India - Agra

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DAY 22 30th January 2011
We had a thought that we may get up early and go to the sunrise at the Taj Mahal but were glad that we didn’t as it was a very hazy sun this morning. Got to the Taj about 09.00 and entered at the East Gate (which is exactly the same as the West gate!) Here our guide told us all about the history and how the Mugal Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in memory of his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal who died in 1631, at the age of 29, giving birth to her 14th child.
From here, we passed through a huge gate before the Taj Mahal came into view. From a distance it still appears quite small but as you walk the length of the water gardens it seems to get larger. We queued up to get our photo taken on ‘the’ bench and marvelled at the symmetry of the whole complex. We didn’t have to take our shoes off to enter but instead everyone was given red shoe covers – we thought perhaps it was so that the tourists kept the marbled floor polished!! The front of the mausoleum is decorated with verses from the Koran and intricately carved floral designs inlaid with precious stones to give it a look of a jewelled casket. Our guide pointed out a group of Afganistan tourists in their long gowns - although we are not far from Afghanistan we didnt really expect to see any tourists!! Once inside, you are not allowed to take photographs but can walk around the Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jabans cenotaph. The actual graves are located in a dark crypt below and not open to the public.
We wandered around outside and our guide showed us that across the other side of the river was the foundations for a replica of the Taj Mahal that Shah Jabans wanted to build in black marble, complete with the same symmetrical gardens and buildings with a bridge across the river linking the two – only his son had him arrested for spending too much money and imprisoned him in Agra Fort – which leads me nicely to our next stop!!
An impressive Amar Singh Gate (tall enough so that elephants could enter!) to the south leads into the fort and you then walk up a slope with high walls either side where oil was poured onto attackers or rocks and oil rolled down the slope to make it slippery!! The Fort itself is huge with gardens and huge squares, Kings seats, Jacuzzi, concubines rooms, open air palaces.....all very magnificent. We saw the part where Shah Jabans was imprisoned for the last years of his life and also the grass area where elephants would fight! As the Fort is still occupied and used by the Indian Army we were unable to go to the mosque and other areas but I think we saw the best part of it!
On to lunch at a restaurant where our guide joined us and then we visited a Marble Co-operative (makes a change from textile co-operatives!!) where we were shown how the precious and semi precious stones are cut, shaped and inlaid into the marble. Very interesting and very expensive goods although they were extremely beautiful. Awtarsing had already said he would take us over to the East Bank to view the Taj Mahal at sunset, so we had about an hour at our hotel to relax ( I caught up on blog as internet now appears to be working!!) before we went out again. Awtarsing dropped us off and we walked down the lane to the river bank, where we were hoping we could walk along the dried river bed to maybe get some good photos of the women doing their washing or the masses of water buffalo that roam about. However, there were a few soldiers there and basically you had an area of about 30 metres that we were allowed to stand in to watch the sun on the Taj Mahal, and there was razor wire to stop you going onto the river bank!!
Anyway, we passed a pleasant hour or so there, chatting to a couple who came from Austria, who are doing parts of our trip in reverse. The sun was till very hazy and although I took photos every 15mins there didn’t seem to be much change in colour! I think you need the sun to be much stronger to get a better effect. However, we were also entertained by a camel and a couple of children who were after anything we could give them, a few street sellers ( Na he chy he-ay !!) and a string of peasants leading their goats home.
Back to the car and went for a drink with our driver and to thank him for his excellent service over the last 13 days. We were really unsure how much to tip him as we haven’t really sussed who expects what, but worked on 300 rupees a day and then 300 for each extra place he took us. We are just hoping that he is reasonably happy with this!!
Ate at the rooftop restaurant tonight and had a lovely vegetable sizzler with a baked potato, early night to follow as we are leaving hotel at 07.30am tomorrow for train to Jhansi at 08.17am

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Comments

[Laura Holbrook]

Beautiful pictures, mum! The Taj Mahal looks stunning.

[sachin]

Agra
nice written on TAJMAHAL...........