Snakes and Waterfalls

But luckily not together.

After Paul started feeling better we walked up to the old city wall and bought tickets to the fort. We we instructed to walk past the palace up a meandering, overgrown, rock path until we stumble upon it. Stumble I did. Just walking along the scenic path, minding my own business, observing the beauty of the unkempt 14th century wall to my right, when what did I see that ruined the whole trip? A huge, black, slithering beast! I immediately turn around, "Snake, snake snake snake, huge black, snake." I get a ssafe distance back and Paul wants to investigate. I'm shaking uncontrollable wondering where his little (or not so little) friends are hiding. Alas, I think I scared it away and Paul was left sans snake sighting. Obviously we ain't going to the fort now, so we turn back to the palace. I explain the the ticket man what we just saw and his response, "How big? Black? Oh, very bad. Bad, yes. Cobra." Cobra!! And it's not in a basket, ahhhhhh. The he explained, "Sometimes 1,000 years old. That big, only 500. Very poisonous. Danger, yes." It was for sure the biggest snake I have ever seen without a glass partition or carnival man holding it. Blehhhhhhh. Cobra, you just ruined nature for me. The man saw our predicament and let us into the palace for free where we enjoyed a nice, snake free, tour. I don't think they get many visitors. At dinner, which again, wasn't very good, the chef/owner/bus ticket/stoned man informed us that seeing a cobra was good luck. Well, I'm still alive so I suppose that's lucky. Paul saw a scorpion shell in the bathroom, so we're calling that luck too, oh and when I picked up my computer from charging there was bird poop on it. We're up to here with luck!

This morning we woke up, had our first good meal (hummus!!) and took an hour long auto out to a waterfall. Along the way we passed through beautiful stone/sod villages, farms and stopped at a small home for a chai. Then we arrive at the falls. As we're walking to the descent a family offered us fried banana fritters and of course everyone wanted their photo taken. We went into the temple, offered up some flowers, got some candies, then hit the water. Our auto driver and his son were amazing. They tried to tell us all about where we were and themselves and then showed us how where to go, watched our stuff, and the 16 year old played photographer for Paul and I as we swmm and cliff jumped. All this after they fed us a samosa. They work hard for that tip here. As we're leaving the water a group of men approach and want their picture taken. And again. And again. And all of the suddent there's a hand on my leg, my arm, my butt!! So Paul grabbed me and we shooed out of that mess. They followed us the whole way out, "Just one more picture, please." NOOOOOOOO. You touchy the hiney.

It was really beautiful and amazing to jump out of a waterfall! Now we're heading out to the train station for our 12 hour over night ride to Agra!