to be raised as a Monk. They don't have the expense of raising the child, who is educated at the Monastery. There are always lots of kids around. Note the prayer wheels in the background.

A Tibetan Library in Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. On display here are original manuscripts over a thousand years old printed on palm leaves. The books are long and bound with leather. Once opened you can see the palm leaf shape with the spine running the length of the page. Also on display were many beautiful Thankas.

When the Chinese occupied Tibet, some of the monks made it out with the historic manuscripts. Probably most were destroyed by the invaders.

One of our favorite pictures. This one was taken at the Rumtek Monastery about 50 miles from Gangtok. It seems like the Monastery is floating in heaven.

Rice fields terraced along the ridge leading to Rumtek. The whole countryside around here looked like this. It is a spectacular place to ride motorcycles.

A smaller monastery down the street from Rumtek about 50 miles from Gangtok. Apparently the guys here were booted out of the Rumtek Monastery down the street. I forget who wears the red or yellow hat.

Here we are fully loaded on the Bike. This was taken just prior to our last consolidation of stuff. We put one backpack in a rack on each side covered with a pack-fly. About two weeks after taking this picture we sent our packs home and used two small bags and a day-pack. It takes a while to reach the conclusion that you don't need much when you travel.

Kachemjunga, it's only number two, but we think it is still special...

We took this photo from one ridge away from the mountain. It was a beautiful sight from our hotel.

As we noted in our journal entry, we travelled in Sikkim with Fred, a photographer from Sweden. Here he is talking with Melissa outside a store on the road up the mountain to the north of Darjeeling. The road was so steep that we couldn't ride the bike up fully loaded and Melissa had to walk.

The woman is picking stones from her rice. Eating rice here was always a dental challenge. You had to be careful biting down!

Another view of Kachemjunga taken from Tiger hill in Darjeeling. The mountain litterally fills the sky. We got up before sunrise to take the picture. On the way we saw groups of pilgrims walking from town to Tiger Hill. They were singing and carrying candles, having left town in the middle of the night.

This lovely lady is part of a cooperative located in Darjeeling, India. The workers are from Tibet. Most arrived in India by foot, having escaped over the mountains. They sell handmade goods which you can order by mail. This is a spinning wheel constructed from a bicycle wheel.