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Best Picture I Have
Official blog photographer Duncan Smith was sorely missed on this day.Foreigners have been making the pilgrimage to Agra, India for over three hundred years to see the stunning Taj Mahal with their own eyes. This massive white mausoleum lies only four hours South of New Delhi and remains widely considered one of the wonders of the modern World. It is India’s biggest tourist attraction and one of the most photographed buildings on the planet. It was my intention to spend a couple nights in Agra, exploring the town and seeing if the Taj lived up to the massive hype.
Through some communication problems in New Delhi I ended up on the 3rd Class Non-Ac bus to Agra. This was a bumpy, crowded and loud experience that despite what I had been told lasted for over six hours (See previous entry on Indian traffic), but only cost me a grand total of $2. This was a sharp change from the comforts of the New Delhi Hyatt but with a charged Blackberry I spent most of the trip zoning out to
J. Cole and watching the Indian countryside go by. After arriving at the Agra bus terminal, I hopped into the nearest rickshaw to take me to my hotel and was promptly
offered a combo of girls and hashish by my driver. I declined both and ended up in a shouting match with the guy after I realized he had no idea how to get to my hotel. After stopping to ask for directions twice we finally made it and I summoned up the energy to wash the grime off me before passing out.
Beyond the obvious draw of the Taj Mahal, I had a deeply personal reason to visit Agra. Ever since I was 13 I have had a black and white picture of my Grandpa in front of the Taj Mahal hanging on my bedroom wall at home. I’m not sure when the picture was taken, but in it he looks young and adventurous and he is accompanied by a young Indian boy and a rather snobby looking Englishman. I have no idea who the other two people in the photograph are but I have often wondered where their lives led them after posing for a picture with my Grandfather half a century ago. I should also point out that it was my Grandpa’s influence and his own significant travelling that more than anything else led me to travel
Animals in Agra
Those little holes in the ground are where the dogs sleep at night right next to the cows. as much as I have in the past decade. When Tiger Woods was a boy he taped all of Jack Nicklaus’s records on his bedroom wall and dreamt of the day he would surpass them. In the same style, for the past decade, I have had a list that my Grandpa made for me of all the countries he visited in his travels hanging on my bedroom wall, acting as a barometer to measure my own accomplishments against. For the record; I am gaining rapidly on him but in my mind I think I will always be chasing him (Footnote 1). His list includes Iraq, The Congo, and Cyprus, and he did all this in an age before Expedia, Lonely Planet, and the ability to fly to the other side of the World in 12 hours.
I ended up spending three nights in Agra and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I stayed at the Radisson, which only opened in June of 2011, and for $70 a night I had a bigger room than I had in Mumbai or Delhi, where my accommodation cost $170+ per night. It was a great hotel but because early August is still monsoon season
in India it was almost completely devoid of other foreign tourists. I had the sizable pool and gym almost completely to myself and initially I blamed the calendar for my isolation from likeminded travellers. After a couple days walking around Agra, I realized that this isolation was more a symptom of my accommodation choice than any seasonal tourist lull. Seeing as I was only travelling for one week and now had a full time job again, I felt comfortable spending $70 per night on accommodation. This was a far cry from my 2010 backpacking days where $70 routinely could cover my accommodation for five nights or more. What this bought me in privacy, cleanliness, and comfort was obvious; but it also became clear to me that these were being traded for social interaction and new experiences. I thought about this a lot while I was in India and then I came home and David Brooks wrote an article about this exact subject in the
New York Times. Anyways; he’s a better writer than I am (For now) so I strongly recommend that everyone check out his column. (Footnote 2)
When I finally glimpsed the Taj Mahal mid-morning on August
Snapbacks are Back
Also that white building in the background. 7th, it surprisingly lived up to all the hype. Any visitor’s first sight of the Taj is through an archway of the entrance building that frames it perfectly against the blue sky. It was a breathtakingly hot day and that first view was almost surreal in how white and massive this mausoleum was. I obviously had an image in my mind of how the Taj would appear but even with this preconception it still surpassed all of my expectations. I have now seen half of the modern eight wonders of the World, and in terms of pure aesthetic beauty I think the Taj handily beats the other three (Footnote 3). The history of the building is interesting as well but that would not be the reason why I recommend anyone travelling in the region to go and see it. I would recommend it because just outside a dirty provincial town in India, on the banks of a muddy river, lies the most beautiful building I have ever seen.
Because of India’s still booming population it can be very difficult to get a spot on the country’s famous train system. As a result of this I spent an extra night
in Agra which gave me the first real downtime of my trip and a much appreciated day to relax. I hung out by the pool and read
The Help (Footnote 4) and had an interesting experience at the hotel gym. I was the only guest using the facilities and the Indian guy working there took it upon himself to act as my personal trainer. A few choice quotes from this 45 minute workout:
• “This hotel has only been open for three months but you are lifting more than any guest has so far.”
• “Yes, cricket is my favourite sport, but actually to tell you the truth I would say weightlifting is my real favourite sport.”
• “You should never forget to work out your legs. When you are old, they are what will help you move around.”
My extra day also gave me a chance to see Agra’s second most popular tourist site; the aptly named Agra Fort. I had a sneaking suspicion that the only reason this place was a UNESCO World Heritage Site was its close proximity to the Taj Mahal and I was even working out the wording on a Scottie Pippen joke
for this blog entry during my rickshaw drive to the Fort. Then I got there and after a very short amount of time came to the conclusion that this place deserved all of the visitors that it got. It is a massive Fort structure that remains remarkably intact, and has distant views of its more famous neighbour. It was once again very hot, but I spent a few hours exploring the Fort before heading back to the hotel.
The next morning I woke up at 4 A.M. to catch the only train I could get a spot on headed to Jaipur. There were more communications problems on the way there and I ended up being pretty rushed for time when I actually got to the station. A whole entry could be dedicated to the panic of an Indian train station, but I will summarize by saying that after some
Amazing Race style running I barely made it. I settled into my worn and comfortable chair, in the uncomfortably well air-conditioned traincar, and enjoyed the sunrise on the five hour ride to Jaipur.
Expect final India entry (Jaipur) in a couple days.
Footnote 1: These India entries are
The Perils of Self Taken Pictures
That is my big head completely blocking the view of the Taj Mahal. short on hip hop references so here is one that somewhat describes my situation. Jay-Z on being compared to his dead peers Tupac and Notorious B.I.G.:
"Hov got flows, though he's no Big and Pac, but he's close. How I'm supposed to win when they got me fighting ghosts?"
Jay-Z (Most Kingz)
Footnote 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/brooks-the-haimish-line.html?ref=davidbrooks
Footnote 3: The modern list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Seven_Wonders_of_the_World
I have seen:
1. Colosseum (Rome, Italy)
2. Great Wall of China (China)
3. Giza Pyramid Complex (Giza, Egypt)
4. Taj Mahal (Agra, India)
Footnote 4: I got some love, and a lot of flak for reading
The Help and I want to address that.
The Help is actually an incredible book that vividly portrays everyday racism in 1960's Mississippi. The problem is that
The Help has been hit by the double-edged sword of being read and LOVED by every women's book club across North America. On the bright side, this has made the book a sensation, turned it into a blockbuster movie, and made its author Kathryn Stockett rich. On the other hand, this has resulted in the book being taken a lot less seriously than it probably should be. Of course, it doesn't help
that the book cover is a peaceful blend of pastels and the movie stars Emma Stone.
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