On route to Agra

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December 21, 2010: Jaipur to Agra

Sam Wrote:

We left our hotel in Jaipur as usual at 9am and got on the scary amusement ride they call the Indian National Highway System. First we briefly stopped at the Birla Temple and paid homage. On my part, I was wishing a safe journey.

The traffic was so petrifying that I briefly considered asking our driver to skip stopping at Fatehpur Sikri and drive onto Agra. I am glad I didn’t.

We got to Fatehpur Sikri shortly after noon where we were met by Muzzammil, our city guide for Fatehpur Sikri and Agra. Muzzammil is an intelligent young man who passionately loves what he does.

Fatehpur Sikri was an entire City created by King Akbar that took 14 years to construct. After which the King occupied the City for only 6 years. People say that Akbar had to abandon the city because a lack of water. Our guide on the other hand explained that it was not true. As to him, Akbar shifted towards Kabul, Afghanistan because of other reasons – not because lack of water. I have to agree.

The careful planning and construction that went into the city, the eye for the smallest detail, if water shortage was a problem, the King could have re-routed a river to this region.

I left Fatehpur Sikri with an admiration for the Mughal King Akbar and will definitely read up on the Mughal history of India when I return back home. I had originally thought the Mughals were barbarians who wanted just to conquer and plunder. Instead, they were lover of art and poetry and had vision. They were also master politicians in building alliances with the various Maharajas who ruled India in that time.

After Fatehpur Sikri, we headed to Agra, the city of Mughals. Agra is over 4000 years old and it is best known for the Rauza A Mumtaz Mahal – better known as the Taj Mahal.

We got to Agra shortly before 5 pm and were met by the Sita Tour representative. He informed us that we had reservations to visit the Taj Mahal @ 9:30pm for the night viewing. Today being a full moon, the authorities would allow special tickets for night viewing.

When we got to the Taj complex, security was very tight. We had to go thru a number of checks before we could board a bus that drove us to the entrance. Although we could not walk right up to the Taj, we could take still photographs from the front gate. Though it was already foggy, my Canon 7D came thru with some great pictures.

We got back to the hotel just before eleven and booked an early wake-up call.



Yamini Wrote:

Another quick breakfast and on the road again by 9am. Before leaving Jaipur we stopped at the Birla Temple. This is a Laxmi Narayan Temple that was built on the property of a wealthy industrialist, Birla, who bought the land from a Maharaja for a mere token of 1 Rupee. We did our prayers on were back on the road.

Six hours to Agra…Once again, I sure was glad I could not see directly in front of me. The drive was challenging to say the least.

On route we visited Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur means ‘City of Victory’. This is a deserted red sandstone city, built by the Great Mughal Emperor Akbar (as in “Jodha Akbar”), as his capital and palace in the late 16th century. It was abandoned soon after it was built. They say it suffered from a shortage of water but our guide, Muzzammil, differed. This city today is abandoned but is in much the same condition that it was over 300 years ago. It is complete with palace and mosques and used to be a town larger than London when it was originally constructed. This was a total mesmerizing experience. So much thought was put into the construction of this city. Muzzammil filled us in on why Akbar came to the city. He originally came on a barefoot pilgrimage as a saint (Sheikh Salim Chishti) had advised him that if he did he would be finally blessed with a son. He later built this city in his honor. Today, the tomb of Salim Chishti attracts those who make a wish by tying a small cotton thread on the screen around the tomb confident that the saint will make it come true.

We had a nice lunch and great conversation with Muzzammil. Muzzammil was another great guide we encountered. We then drove an hour away to Agra. We reached our hotel, the ITC Sheraton Mughal Hotel. We noticed that here was a lot of security around our hotel and later found out that the Russian delegation was staying at our hotel. Not quite sure if the President was staying there too. Our Sita Rep met as at the hotel and advised us that we would be picked up for our moonlight tour of the Taj Mahal at 8:30 as our viewing time was for 9:30pm. We had lucked out once again as this evening tour only occurred on a new moon night and had to be pre-booked which we had done before leaving for our trip. Looking forward to the viewing, we first grabbed a nice but very expensive Chinese dinner at the hotel and then met our driver.

It was interesting going through all the tight security to get to the Taj Mahal.

Wow! What a beautiful sight. We had an incredible and unusual view of the Taj Mahal. Fog was raising from below making the structure look like it was floating in air. It was quite dark, but Sam captured some amazing photos with his camera which we could not see with the naked eye. We were allowed to spend ½ hour viewing until we were escorted back. Well worth the $120.

Looking forward to the sunrise viewing and a closer look of the Taj Mahal at 6:30am tomorrow!


Shivani wrote:

Today we are driving to Agra. On the way we are stopping in Fathepur Sikri. Fathepur Sikri was built by the great Mughal emperor, Akbar.

We met our guide, who is going to be our guide for Fathepur Sikri, and Agra. His name is Muzzamil.

He seems very nice.


Today we got to see the Taj Mahal, for the first time from our hotel room. It is very beautiful. Later today we are going to proceed to the Full Moon Night viewing. (But just from the outside, tomorrow we will get to see the inside)

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