A few years ago, a couple of friends of mine and I had the opportunity to take a trip Cairo, Egypt. We knew a few guys there, had a few weeks left in our summer, and couldn’t think of a good reason not to go. 

One of the obvious perks of going to Cairo are the Pyramids of Giza, or so I thought. I know I might be stepping on someone’s toes here, but I wasn’t impressed. Sure they are one of the Seven Wonders of the World. And they blow the minds of Architects. And the site is loaded with history. But they were filthy and under construction [what?!] and hyper commercialized. Not to mention a lot smaller than I thought, partially surrounded by the city and 50 meters from a Pizza Hut.

I have to admit that my expectations were a tad too high. But who could blame me?! Have you ever seen those things in the movies? They are isolate, gigantic, and usually have some transforming space robot lying dormant inside!

Needless to say, when our travels in South Asia began I was determined not to get so worked up about the Taj. After seeing the pyramids, I had sort of lost hope in the value of the Seven Wonders - and definitely didn’t want to be let down again.

After four trips to the Taj Mahal, I am still mesmerized by the marble masterpiece and I will go back. Sure it has it’s hiccups - like tons of people and elaborate scams - but hey, a country and it's people have to earn a living, right?  Either way, I could spend hours looking at it and photographing it and studying it - and I don’t know that it would ever lose it’s wonder for me.

Below are a few photos of my last few visits to the Taj... 

South Asia is spiritually overwhelming [period]. There are mandirs and mosques and temples and holy places and holy people and religious symbols and spiritual slogans literally everywhere you look. 

And if you haven’t ever been to a spiritually diverse culture, sometimes you need some help wading through the mess and making sense of it all.  

We definitely don’t claim to be experts on South Asian Religions. In fact, we are far from it.  But I do find joy in pushing people into the deep end, just to see the expression on their faces when they come up for air. I know that sounds mean, but unfortunately I think it’s the best way to introduce this culture to people. You can’t just read about it in books and magazines or watch a documentary on it.  You have to experience it.

So, that’s what we do. And that’s what we did with Bread. He spent 3 weeks going to mandirs and mosques and temples and holy places and seeing holy people and religious symbols and spiritual slogans. And what was the expression on his face when he came up for air? A look of joy, exhaustion, enlightenment, mild confusion, and... well, pink eye.

Below are some photos of the Lotus Temple.  It is the largest of the 8 remaining Baha’i temples in the world. Baha’i is just one of the many religions found in South Asia, but it tends to incorporate them all. If you don’t know much about the Baha’i faith, you should check it out.