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Published: September 11th 2009
After considering catching the train from Jaipur to Agra and learning that it is regularly up to four hours late we decided to go by bus. A very easy 5 hour trip saw us at the bus station in Agra surrounded by touts and rickshaw drivers. We had already booked a guest house and asked an auto driver to take us there. When we arrived at the hotel I checked the room - it was on the rooftop and led off the restaurant. The roof top had a superb view of the Taj Mahal - it was stunning! I decided not to stay there however as I knew that we wouldn't get any sleep with the late night music and dawn viewings of the Taj Mahal. We went to the hotel next door after a long detour to another hotel - don't you love auto rickshaw drivers who want to take you to a hotel they'll get commission from?
The first thing we noticed after leaving our hotel was the intense pressure from the touts - particularly from the souvenir shops. We checked up on times to see the Taj Mahal next morning and having decided to go to Nepal next
we thought that we had better buy a guide book and do a bit of research. We had been planning on going to Varanasi and catching the train to the Nepalese border from there before embarking on the long overland trip to Kathmandu by bus. However we decided to go back to New Delhi, only a couple of hours away by train and fly to Kathmandu from there. An cycle rickshaw driver literally begged to take us to the shopping centre for a small amount of money - we had no idea how far away it was but were happy enough to go with him. It was a long ride - we felt embarrassed about being cycled such a distance - and the man said he would wait and take us back when we were ready to go. He followed us up and down the street, waving to us each time we came out of a shop. As we had bought the guide book we eventually gave up on browsing and got him to take us back to our hotel. On the way he told us that he didn't own the cycle rickshaw and had to earn so much for
the driver before he would get paid. No wonder most of the cyclo drivers were pressuring us so badly. He got a handsome tip - which he earned - and we still paid hardly anything for the trip. We were only pleased he got us back to the hotel without having a heart attack - he was much older then either of us.
Everybody had told us how dirty and busy Agra was - that was true but our trip into the suburbs had shown us some very leafy areas with big wide streets. Certainly the streets around the hotel were very dirty, narrow and crowded.
We woke early and breakfasted in the dark at a tiny cafe down the street before walking around to the main gate of the Taj Mahal. It was the only one that opened at 6am. We entered the large pink and white gates which led into the ornamental gardens which surround the Taj Mahal. Entering the inner gates the view of the Taj Mahal took our breath away - there are no words to really describe it. You know what to expect but it's still incredible when you see it. There were only western
tourists who had overnighted in Agra there so it wasn't busy. We spent two hours wandering around, watching the glorious white marble change colour slightly as the sun rose above the building. The river runs beside the complex and it was very misty. The inner sanctum where the tomb is was beautifully inlaid with 43 different semi precious stones which glowed under torch light. It was quite dim though and very hot. We walked round and round the tomb - I was fascinated by the finely cut marble lattice screens which surrounded the tomb and the minute detail of the inlay. The remainder of our time there we spent sitting in the garden, admiring the architecture of the building, watching the reflections change in the pools in the gardens and eventually just people watching as the crowds of Indian tourists started arriving. The building is perfectly symmetrical, with each of the four sides identical. The exterior marble is embellished with inscribed quotations in dark coloured jasper from the Koran. I've always wanted to see the Taj Mahal so this was a dream come true for me. I wasn't disappointed! However I still think that the Golden Temple at Amritsar was
still the most amazing place I've visited - it had beauty as well as serenity and the very strong sense of spiritualism. Once the tour buses of Western tourists arrived from New Delhi we dragged ourselves away from the Taj Mahal - it didn't have the same atmosphere with hundreds of extra people there.
The previous evening our hotel room had turned into a sauna - we realised we couldn't stay another night without air con so spent a couple of hours after leaving the Taj Mahal trying to find another hotel room with air con. They were in short supply and much more expensive but we did thankfully find another. After settling in there we headed off to Agra Fort which unexpectedly turned out to be the best fort we had visited in India so far. The Taj Mahal was visible from various places within the fort and it was great to walk around a corner and suddenly see it. The fort was started 1565 but was turned into a palace by his grandson, Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal in 1631as a memorial and resting place for his wife after she died giving birth to their 14th
child. He was planning to build an identical building in black marble across the river from the Taj Mahal as his tomb. However when his son seized power Shah Jahan spent his final years imprisoned in the fort - his cell had a view of the Taj Mahal! He was eventually entombed beside his wife in the Taj Mahal. The fort was a very large complex and took quite a long time to wander through. There was also some beautiful inlaid marble rooms within the fort and a rather gorgeous tiny mosque built especially for the ladies of the harem - which must have been large judging from the size of their living areas. There was a lot to look at - lovely carved marble and sandstone, gardens and constant views of the Taj Mahal to distract you!
We decided that evening to go to the Oberoi Hotel - considered one of the premier hotels in India - for dinner. It was conveniently situated next door to our new hotel. So we tidied ourselves up and spent a pleasant couple of hours at the bar in the garden of the hotel. The view of the Taj Mahal was better from
the cheap guest house though.. The grounds were stunning - dozens of fountains, external frescoes painted in blue and gold and lots of statues. We had a great evening though didn't eat there as it was ridiculously overpriced - the drinks though weren't much dearer then we had been paying. They weren't busy though and when we explained that we couldn't afford to eat there they kindly gave us a tour of the restaurant. A great way to end another top day in India.
Next morning though it was pouring with rain we decided to visit Fatehpur Sikri, a fortified ghost city 40 klms from Agra. It had been built as a planned capital city of the Mughal empire by Akbar but was only lived in from 1571 to 1585. Due the acute water shortages the city was abandoned just after Akbar's death and today is still amazingly well preserved. To get there we caught a local bus - the trip was very entertaining as only half the bus actually had glass in the windows and it was pouring with rain. Water was sloshing up and down the aisles and our feet probably would have got less wet if we'd
walked! Upon arriving at the town we found it really interesting to wander in - thankfully the rain had stopped. The town was a warren of tiny cobbled streets and we watched a parade to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan. We had seen a similar parade in Agra the day before but couldn't find out what it was for. The mosque of the deserted city which sits above the town has always been used. To enter it you climbed a really high set of steps which were towered over by a massive red sandstone gate, 54 metres high, supposedly the highest in Asia. It was certainly very impressive. The mosque had a very large courtyard with a white marble tomb in the centre. It was beautiful inside - quite small but with a lovely mother of pearl canopy over the tomb. The walls were lattice marble and women come and tie red cords onto the lattice and pray for the birth of sons. Outside were dozens of red sandstone tombs and the courtyard perimeter was lined with covered arcades. There was constant pressure from touts to buy religious tokens or pay money (as a donation) for 'free' guided tours. It
is really annoying when this happens in what is supposed to be a place of worship. They made it so unpleasant we had to leave to escape from them.
Thankfully the pressure wasn't as intense at the main area of the deserted city - in fact once we paid our entrance fee we barely saw anyone. It was great to wander at will around the massive complex - there were dozens of finely carved buildings made from red sandstone and many areas had faded blue Islamic style tiles as wall decoration. My favourite building was the Astrologer's Kiosk, a mess of heavily carved columns and wall niches. It was mid afternoon and each niche had a sleeping man in it. Quite funny - the only people we saw there the whole time were all asleep! A very interesting place.
That night we caught the night train back to New Delhi - the 2 hour premier train which was surprisingly shabby. Agra station wasn't a great place to wait - there were a lot of beggars annoying us. I watched a one legged man literally sprint across half a dozen railway tracks, up and down platforms before he crawled over to
us with his begging bowl. We didn't donate - I think India is making us a little beggar weary. We spent the next two nights at the Ajanta Hotel in New Delhi (it's always good to return to a familiar hotel) before catching a lunchtime flight to Kathmandu.
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