Day 49 – Taj Mahal

Oct 16th

Taj at Sunrise
Once we got up at 5AM, we took off for the Taj Mahal to catch the sunrise. Once again, the streets sellers, who accumulated at every major tourist attraction, mobbed us with calls of “5 for 500 rupes!” and “Hello, Mum!” I was impressed with their resilience and persistence. At points they would go down from 500 rupes for one key chain to 100 rupes for 12! Unfortunately, the best strategy to get them to go away was to ignore them completely and avoid eye contact. Once we stepped into the court yard, the imfamous, white marble Taj rose before us. Built between 1631 and 1653, the Taj represents eternal love, frozen in its white marble and intricate, colorful stone carvings. It was constructed by the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in memory of his beautiful wife, Mumtaz Muhal, who died after the birth of their 14th child.
It took twenty-two years after the first stone was laid to reveal the building. Afterwards, the emperor blinded the architect and cut off the hands of the 20,000 living workers, so another building could never be built. The building was very impressive, especially the marble carvings that covered the inside.

Agra Tour
During the drive back to the hotel, we enjoyed our first real look at Agra. As a “rural” community of three million, poverty and living standards were much worse than Delhi. The streets were dirt and trash strewn. At various points, women filled colorful jugs from community water pumps. The water spigots were metered and only ran for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Unregistered electrical lines tangled in balls on building corners. Women collected and formed cow-dung patties with their hands to dry and use for fires and cremations. Men stood in village centers waiting to find work as masons and painters for the upcoming Festival of Lights or Duwali when many Indians repair or white wash their homes. Traveling through Agra is a safari, since the streets are randomly dotted with cows, monkeys, bulls, pigs, camels, horses, mules, dogs and even elephants advertising home loans walking down the street. An eager crowd formed around a new tractor digging in the road, as they were getting their first look at that type of technology.

Fatehpur Sikri
We traveled 25 miles west of Agra to Fatehpur Sikri, a fortified, sandstone ghost city that was the short-lived capital of Mughal empire between 1571-1585 under Emperor Akbar. The only inhabitants were tiny, green frogs that lived in the murky pounds and channels that filled the courtyard. Legend has it that Emperor Akbar was childless at the time (despite 353 wives!) and met with the Sufi Saint, who prophesied that Akbar would soon have a son and heir. And what would any normal person do when they heard they were having a baby? They build a bigger house! So, Emperor Akbar built Fatehpur Sikri, but after his death a severe drought left the area deserted. The most exciting part of the tour was learning that when King Akbar dropped a white handkerchief, his favorite elephant would crush the lawless peasant placed before it.

U.P. Handicraft Palace
Following a quick lunch back at Holiday Inn, we visited the U.P. Handicraft Palace to have a tutorial on how the Taj Mahl’s white marble carvings are made. We observed the decedents of the Taj’s artisans carve and form stones to fit into mosaics, making tables, figurines and jewelry boxes. Indian white marble is one of the hardest stones in the world, seeing as the Taj resisted extreme heat and sandstorms for 350 years. Semi-precious stones in green, blue, orange and white covered each of the pieces, and are fixed with a secret glue formula that was originally used on the Taj itself. That stuff would make gluing quarters to the floor a whole lot more fun! Unfortunately, its impossible to find for sale.

Agra Fort
Built in 1565 by the Mughal Emperor Akbar, Agra Fort is a medley of Islamic and Hindu styles of architecture. The fort took 95 years to complete, and consists four miles of sandstone and marble government and military buildings, along with the king’s living quarters. The fort houses Moti Masjid, the “Pearl Mosque” a perfectly proportioned white marble mosque built by Akbar’s grandson, Emperor Shahjahan. While taking pictures on Akbar’s 8-foot high bed, Marissa, Nichole and I were approached by Muslim men telling us our group was at the mosque… and once we got there they tried to get us inside. About ten mins later we realized the men were just trying to convert us and our group was no ware in sight.

Taj at sunset.
As the sun started to go down, we returned to the Taj for some more pictures and exploration of the area. Marissa, Cory and I spent the entire hour thinking up creative ways to take pictures with the Taj in the background. We “picked” it up, jumped “over” it and even “hugged” it. I think we attracted a lot of attention with our shenanigans because a few men asked to take a picture with me. (Or maybe because I’m blonde with dimples.) On the way back to the bus, we decided to pretend we were from different countries to test the street sellers aptitude for foreigners. It turned out that the 3-yr old girl who was following me actually knew enough English, Spanish and Italian to carry on a conversation about money exchange! (Although all she kept saying a Spanish phrase about Pepsi-Cola.)

Nighttime Bazaar
Before heading to the train station, we stopped at a nighttime bazaar for late night shopping. They had a fabulous spread of pashminas shawls, silk bed covers, various teas, wooden Shivas, incense, kasmir rugs and colorful saris. While standing outside, we were swarmed by street sellers offering necklaces, bangles, post cards and bags for sale. Marissa and I decided to see what would happen if we just stood in the middle. The result: a seller moshpit. We eventually retreated to the bus for the ride to the station.

Train and Hotel
After snagging some pistachio biscuits and mooghal dal (fried lentils) from a train station stall, we boarded the “express” train to return to Delhi. Fortunately the train was much nicer than the last with real air conditioning, no “friends” (cockroaches) and clean western bathrooms. They served dinner onboard as well, including roti (bread), palack mushroom (cheese spinah stew), dal sahara (lentil stew), mixed pickle chutney, janeer rice and yogurt. Just in case, I made sure to pop two extra pepto before this one, seeing as the aluminum covering was crusty when it arrived. Once we got to the Delhi station, we took a motorcoach to the InterContinental, while Marissa introduced me to the scary world of techno.

InterContinental
The InterContinental was the most luxurious, wonderful hotel we stayed in. There were complementary newspapers and magazines in the room, a giant fluffy bed and a HUGE flat-screen TV. The hotel even had services for consulting an astrologer, if you so desired. My roomie Valerie and I finally got to connect with the real world via BBC. There was also a happening dance club in the lobby, buts I was exhausted from all the traveling and quickly passed our in my cocoon-like bed. (Hotels are really the only option for going out in India, since clubs and bars are not very popular.)

Highs and Lows
My “high” was finding out I’m the height of a camel’s leg. My “low” was not getting my hands on that Taj superglue.