Our guide was a 24 year-old named Gotham..... right, like the Batman movies, which he pointed out. He started out by informing us that Agra, and it's region, has 2.5million people. And since the Indian government has forbidden them from Industrializing, they live off tourism, handy-crafting and tipping.
2.5mil. I can believe it. They are all on the road - walking, tuk-tuking, biking, cabs, trucks, in/on camel and donkey carts. The place is crowded. Tuk-tuks have at minimum 6 people. Trucks have people in/on/on top and hanging on from the back and sides.
FIRST, unfortunately due to sleep deprivation and jet-lag, I forgot to recharge the battery on my camera. One of those D'OH-slap-yourself-on-the-head moments. I think I took too much video on the train.
We drove to the entrance of the Taj - well actually, you can't get a car that close to it. About a 1/2 mile away is where you buy your tickets to get in. The tickets were 500Rs for Heather and I and Joshua was f
ree. The tickets included a bag with booties, for when walking on the marble, and a plastic bottle of water. A battery powered car takes you to the Taj "entrance" but you still have to walk past hawkers selling postcards, books, and trinkets. The guide told us to "watch out for them, look straight ahead and ignore them". The guide then gave the tickets to the guard at the gate and kept the tickets.The guide, naturally, knew his history. Heather and I get very easily bored with the names/dates - plus the guide seemed to chatter on to the point that it became a bit of a distraction. I tried to be polite, but he easily noticed Heather's lack of interest. We really wanted to take it in at our pace. Enjoy it for what it was. Heather was there 20 years ago, so maybe she was trying to reminisce about her last trip there. Simply put, the Taj is such an incredible sight - all surrounding noise, like a chattering guide, gets toned out.
It was a Monday, so the crowds were light. The guide noted that on the weekends, it could take several hours to get in and see anything. Guides and groups were everywhere. Pictures every second.
As I mentioned above, I didn't pay too much interest in the history of the Taj, and Wiki is naturally a great source for more info.
The Taj grounds are large. You start off by passing through a large gateway, When you pass the threshold your breath is taken away by the size and beauty of the Taj tomb. The layout of the grounds is symmetrical, so from anywhere on he garden grounds, your focus is on the Taj.
The garden grounds were for the most part clean. Pools, reflecting pools, fountains, tree and flower lined avenues are symmetrically placed around the garden grounds. The only thing that set it off from being perfect was the green, stagnant water and an occasional sock in a pool, and of course, garbage on the ground. However, there were lots of people around to keep the place as tidy as one could when visited by over 3million people a year.
So much detail went into the construction of this tomb. It's made entirely of Marble that is semi-translucent. The entire complex is covered in inlaid precious jewels and massive inlaid calligraphy. The domes are a true marvel - all interior sections were cut in a diamond pattern. Much was mentioned by the guide that the British destroyed and removed many of the gemstones from the Taj. Since then, generations of workers have passed along the trade of restoring and maintaining the Taj and it's jewels. I think the guides knew each other pretty well. Our guide walked us into the tomb and another guide handed him a small flashlight. With the flashlight he could show us the translucency of the marble and the reflective-ness of the jewels inlaid into the marble. No pictures were allowed in the Taj and the only light in there was the natural light from the outside.
The floor of the Taj and the floor around the Taj is made of marble. So, we had to wear our red booties when we were in those areas. The tourists got their booties when they bought their tickets. The Indian tourists using the other gate didn't; Instead, they "rent" booties from a booth next to the Taj - next to the garbage cans where tourists dispose of their booties. I think they are free, yet, tipping is big here, and our guide passed a few rupee coins to the guy manning the booth.
The North end of the Taj provides a spectacular view of the Yamuna river, even on this overcast day. And unfortunately, we couldn't see the Agra Fort in the distance. To the West of the tomb is was a mosque and to the East an identical looking "mosque", but since it's not facing Mecca, it was used as a guest house. On Fridays the Taj is closed to tourists. It is a day that Muslims can come to and use the mosque for prayer. A pool is outside the mosque to allow people to wash themselves off before entering the mosque. Fridays are also the days that the descendants of the Taj builders come in to make repairs and fix broken and removed sections of the inlay.
Exiting the Taj grounds I noticed an additional entrance - the one used my the Indian people. It looked like the city butted against the outer walls of the Taj grounds - darn, it was the Kaserat Bazar. Google map to the Taj, it's a really cool view !
Again it was back through the crowded hawker lane to the battery buggy. This time Joshua made eye contact and was pestered by a guy selling these cool looking folding globes. His price went from really high to 3 f
or really cheap. Intentionally, they stall the buggy out to all all of the hawkers to do their selling. Most tourist were walking away with all kinds of stuff. Then, on the way back to the truck, we had to pass along and drop off tourists at a "more civilized" hawker area... and then as we were getting in the truck, the guide passed in more postcards, guide books and knick-knacks before we could drive out.That's life. I don't have any issues with it - it's not our thing to load up with tons of crap on every trip we make. Even if, to us, everything sold was only a buck or two. The hawking really is persistently irritating - even if you buy something - which is usually worse, because once you open your wallet, you are pounced on. And despite how ragged the hawkers look, just stand around and watch, they do sell a lot of stuff.
From the Taj, we drove to Agra Fort, considered the most important fort in India - the place where vast treasures were kept.
The driver dropped us off in the road out front. Again the tourists, locals and hawkers were swarming. A moat surrounds the fort, you have to cross a drawbridge to get to the entrance gate. After entering the gateway you climb a long, steep walkway to the grounds. Monkeys were walking along the top of the walkway.
For some reason, the first thing that you see is a very large - nearly 5ft tall - sandstone bathtub. W
hy ? It belonged to a Mughal emperor .... Even though it was gated off, people were still trying to get inside of the tub for photo-ops.Past the bathtub we entered into the wives palace, the Jahangiri Mahal.
There was a large space between the inner and the outer walls of the fort. The guide told us that the Yamuna river used to run next to the fort. Poisonous snakes resided in the moat. If you could make it past the moat and over the 60ft (?) outer wall, you would have had "dangerous animals" to deal with before scaling the even taller inner wall. Of course, the dangerous animals were also useful to hunt for. Almost all of the fort was in sandstone. Only the Mughals personal quarters were in marble..... which was quite a lot marble. There was an enormous slab of black granite (?) used to hold the throne. It was cracked during the 1857 Indian rebellion by a cannon ball
that bounced off and left a nice size hole in the Musamman Burj, the tower facing the Taj.Many great Mughals lived here. The legend : and I won't bore you with the history - A Mughal King built the Taj for his wife, his wife died and she was buried in the Taj; Then the Mughal king was imprisoned in this fort by his son, and he could see the Taj from the marble, gold and gemstone inlaid tower that he was imprisoned in.... something like that... sorry.
It was overcast the day that we were there, - but there were stunning views of the Taj from the fort. The fort contained large recessed courtyards ( the grape garden) where the "maidens" frolicked and played hide-and-seek. Apparently the loser of the games was the "maiden" of the day. The guide was telling us this, for his enjoyment or ours, true or not ? Or stories passed on by childhood locals.
Other sites within the fort was the Nagina Masjid or ladies mosque; A creepy, dark and narrow stairway that had 11 steps (a significance to Mughal archite
cture) that lead from the royal quarters to the Diwan-i-Am; and a very large marble and jeweled area for the emperors to court the people, the Diwan-i-Am. Only 20% of the fort is open to the public. The government and the military uses the rest.
Tomb and palace touring was starting to wear on us, and we were ready for some lunch - which we had at a really nice 5-star Gateway hotel. It was buffet style and when we showed up, a large tour group of Europeans had already started... and obnoxiously started drinking beer. The buffet had a tasty selection of Indian food, and also the (bland) Asian noodles and Irish mutton stew. Freshly prepared Naan and chickpea naan was passed around.
It turned out to be a quick bite, we wanted enough time to get out to Fatehpur Sikri - the former Mughal capital some 30Km outside the city.
