The ultimate monument to love and the world’s most beautiful building

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Day 531: Saturday 12th December - Attending an Indian wedding

Mention Agra to 95% of people back home and they will probably return a blank look. Instead, mention the Taj Mahal the city’s most famous landmark, and India’s iconic symbol and 95% will know exactly what you are talking about. We arrive in the city of the Taj Mahal two hours later than scheduled, but the train’s delay works in our favour, meaning we arrive at 8:15am. As we exit the station we are approached by an Indian man who sounds Australian once he starts to speak. Paul, as he introduces himself was born in Tasmania but has lived in Agra, where his mother is from, for the last 20 years. He tells us he has a guesthouse in Taj Ganj which has a rooftop view of the Taj Mahal which fits the bill perfectly. So starts our day’s adventure with the larger than life personality that Paul is.

We take a leisurely breakfast on the rooftop when we arrive at the guesthouse and then discuss our options for the day. We were originally going to visit the Taj Mahal today but Paul persuades us that it is best to go in the morning for sunrise. The other attraction Agra has is its fort which we passed on the autorickshaw on the way from the train station. We can walk there as it’s only a couple of kilometres from the guesthouse but Paul is insistent he take us with his ‘driver’. In the end we agree, because quite frankly it is the easiest option. A Norwegian guy, Henrik, who was on the train last night with us from Varanasi, and who has ended up at the guesthouse also, tags along.

Agra is the first place on my entire 18 month journey to date that I’ve visited previously. I’ve seen both Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal before but I remember being very impressed the first time. Agra Fort is one of the finest Mughal forts in India. It was built from red sandstone in 1565 by Emperor Akbar. Further additions were made by his grandson Shah Jahan, the same man responsible for the Taj Mahal. The fort was built primarily as a military structure but Shah Jahan turned it into a palace. I love Mughal architecture, which takes its influences from the Middle East, and Agra Fort is a particularly fine example of the buildings of this period. Around a curve in the Yamuna River, two kilometres in the distance the Taj Mahal can be seen from Agra Fort.

We spend an hour and a half in the fort and are talking about returning to the guesthouse and coming back out later in the afternoon to see the Taj Mahal at sunset. Paul will have nothing of it though and insists on taking us to a nice restaurant to get lunch. Afterwards he again will hear nothing of us going back to relax and wants to take us to a workshop where they do the marble inlay work which Agra and the Taj Mahal are famous for. Paul is one of those people it is hard to say ‘no’ to and you get carried away on his infectious enthusiasm. The work in the marble inlay workshop is really beautiful and ends up being a worthwhile stop. I buy a few souvenirs and escape before I get carried away and spend more money than I can afford. I am sure Paul will receive a kick-back from the marble workshop and a free meal in the restaurant but we’ve all had a good time so it doesn’t matter.

We cross the Yamuna River and head towards Mehtab Bagh, a park which offers a wonderful view of the back of the Taj Mahal. As the sun sets the sky turns a wonderful colour of blue and pink above the Taj Mahal. We would love to stay longer as the sky continues to change colour and then see the Taj Mahal by moonlight but the officials at the park are closing and won’t let us linger.

Paul talks a lot, an awful lot and you get the feeling than only 10% of what he tells you about himself is actually true. But, he’s a funny guy and one of those people you can accept talking a load of rubbish because he’s entertaining. He has told us it is his birthday today and that he is 50 years old so we stop at a liquor shop on the way back to get some rum to have a party back at the guesthouse. We doubt that it is his birthday but again it doesn’t seem to matter as we are all carried away about the thought of having a party to celebrate anything really.

One bottle of rum turns into three and although we are joined by a few others in the guesthouse, we are soon quite drunk, in particular Paul. He keeps pleading with Bruno to let him leave but Bruno won’t let him. In the end he virtually begs him. As we have been drinking, a wedding is taking place somewhere in the neighbourhood close by. Fuelled by alcohol, myself, Bruno and Tanja, a Dutch girl, decide to investigate late in the evening. A boy we meet on the way offers to show us the way, via a stop at his house to have a cup of chai with his family first. The wedding looks like it is coming to a finish and is interesting to see how the sexes are separated, the men in one area, the women in the other. Bruno and I go with the men, who are intrigued by our presence. Me must meet and greet with half of Agra and are presented garlands of flowers before we have to return to the guesthouse. An unexpected end to the evening.

Day 532: Sunday 13th December - The Taj Mahal

My alarm sounds at 5:15am, but I assume in my still intoxicated state that I had merely forgot to switch the alarm off after yesterday’s early arrival in Agra. Therefore, I switch it off and turn over and go back to sleep for an hour only waking when disturbed by Bruno. It then occurs to me that the alarm was set to ensure we would see sunrise at the Taj Mahal which opens at 6am. It now being 6:30am we hurriedly get ready, meet Henrik and walk the short distance to the Taj Mahal. A queue of people is already formed when we reach the west gate, one of three gates into the Taj Mahal. We don’t have to wait too long though before once again I’m into the Taj Mahal, the icon of India.

The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th century as a memorial to his second wife who died giving birth to their 14th child. It took 22 years to build, with 20,000 people working on its construction, costing 40 million rupees even 350 years ago. It is the most extravagant monument ever built for love, and in my eyes the world’s most beautiful building. Unlike half the seven modern wonders of the world recently voted for by the public, this one fully deserves its entry on that list. An as architectural masterpiece it stands alone, Mughal in style with exquisite marble work and inlay work made from thousands of semiprecious stones. Its sublime beauty lies also in the perfect symmetry of the Taj Mahal.

You first set eyes on the magical white marble building when you pass through a 30m red sandstone gateway, inscribed with verses from the Quran and a architectural wonder in its own right. Once inside the ornamental gardens lead from the gateway, a square quartered by watercourses. The Taj is beautifully reflected in the water. The Taj Mahal itself stands on a raised marble platform at the northern end of the ornamental gardens, with its back to the Yamuna River. Its raised position means the backdrop is only sky. 40 metre high minarets grace each corner of the platform. To the west of the Taj is a red sandstone mosque, and to the east is an identical building, the jawab. The central Taj structure is made of semi-translucent white marble which changes colour subtlety as the sun rises through the morning. The whole structure is topped off by four small domes surrounding the famous bulbous central dome. The false tombs of Shah Jahan and his wife lie inside the main dome, where incredible marble work, exquisite marble screens can be admired up close.

After two hours at the Taj Mahal we return to the guesthouse for breakfast, to pack our bags and check-out. With the electricity being cut off as it frequently seems to be in Uttar Pradesh, and no other reason to linger in the guesthouse, Bruno and I get a auto-rickshaw to the train station. We don’t see Paul before we leave but I didn’t expect to. He got what he wanted - a few hundred Rupees from Bruno, an entertaining day and free drinks last night. We had been told that there were trains every half hour to the capital Delhi, three and a half hours away, and where we need to get to by 8pm for our overnight train to Amritsar. We buy tickets in the unreserved section of the train and then walk through to the platform where we find a train going to Delhi is just leaving the platform. No worries, or so we think as the next one will come along in 30 minutes. It doesn’t and we end up waiting 3 hours on the platform for the next train. Had we known we could have spent the morning relaxing in the guesthouse.

Having read Gregory David Roberts account of a journey in the unreserved section of an Indian train in his book Shantaram, curiosity got the better of comfort and I wanted to experience the free for all chaos that he described. The second class carriage is packed to bursting and we have to stand at the end of one of the carriages with 15-20 others, including luggage. It is the human equivalent of battery hen farms. For three and a half long hours I try to get comfortable... standing then sitting awkwardly on my bag. I enjoy non-existent personal space, get stood on, smacked in the face by bags several times and squashed past when vendors move through the carriage. Half way along the journey Amkit gets on and starts asking my 101 questions on what it is like to live in England. He is young, has just graduated and works for IBM in Delhi. It is an interesting exchange as the topics switch between our respective countries and cultures. It sometimes gets intense, particularly when Pakistan comes up in conversation. It helps pass the time but my head as well as my feet are hurting after the non-stop two hour bombardment of questions when we stagger off the train after our three and a half hour ordeal. I can add travelling in the unreserved section of an Indian train to my list of experiences but it is not one that I wish to repeat. Nursing a hangover, having had the combination of a late night and early morning and having spent 3 hours waiting in the train station, this journey would be one of the toughest I’ve taken on my entire travels.

The train journey between Delhi and Amritsar is not much more pleasant. We fall asleep soon enough, helped by several cups of chai from the constant stream of chai wallahs. I have heard that the Indian railways are the biggest employer in the world and I can well believe it as on average you get offered chai every two minutes by a different person. The train is once again very cold, even colder than the one between Varanasi and Agra. I wake at 6am cold, but at least offered some shelter from the cold in my sleeping bag. Bruno is already awake and is shivering, having been awake for two hours already. With two and a half hours still to Amritsar I am going to get no further sleep so I read, giving Bruno my sleeping bag to get some sleep for the rest of the journey. We arrive in Amritsar full of cold after a second uncomfortable and cold journey.

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