Agra - City of the Taj

The view from our hotel!

We caught our first Indian train in the afternoon, reaching Agra from Delhi in about 4 hours. We hopped in a prepaid taxi to our hotel, where we promptly crashed out in our room. Apparently the booking website had told us that the hotel had air-conditioning, however, our room did not. Later the management explained to us that the site stated that the hotel had A/C, but not in every room. So we argued our way into an A/C room and felt much better after that. Tech them to mislead us, ha!

Our hotel was pretty cool though. We were very close to the Taj Mahal. In fact, the hotel had a rooftop restaurant, where you could eat while looking at the Taj over the treetops. Our first night we ran up there and drank a beer while watching the Taj and the sunset.

We spent our time in Agra relaxing and watching some TV. We walked around the streets a bit, spent some time on the internet booking future travel plans, purchased some needed supplies, and took a few pictures of the locals. We couldn’t help but notice that our hotel was just down the street from the Leprosy Research Center, although we didn’t see any lepers around.

Our second day, we hired a boy named “Lucky” to pedal us around all day on his bicycle-rickshaw. Apparently, we were his first customer in 3 days, so he was REALLY happy to have us. We first went to the Taj, which is an absolutely beautiful building and surrounding complex. The translucent marble building is exactly symmetrical, and is covered in inlaid stone, to make beautiful patterns. Artisans were brought in from all over, as far as Europe, to work on it. The Taj was also absolutely crowded with local tourists, who couldn’t seem to stop staring at us. A few even followed us around a bit and other took pictures or videos of us. This occurred in Delhi as well, although at a smaller scale. Apparently, and this was explained to us later, a lot of the local tourists are from small towns in India, and many have never seen Caucasians before. Even though it was just curiosity, it did hamper our visit a bit.

Our next stop was the Agra Fort, which is a massive red sandstone complex of huge walls and awesome palaces. It was really neat to see, because it has a rich history, including many battles and the site of the 1857 mutiny against the British. It was very similar to the castles and palaces in Europe, but much more colorful.

Lucky’s cousin offered to help him ride us around on a second bicycle-rickshaw for no extra charge, which was nice of him, but then he tried to take us to a carpet place and get us to buy textiles. They get a kickback for bringing in customers, especially if they buy something. So we left him there and hopped back on with Lucky, back to our hotel.

That night, we headed for Jaipur. On the way out of town, our taxi passed a couple of elephants walking down the road. That is always a bit unexpected….

Some more crazy things we have seen:

Cows on the train platform and tracks

People jumping on train as it approached station and hanging onto bars of doors and windows.

People taking pictures and videos of us

People sleeping on train tracks

Namaste!

Its good to be welcomed! This is our hotel.

An Indian shared taxi.

Our hotel was down the street from the Leprosy Center. I didn't see any lepers around though...

Laura at one of the gateways to the Taj.

There it is!

Eric and the Taj.

Laura and the Taj.

Eric and another view of the Taj. It really is a magnificent building.

People sitting on the floor of the Taj Mahal.

No pictures allow inside the Taj...without a small fee of course.

Laura inside the Taj. The colored patterns above her head are inlaid stone. The patterns on the wall behind her are actually carved into the marble. It is really breathtaking.

Eric in front of some carvings and inlaid stone work.

Eric in front of a minaret.

One of the sides of the Taj, which is perfectly symmetrical on four sides. Not to shabby!

Eric with a mosque, at the Taj Mahal.

Eric and Laura at the Taj. Strangers always cut off the top of the dome!

Eric with another building in the complex.

Laura at the Taj.

Laura at the Agra Fort, on the drawbridge of the Crocodile gate.

Eric at the Agra Fort, in front of the Crocodile gate.

Eric in front of the Shah Jahan Palace.

Eric in the Shah Jahan Palace in the Agra Fort, with our tour guide. The guy was 87 years old, could speak great English, and moved around so much faster than us. We were impressed.

Eric in front of one of the towers of the Agra Fort.

Laura in the Agra Fort, by the queens' palaces.

Laura and Ghandi.

Laura and Lucky in the bicycle rickshaw.

Water Buffalos on the street.

Elephants on the street. Pass on the left!