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Published: March 18th 2009
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Off to the Taj!
Horse Carts are the way to go 20th January 2009
Agra
ABD - Here we are Agra dearest and may I just say it has been an absolute disappointment!
The city is not worth mentioning, it was at best, a dump!
Our hotel was surprisingly clean and the rooms where actually quite pleasant.
We were so excited about the Taj Mahal, that nothing else mattered. What a sad disappointment to find this world heritage monument, one of the New 7 world wonders , in such a neglected state. The once white marble dome was now a shade of grey. Motorised traffic has been banned in a radious of approx. 2 kms from the Taj, yet they are still allowed to burn rubbish all around the grounds. Now I may not know a whole lot about conservation and restoration of old buildings, but I do know that white marble can be treated and restored.
The inside of the Taj was just as neglected. The entire interior was open to the public, without any restrictions and the white marble walls here had taken on a yellowish oily texture, from all the thousands of people touching them. Worse yet was what happened to the inlay work for which the Taj Mahal
is so very famous for. Pieces had literally been removed from the marble, leaving an empty space in the shape of the previously semi precious stone that belonged there.
The Guide proudly showed us the luminosity of the semi precious stones by placing a torch on the marble and letting the light shine through the stone. He pointed out that the marble allowed light to shine through, which was very obvious, but to make his point he went over to another wall and placed his torch on top and said “looking you see, no shining through, this no marble. This stone!” and grinned at me. I was shocked! What do you mean stone? Isn’t the whole structure meant to be marble? The guide mentioned that the piece was replaced a few years ago. I asked him to clarify, why, if so much money was being given to the ministry of archeology to conserve this monument, did they not use marble instead of stone? Surely it wasn’t an issue of money. The guide smiled cheekily and said “too much corruption in our India, someone taking money for marble and putting stone. What to do?”
My heart ached when I saw the
Taj Rear View
Much better than en face! Taj. The dream of standing in front of it and marveling at its beauty burst like a bubble.I wandered what Shah Jehan would have thought of his masterpiece now. He had built it for Mumtaz Mahal his favourite wife as her tomb. Later he was buried alongside her. We posed for photos and did all the touristy stuff that our guide instructed us to do. For the first time. And the last.
ATD - We met up with Bek, Belle and Adam, who were also in Agra to check out the Taj. Anabelle had lostg her first tooth that morning and was proudly showing off the gap between her two front teeth! We caught a horse cart to the Park and walked down towards the Taj. An unpleasant walk to say the least. Our guide warned us not to touch or even talk to any of the hawkers, lest they try to squeeze some rupees out of you with some wily scheme. The Browns decided they would return to the Taj the next morning but we were keen to go in straight away. We entered the Taj complex through a security gate, and could glimpse the onion dome
of the main building peeking over the red walls of the internal gate.
As we turned to our right to walk directly towards the Taj Mahal through the main gate, we were greeted finally by the impressive grandeur and symmetry of the design. However I must admit that the building is nowhere near as big as I thought it would be. Countless photos I have seen of the Taj give the impression that there is a large lake leading to the building, which in fact appears very small and not so striking in reality. I was also disappointed to find that the building itself has not been maintained very well, which I find baffling considering the esteem in which it is held world wide.
What made the experience even more disappointing for me was our mandatory tour guide. Instead of answering our questions, he had a habit of using them simply as a cue to begin another memorised spiel about the complex. After leaving the Taj we met up again with the Browns, who joined us in our van. We saw some of the other sights of Agra, all which seemed in a similar state of dilapidation to the Taj.
Somewhere along the way there was a disagreement with the guide. He would only agree to ‘guide’ us to specific places in the town, despite his services being included in a large bill we had already paid in Delhi. We had asked him to take us to the Agra Fort and when we arrived there he insisted that we don’t enter as “there is nothing worth seeing” We had stupidly listened to him and missed out on the Fort in which Shah Jehan and His harem had lived before moving the capital to Delhi. This led to the following unforgettable reprimand from my wife; Alexia: “Are you a Hindu?!” - Guide: (sheepishly) - “yes” - Alexia: “Then you believe in Karma?” - Guide: (all traces of smugness now leaving his face): “yes” - Alexia: ”Then YOU KNOW what you have done today will come BACK TO YOU - now leave us!”. Wow. Remind me not to get on the wrong side of her!
This led to the nicest part of my Taj experience, for without our guide, we instructed our lovely driver Susil to take us to a place where we could get a view of the Taj for sunset.
We were able to park the car and walk down a short path to find an excellent view of the Taj from the other side of the River Yamuna, near to the site where Shah Jehan had laid the foundations for a second ’black Taj’ which was never completed. The view from here was great, and it gave me a chance to really soak up the building without the incessant chattering of the tour guide or thousands of tourists milling about me. With the sun setting in a hazy red sky behind it, I finally got a small insight into why the Taj is so revered.
On our way back to our waiting car I noticed one particular rickshaw which stood out from the others waiting to take tourists back to Agra. All the rickshaws here are emblazoned with a variety of stickers and good luck charms. These range from religious deities to American show brands to Italian sports car brands. However this rickshaw will always be my favourite, for not only was it painted green and gold, but on the front windscreen was a tribute to those greatest of Australian cricketing twins - Steve and Mark Wagh (spelt wrong
Typical Taj
This family asked us for a photo with them and of course we could not resist ourselves. Just as they thought we where an interesting photo opportunity with our white skin and funny clothes so did we! Ahhhh the freedom to be honest - only in India! but good enough!). Good to see some Indians are familiar with the Australian pantheon.
I was relieved to end our sightseeing for the day and instead look for a place that would satisfy our rumbling tummies. This would be our last night with the Browns, as tomorrow we are heading west to Jaipur. We had a lovely dinner at Shanti rooftop restaurant, which to my own and Adam’s delight is one of the rare places we have found which serves beer cold. We also had the pleasure of enjoying the Tuscan Red bottle of wine given to me in Delhi. Over these rarest of Indian drinks we reminisced about the preceding weeks we had spent mostly together, and talked excitedly about future adventures.
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