Trip Report Part 2 - The Main Event!

On Saturday we woke up bright and early, packed into a mini-van with our driver, and hit the road at 7:00 AM. The drive to Agra was around 4-5 hours, but it went surprisingly quickly. It was nice to get a chance to see more of the "real India" - life outside the cities and urban centers. Along the way we passed through smaller cities, town and rural areas. We saw women walking down the road carrying huge loads on their heads, children playing pick-up cricket, people working in fields, and all manner of roadside stands and stalls.


Crazy Trucks Carrying Grain - We saw a lot of these on the road

Once we arrived in Agra, we picked up our tour guide and headed to the Baby Taj, whose actual name I have no hope of remembering, let alone spelling correctly. The architecture and detailing on the building were both really cool, and it was very uncrowded which was nice and a stark contrast to the other sites we visited in Agra.


"Team Taj"


You're not allowed to wear shoes inside, so we were given these lovely shoe covers - stylish!

After leaving the Baby Taj, we proceeded to the Agra Fort. This was actually a fort/palace. Part of the fort is still occupied by the Indian army, so only part of it is accessible to the public. Even still, it was quite large. We learned a lot of history about the various rulers who occupied the fort, but I won't go into that here. Instead, I'll share pics:


The outside of the fort


This is where the king held his council

After we finished up at the fort we were very hot and very hungry. Temperatures in Agra were right around 100 degrees this weekend, so it was definitely much hotter than I'm used to! After lunch we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before hitting up the Taj Mahal. I now understand why people who live in hot climates take siestas - the heat wears you out!

We headed out for the Taj Mahal around 5PM. We actually walked from our hotel to the entrance, because you're not allowed to have any gas-powered vehicles within a certain radius of the monument, and walking was just as easy as taking one of the little electric vehicles that can shuttle you to and from. When we reached the entrance we groaned upon seeing an enormously long line. Apparently however, since foreigners have to pay a much higher ticket price, we get to use a separate line. It felt awkward marching past all of the people in line, but it was admittedly nice not to have to wait, and I think I made up for it by being the subject of many, many unsolicited pictures. After passing security, and watching the security guard yank a bag of snacks right out of a woman's shirt and mercilessly chuck them aside (literally), we were on our way.

Those who constructed the Taj Mahal did a good job of playing up the anticipation. When you enter the grounds, you come in from the side. The monument itself is surrounded by pretty tall walls, so you can't actually see anything right away. It's not until you walk through the giant entrance gate that you catch a glimpse of the Taj Mahal itself. It's pretty magnificent. Even though you're seen plenty of pictures of it, seeing it in person is still incredibly impressive and awe inspiring. What doesn't come through in the pictures is the intricacy of the detail all over the monument. After a history lesson and a thorough photo shoot, we proceeded to explore the monument itself.


I'm really here!


Apparently this is the picture to take - I was unaware, but figured I had to have one nonetheless

To get up to the monument, you have to stand in another long line, and this time there's no shortcut for foreigners. We got in line and joined the patient progression towards the stairs, when all of the sudden chaos broke loose. For no apparent reason, people just started running towards the stairs. We didn't run, but as we worked our way towards the stairs the crowd started shoving more and more. It was like WalMart on Black Friday - I was worried someone was going to get trampled. After getting way too close for comfort, we finally made it up the stairs and had a look around. There's actually not much in the Taj Mahal itself - it really is just a tomb. It was a bit creepy though, because they don't light the inside, and by the time we got there it was quite dark inside all that marble. As we filed through the building, it felt like we were in some sort of poorly done haunted house. Eerie nonetheless.

Our timing worked out well, because we were able to catch the sunset and get some great pictures:





After returning to our hotel, we ate a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant, watched a bit of a Bollywood movie on TV (all in Hindi, but mostly elaborate song and dance numbers anyway), then turned in for the night.