Today we left Jaipur. It was a a rainy start with a huge rain storm starting just as we were gathering with our luggage on the portico of the hotel. I have to say it was not looking great for Agra later in the day and I wondered how we would cope with that.
We boarded our bus and headed east moving from Rajasthan (Land of the King) to Uttar Praddesh (northern province) which is where Agra is located. On the way we stopped for a TnT break and had tea and then our guide Avidhesh Ji organised for us to have lunch at his brother’s guest house in Bharatpur.
At the guesthouse we were greeted with flower petals and marigold garlands and made to feel very special. The meal was Thalli - a round platter filled with individual bowls of various contents and chapati. Although….my stomach is still not the best so I opted to stick with boiled rice and yoghurt and just had little bits of other things.
After lunch we proceeded to Agra….it seems much cleaner than many of the other cities - the streets certainly seemed to have been swept as there are no piles of rubbish that can be spotted on the main streets that we drove down. There is still endless traffic, road side stalls selling fresh local produce and the hole in the wall shops continuously.
After checking into our hotel we bused it to Agra Fort. The seat of the Mughal Empire and and UNESCO World Heritage site, it is a large red sandstone fort with lots of walls, two motes and a series of impressive feature to deter invaders such as rolling alleys for pouring hot oil and rolling large stones towards invaders, optical illusions to given invaders a false sense of direction.
This fort had the similar features as the Amber Fort - a public space, and vip space and a private space. At some point (I can’t remember where) it moved from red standstone to white marble and as we moved higher we got glimpses of the Taj Mahal. The white marble was part of the renovation by Shah Jahan - the king who built the Taj Mahal for his third wife.
Later that evening the crew had a dinner at the hotel…unfortunately I have succumbed to Delhi Belly so it was dry biscuits and hydra lites for dinner!
The next morning we rose early to get to the Taj Mahal for sunrise…scheduled at 6.17 am. It really was the perfect time to be there - the weather was cool, the crowds were low (still many people) and we had the chance to stop and look in awe without being pushed forward.
Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his third wife. She was a Muslim and gave him a number of children and she apparently was his favourite. She died due to haemorrhage in childbirth of her 14th child (in 17 years!!!). It took him some time find the perfect place for the monument - he located it on the river bank and as it was in ‘watery’ ground it necessitate hydraulic pylons to reach bed rock to save sinking. Apparently the pylons are made of ebony wood and surrounded by bricks and cement to stabilise. The minarets on lean 2degrees outward as a safeguard so they wont fall onto the main building.
It is absolutely stunning….there is something about the light on the marble that gives it the most serene feeling - photos just dont seem to do it justice. The grave inside is a little bit of a let down perhaps because it is smaller and the crowds and noise don’t induce a respectful feeling. I felt much better outside wandering.
The gardens are green, the water reflects the sky and there are very naughty monkeys that steal things from tourists for food, and also will attack if you are eye contact. I saw one tour guide get attacked and bitten on the back!
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