In a sea of black hair and headscarves I was the only blonde. The only other color of hair that came close were the gray strands of some elder men. And while pierced left noses were a dime a dozen my right nostril was the...

Is it bad to say that, really, the only thing I knew was in India is the Taj Mahal? And even then I'm not sure I'd ever have been entirely confident to say it was in India? But, for the record, it is. Agra, India,...

Of everywhere I've traveled so far, India has been the place whose first impression lived up to the image I had in my imagination. Unpaved streets lined with garbage and neon lights. Cows and elephants intermixing with cars and motorbikes and rickshaws on the road....