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Agra and the Taj Mahal
- del.ico.us
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- Last edited: 10:24, Aug 12 2008
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Onto Agra and the Taj Mahal - the most impressive building I have yet seen.
In the morning Sean flew back to London, and Olly, Whetu and I made our way to the train station to travel to Agra and see the Taj Mahal. Our train tickets only cost R315 all up, where I had paid R500 to get to Jaipur, so their was some anxious anticipation of the quality of our seats. Whilst the seats themselves weren’t too bad, just long padded bench seats, the family that were in ours explained the price. Grandma, mum, a sixteen year old boy and three children under the age of ten were sat in our seats. A Danish couple also turned up who were sitting in the bay with us which fully confirmed that we weren’t confused. The family refused to move, and whilst feigning no knowledge of English we were either greeted with smiles, or points to go sit some where else. After five minutes of going nowhere trying to ask them to move and five minutes running around on the platform looking for a conductor, I got back on the train and started to overbear on the sixteen year old kid. At first I just stared trying to make him feel uncomfortable, which he did, but they still didn’t move. I grabbed his head by the hear and pushed his head into the back of the wall, at which he tried to grab my throat. Olly jumped up to my side ready to lay in, at which point dad finally showed his face yelling ‘what’s going on here’. Threatening glares at dad convinced him to move his family which he did promptly. The conductor didn’t show up for another half an hour after the train had left the station.
We eventually arrived in Agra, six hours later on what should have been a two hour ride. It was a welcome change from the chaos of Delhi, yet still Indian chaos. We found a hotel near to the Taj Mahal, settled in and the paid an auto-rickshaw driver to take us to north of the river where we could watch the sunset over the Taj Mahal from the bank on the other side. Quite an ingenious con was arranged here, locals had set up a field nearby where a sign said R100 for foreigners and R10 for locals to view the Taj Mahal, yet if we walked down the road in front of their gate we came to the same spot in the river from which to get a view. A few hapless tourists were to be seen running around in the ’special’ area – suckers.
The Taj Mahal is easily the most impressive building I have seen up until now. The sheer scale of such an ornate monument is awesome, and that it is just a tomb adds mystique to the whole structure. As we stood admiring in the failing sunlight local children kept mobbing us asking for their pictures to be taken, and then wanting to see themselves on the digital camera screen. In the distance up the river was what looked like the horror at the end of Apocalypse Now, smoke from many fires drifting across the jungle and stone steps which led down to the waterside.
That evening we went for dinner with the Danish couple who we met on the train, at a restauran atop a local hotel. Dinner was unremarkable but the beer was fantastic, served in teapots with teacups, presumably to get around any licensing laws. When I proceeded to drink directly from the spout the waiters came and told me off.
We woke up early the following morning to see the Taj Mahal up close at day break. It was the birthday of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife, and from 2pm that day entry was free, otherwise the fee was R700. We decided to go in the morning anyhow as the crowds were going to be a lot less (which they were). Looking across to the building from our roof top hotel at dawn a war was breaking out across the city between armies of monkeys and packs of dogs. Barking and squealing peeled off in the still morning as each animal tried to gain the upper hand, dogs trying to eat monkeys, monkeys doing monkey things.
The Taj Mahal itself was even more impressive viewed up close than from afar. It apparently took trillions of dollars to construct in today’s currency, and all for the love of the Mughal emperor’s wife. When it was completed Shah Jahan was usurped and imprisoned in the Agra fort by his son. He at least still had a window view of his wife’s grave from his prison.
We also visited the Agra fort, which while not as impressive as the Amber fort in Jaipur was nonetheless quite amazing. By this stage of the trip I had become quite good at fending off the insurgents and on the bridge walking up to the entrance of the fort I walked with purpose fending of granite elephant, postcard and whip(!) sellers, con artists, ‘tourist guides’ and beggars with the palms of my hand. Jonah Lomu eat your heart out.
After ticking the Taj Mahal and Agra fort boxes we proceeded to spend the remainder of the day before heading to the train station hanging out in Pizza Hutt, about all Whetu and my stomaches could tolerate in the way of food at this stage. Whetu and Olly then headed by train to Jaipur whilst I waited another hour or so to catch my eighty two rupee train back to Delhi.
