The Taj

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We went to Agra on an overnight train that was supposed to be 12 hours. It was my first time navigating a train station and I was a little overwhelmed. The train stations embody everything that makes India India- the mix of smells and people and cows, the beggars, the travelers, the wanderers, different religions, different classes and castes, etc. We found our car which was 2nd Class AC just fine and chose our seats. Our tickets were e-tickets and didn’t have seat numbers so we decided anywhere would be fine. Two nice men from Germany sat across from us and we started having a very enjoyable conversation until an older Indian couple asked us to move because we were in their seats. We frantically tried to figure out how we could find our seat numbers, interacting with a man who appeared to be with the railroad through gestures. We found out the seat assignments were posted on the side of the train. We ended up being in the same car so we could stay near our friend but moved to a different area. We also became friends with our new seat mates. They were three Indian boys going home for break from an engineering university in Varanasi. They were helpful and made the long trip fun.

They warned us the train was notorious for running late and would end up being a 16 hour journey instead of 12. They were right on and we arrived 16 hours after our departure. We had called a guesthouse in our travel guide the day before for reservations. We freshened up and went to a luxurious restaurant for lunch as we were famished from not eating since a our train-provided dinners the night before and I would hardly call those edible. We met a rickshaw driver who offered to drive us around all day for a fee. We had a couple of stops to make so we decided to take him up on it. We went first to the Agra fort built during the Mogul reign (you should look the family up for more information). About 75% perfect of it is off limits as it’s still used by the military but what we saw was gorgeous. Red sandstone had been imported for the monstrous fort which is stunning and all the passageways make it easy to become lost in a fun way.

We decided to go see the fames of Agra, Persian rug making and gemstones. Emily and I each got to put a stich on a Persian rug. The rugs are handmade off of looms with two sets of strings. Each individual thread is tied and cut with a sharp curved knife also created by the Moguls. They are beautiful rugs be resisted the temptation to buy. We also stopped by a jewelry place and were greeted by a man who only talked in rhyme for our introduction. Every phrase he uttered for the first few minutes were rhyming clichés that made me ask myself “really?” and question his sanity.

Finally we arrived at the Taj Mahal. The Taj truly was overwhelming. A few fun facts is it was built as a testament of love from a ruler (forget the name) for Taj Mahal, his wife, after she died. He had many, many, many girlfriends and some wives but she was especially important. The Taj is completely symmetrical and he even went so far as to add a mosque that doesn’t face Mecca and thus can’t be used, to complete the symmetry. It is said, in our Rough Guide to India, that it actually was more of a testament to Allah than his wife. Every love story is a little misrepresented. The stone also changes color in the sun, a fact I found true as the pictures I took when I arrived have the Taj as a different color than later in the day.

Not much can top the Taj so we ate, bought my first items of India clothes called salwar camees. This is the type of outfit that I wear everyday now (you should google it) and returned to the restaurant we had lunch at for ammmmazing ice cream sundaes. First real, amazing ice cream in two months almost topped the Taj 😊

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