Agra Fort

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In the afternoon we toured the Agra Fort. The fort is actually part fort and part palace. And of course, most of the palace was close for renovations.

We walked up to the red fort, over a moat, through a massive gate, and up a long incline. At the top was another huge gateway and a courtyard.
Unlike the Amber fort in Jaipur, this one had no furnishings--that we saw. Maybe the closed sections had some. We did see where the family lived when they happened to be in residence. We saw an area that was the King's--his main room, surrounded by his bedroom and shrine room. We also saw courtyards where royals would have markets (since they couldn't leave and go to the one for everoyne else) and the jail where the King was later imprisoned by his son until his death (and subsequent burial in the Taj). From it, through the haze with sunglasses on, we could make out a clearish view of his beloved's resting place, across the river.

We joked that the people must ahve like their Indian kings more that Europeans liked their kings because at every palace we've been to there has been a large audience hall for the king to talk with and listen to his citizens.


After the fort, Rama tried to take us to a mini Taj Mahal. First we couldn't get through the way we wanted unless we tipped the police officer "guarding" the bridge. Then, after taking teh long way with more traffic than you care to imagine, we arrived. Kent and I, upon realizing where we were and that it was another 200 Rupees to enter, said we didn't want to go. (We didn't know he was taking us there until we arrived.) Really, after The Taj Mahal how would we possibly be impressed by this smaller one?


We ate dinner at 4, dragging it out as long as we could, since Rama wanted to get us to the train station at 6 for our 7:30 train. After changing another flat, avoiding another snake charmer (this one had a real boa, though, we were off.

Our train finally left at 8:35pm. After a night of almost no sleep and cuddling with my backpack (I'm so glad I packed light!), we stopped around 7am in the middle of nowhere. After a bit we saw lines of people streaming alongside and away from the train. I guess we had around 100 people riding on top for free. Just last week a large number were killed when the train they were riding entered a tunnel.

And then, we were in Satna, Kajuraho bound.

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Photos

The Old Living Quarters?
Whatever it is, it's the first building we went in.

The Gate In
Or, in our case, the way out.

Want to live here?
It's where the King was imprisoned by his own son.

Marble and fountain
It's where the King was imprisoned by his own son.

What a view!
It's where the King was imprisoned by his own son. He could see the Taj from here.

Meeting hall
Where the king met with his citizens