Having arrived late in the night, we didn't get to seem much of Agra, and only really had the one day to see it all. There were only 2 major stops on our schedule. My stomach problems had calmed down from catastrophe to brutal, and Andy's stomach problems had begun, though not as bad as mine I felt for him. We got off to a relatively early start, and headed for the first of our destinations. I am sure you can guess where that was...
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We got a tuk-tuk driver who offered to take us to stores and markets, but we were having none of it, we persistently bargained, cajoled, and paid less than he would have liked. Still though, we were two of not many tourists during the off season, so he had little choice. The gardens outside the gate. |
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Once past the security check at the gate, there are cultivated gardens and long pathways. |
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The inner gate is breathtaking as well, but nothing compared to what one sees as they emerge from it. |
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There she is. The Taj Mahal. Built by Shah Jahan as a tomb for his first wife Mumtaz, one of the modern wonders of the world. Famous for its symmetry, it is symmetrical in every aspect, including the matching mosques, (only one of which is real, since the other faces the wrong way...) Now it is perfectly symmetrical, except for the 2nd tomb lying just to the left of hers. The tomb of Shah Jahan himself. It was originally his plan to build and identical Taj in Black marble across the river for himself, but he was overthrown by his son, lived out the rest of his days cloistered, and was entombed without ceremony here upon his death. Too bad, the black taj would have been, I am sure, breathtaking. |
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I hope you will forgive me for having so many pictures of the Taj, but one does not come this far to see such a great thing, without taking copious amounts of pictures. |
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Andy, the Taj and I as seen through the blur of my hat (on which the camera was balanced.) |
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It is remarkable the scale of the thing. From some places it seems so small, from some so huge. It borders on magic. |
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As I mentioned before two mosques (one real and one for the sake of symmetry, flank the Taj. Take your shoes off when walking through them |
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As we got closer, the size and grandeur of the thing began to reveal itself. As you get closer and closer, you begin to go snow-blind. So much white marble reflecting the morning sun. We were lucky to be blessed with great weather on the morning of our visit. |
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Me and my adventure hat stop to take it all in. Great shot D. |
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Long
walls of carved marble surround the Taj. The Indian archeological survey
is always on had to make sure that their number one national treasure
is well cared for...
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Backs to the Taj, eyes towards the horizon, D and Kuma allow themselves to be overwhelmed by it all... |
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Asides from the Coral, Azure, Rubies, and other precious gems and carvings in the marble walls of the Taj, one also finds the Arabic writing of the qu'aran (Koran) Engraved in it. |
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Indian women in their colorful sari move about the main doorway to the Taj. |
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Photography inside is strictly forbidden, and we were set upon by a tour guide, who showed us the cooler aspects of the Taj, shining lights into the wall to watch them glow, pointing out all the semiprecious stones set into the place, outlining the way in which the moonlight shines into the taj to create a starry pattern on the wall, and finally singing to demonstrate the perfect acoustics. I suppose he has an in with the guards, cause on the way out, he actually walked between them to lift up the metal grate covering the stairway to the actual tombs of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan. We were able to crouch and get the smallest of peeks at them. Still more than most get. We tipped him well enough for his work. |
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The gardeners were out cutting the grass. |
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If I could control all the chipmunks in India, or even just the ones at the Taj Mahal, I could lay rodent siege to Burlington with ease. They are everywhere. At least there were a nice change from the pigs and elephants we had to compete with so far. |
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As time went on, the place gradually got busier. |
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Definitely worth the trip. No questions, the absolute highlight of out Indian adventure. Awesome. |
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After dwelling at the Taj for some time, we left and decided to stop at an Internet cafe briefly. D needed to check his mail for some needed addresses, and it was during this period that we had our only disagreement for the entirety of the trip. All about connections speeds and which cafe to go to. I was in a poor mood, likely due to the heat, but all in all, it was a small disagreement, handled quickly and civilly, and a few minutes later everything was as it should be again. When one travels with a traveling partner issues are bound to come up. Over such stupid things too... I am ashamed that I let stuff like that bother me...
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After having connected to the net for a few minutes we decided to head for lunch. D hat noticed a Pizza hut near the hotel and suggested that we try to switch back to some western food in order to combat our stomach woes. I agreed. As it turns out it was still a very different taste that one finds at home, and all the meats were made of the least likely of animals (I have never seen so much lamb on everything!) We would have liked to take better advantage of the free refills on fountain coke, but were afraid to go to hard on it, as we could not be sure of the source of the water it was being mixed with... |
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There are about 4 or 5 "must see" attractions in Agra, but due to timing, health, funds, and desire, we only had two on our list. The Taj or course was number one, followed on by the fort. After seeing the taj we headed down to Agra fort. Outside the main gate we were bombarded with salesmen, peddling all manner of crap. We finally managed to make it through the gate and move on. By the way, if you are ever there, save your ticket from the Taj, it will get you a discount on all the other major sites. Inside the gate we eventually hired on a guide, after a bit of arguing and haggling and wondering whether it was worth it. |
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The Agra fort is a fortified palace, so if you are expecting dingy dungeons and long since abandoned barracks, you will be disappointed. I am sure they exist somewhere but this fort has more interesting things to show you... |
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Once you pass the main gates and make your way up the horse and elephant walk, (today sadly devoid of elephants) you find yourself amongst well kept grounds and well preserved buildings... The guide we hired was great, very knowledgeable, and if any one thing of what he said was a lie, one of the most skilled liars I have come across. He had a certain passion for his work, and if that was fake, you can add acting to the list of things he did well. |
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There once was an Indian named "Akbar the great". He believed in the unity of all faiths, and you can see it in the architecture he built. Hebrew stars, Hindu enclosures, Muslim Archways, Roman Arches, Green clovers and purple horseshoes. |
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You
can see the taj in the distance across the river.
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Inside the fort there is plenty to see about why this country was once considered among the most advanced and civilized in the world. And certainly amongst the richest.. ingenuitive architecture included indoor plumbing, decadently arranged buildings to maximize natural light and wind for cooling, and even double walls for insulation purposes. Our guide was especially strong on this point, that 400 years ago the had already thought of insulation. Living in Japan and being able to feel my air-conditioning from outside on my porch with the door and windows shut, I can appreciate that. |
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The Hero of our story, Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj, was eventually overthrown by his son, and imprisoned here in a tower of the fort. He spend the rest of his days being able to see the Taj from that marble tower on the left. |
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Where
once grapes and other delicacies grew, now there are only calm gardens.
Still though, at least they are well kept.
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Amongst the marble of the upper fort, there is still some evidence of Britain's 'influence' on India. Here for example is a spot where a cannonball struck one of the marble walls... I would have taken a picture of the empty stand where once the great throne was... I think it is in Baghdad now... |
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All the archways in the main audience hall are arranged so that you can see the emperor from any vantage point. Our tour guide was able to explain every detail to us, and only once got mad,when another tour guide stopped to ask him a question about someone tomb. "How can he be a guide, if he doesn't even know!" Right on man. |
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The hour was now getting on to 3 or so, and all of the cultural exhibits close at 4pm. As such our day was drawing to a close. We headed back to the hotel and did some shopping. We found a cool store across the street that had lots to offer (tea, books, shirts, bangles, foreign exchange, etc...) with a minimum of hassle and pushing. This led to us doing the bulk of our shopping here. After having spent some money, they even stopped to talk with us at length about where we come from and Japan. They were shocked and amazed at our stories of life in Japan. They couldn't believe the prices, the way things are done... nothing. We stayed there for some time, chatting and laughing and ignoring the mice running about. Finally we decided to move on. We were tired and lazy, so we even commissioned the tuk tuk driver that had been following us all day to drive us the 100 yards to the pizza hut and wait for us while we got take out. We gave him almost nothing, which is more than it was worth, tipped him a bit and bought him a Pepsi. He tried at the end of the day to wring more out of us by pointing out that he was with us all day. To which I pointed out we had been therefore giving him money all day. We packed up our stuff, I had to repack since I had purchased a pair of hookahs at a silver and carpet shop that day earlier on. We then decided to get some sleep, we had an early train ahead of us.
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Agra station, was, of course bustling and busy. D wasn't feeling so hot, and this was the high point of his sickness, still he did well, and endured it. We bought some food at the station (oddly enough the only food that didn't make me sick in India was the greasy pakora and samosa that I bought for a quarter on the train platform) Still, neither of us elected to enter the STD booth. |
The train ride to Delhi was pleasant enough, we were lucky to get tickets, as were were actually on a waitlist. This led to some confusion while boarding, but we eventually figured out where we belonged, embarrasedly moved on from the seats we accidentally stole from some other people in mistake, and passed a pleasant several hour trip talking, reading, eating and relaxing.
When we finally arrived in Delhi, we had the all the lines shoved on us, "That hotel is full, too far, etc..." and every other trick in the book to get more money out of us... we should have known right then...
We eventually got a tuk tuk driver who didn't know where he was going, and probably would have missed the hotel If I didn't spot it and point it out...
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When we first arrived we thought we were screwed. The building was a black, broken skyscraper that looked old, and very, VERY dirty. The lobby was in pieces, and under construction. A pleasant surprise awaited us though, that inside the hotel was clean enough, and in decent shape. Turns out the lobby was just upgrading, and over the next few days, it was looking fine again. We had to take a downgrade from our originally room to get two beds... Fine by us... The first meal we had was at the restaurant on the roof of the hotel, which was actually really, really delicious. We noticed that there was an all you can eat buffet lunch, and we decided to try and catch it the next day. We didn't get up to much that first day, it was spent primarily in travel. |
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We were up at a decent hour the next day and out the door.
