November 27, 2013 - Family Trip – The Taj

For my entire 10 months in India, I did not visit the Taj Mahal. I was waiting for my family to arrive before finally seeing the most famous landmark in the country. Worth the wait!

The highway from Delhi to Agra is the most American-looking highway I’ve seen in India. It’s divided, wide, relatively empty, in good shape, and has fast – and more to the point, attainable – speed limits. Not a half-dirt pothole-filled road which you share with livestock and overloaded trucks and try to pass vehicles quickly before oncoming traffic blocks you.

Though on a sadder note, I also saw evidence of the worst accident I’d ever seen in India on this highway. The speeds might just be too high for the local style of driving…

Agra

We arrived during evening rush hour. Agra was more run down than I expected. And bigger. Then again, small cities in India still tend to have millions of people in them. (Agra has 1.2 million.)

We stayed at the fancy-sounding Grand Imperial Hotel in Agra. It was nice enough. Giant, old-fashioned tall wooden double doors (with a giant padlock on them) and a purposely rustic feel. Clean enough though not quite up to American standards. They wanted to see our passports, as many hotels do of foreign guests. Glad I happened to bring mine, I guess.

We then checked out the dinner buffet and I’m relieved someone confirmed that we needed to order the garlic naan special or they wouldn’t have brought it. Garlic naan, yum. Getting my family hooked.

The Light and Sound Show at Agra Fort

We then attempted to see the “Light and Sound Show” at the Agra Fort that I’d heard about. Our driver took us to the wrong place at first (some kind of theatre), but we eventually arrived at the entrance to the fort… except we were late! Apparently, they had different starting times in summer vs. winter for the English version. We decided to go in anyway and check it out, even if we missed the first ten to fifteen minutes.

Yeah. Turned out we needn’t have worried. This was silly. A Light and Sound Show, especially at forts, is apparently a very common thing in India and this was not the last Light and Sound Show I went to. On the whole, I find them “mildly entertaining” at best and “a chance for mosquitoes to eat you while you try not to snooze from boredom” at worst. I mean…. there is “light”. In that they lit up various parts of the fort at different times. And sometimes in different colors. Woo. And there is “sound”. If by sound you mean a narrator, voices, and sound effects over a speaker. And I guess it could be called a “show” except that there are no live actors, just a recorded telling of the story of the fort.

On the whole, not worth going out of your way for. It worked better as a punchline. “And then we were worried we missed the beginning of the light and sound show, ha!” I sometimes spaced out during the telling of the story, especially if they were talking about dates or royal family trees, though parts of it were somewhat interesting like when they talked about how the king handled an individual case of justice. Just not really worth the price or time (or exposure to mosquitoes, though there were not too many in November.)

The Taj!

Our driver and guide were ready and waiting when we came down at 6am. The drive was probably less than fifteen minutes. Apparently there are multiple entrances and we were dropped off at a less-crowded one (?) Our driver parked and we hiked up the pedestrian road to the entrance. Our guide bought us tickets that came with a baggie containing, among other things, mesh booties while we headed directly toward the line. The Taj Mahal opens at sunrise which is at about 6:45am this time of year, so we were early. And we got a great place in line! They had at leas four separate lines: one for local women, foreign women, local men, and foreign men, but less than five people in any one.

The line grew much longer before they opened the giant doors, though.

Finally, they opened the place. We went through security and started walking in. At this point, the Taj was not even visible yet, but we kept strolling down the wide sidewalk in the complex of buildings. We could see people approaching from other directions, though it was not too crowded.

Finally, we turned right, went through a red arch, and the Taj appeared.

That was pretty awesome.

I took a video of that first view. After I finished, I noticed a sign that said “No video after this point.” All right, then, glad I got one in. And in case there was any doubt, yes, indeed, the marble building is surreal and incredible looking, especially in the barely-light of dawn.

The Taj at last!

One reason it is awesome to have a guide? Because he took us the right way at the following sign. Whereas the “high value” ticket holders, in other words pretty much all foreign folk, would head over to the left side, it was the right side that had the best sunrise views. (Someone even questioned him, ostensibly asking where he was taking those clearly western folk, but he explained and on we went.)

The sun, although risen, was not yet shining on the Taj.

We spent a lot of time in the left square taking multitudes of photos, getting some background information from our guide, and watching the rays of the sun gradually start to hit the marble, creating shadows and changing colors.

And then…

…there were the monkeys

All these monkeys came out of nowhere. But it was not long before they were completely gone, like it never happened. I might have thought I imagined the whole incident.

Except for one more, hopping along the railing that overlooked the river.

Wait, river?

And, as far as I know, you can both take a boat trip on that river for more Taj views or even check out the Taj from the park across the river.

After the sun was full up and we’d taken the requisite selfies, we headed toward the main building and donned our booties.

Then we went inside! Did you know you could go inside the Taj Mahal? Indeed you can. The place the public can walk is not very large, but the details and marblework on the inside were just as detailed as the outside.

After that, we went back out and took a slow loop around the symmetrical building, taking in the details.

Finally, after some morning hours well-spent, we eventually had to leave. We turned back often for one last glimpse. Then another final look. And another.

On our way back to the car, we walked along the same pedestrian street as before. Only this time it was filled with kids selling Taj Mahal keychains, snowglobes (?), and other souvenirs. And a camel or two. We mostly ignored the hawkers.

(…and if you think I posted a lot of Taj Mahal photos here. You should see how many I didn’t post!)

Agra Fort

We returned to the Fort to check it out for real, without the extras of “light” and “sound”. On the whole, Agra Fort is more elaborate than Delhi’s Red Fort, though not quite as exquisite as Jaipur’s Amber Fort, which is on the itinerary for tomorrow.

The weather was nice as we wandered around the fort, getting the occasional spiel from our guide.

Agra Fort also afforded a pleasant overlook of the countryside.

One of the best things I saw at the fort, though, was this sign at the entrance…

Although there are a couple more jokes that can be made here (the fun of Hinglish), the sign made me curious enough to google “paan” since I assumed “paan masala” had to be something edible. Not quite. It is more along the lines of chewing tobacco, and explains a lot of the random red drippy stains I’ve seen on sidewalks in India. (This, though, is a much preferable explanation than blood stains, which was my other guess.)

We were interested in getting a T-shirt before we left. They were oddly hard to find. We mentioned this to the guide who said he knew a place but somehow, he ended up taking us to a marble shop instead.

Usually, my patience for guides stopping at “tourist shops” is very limited. But the staff at the marble shop impressed me with their pleasant attitudes, quality craftsmanship that was reminiscent of the decoration on the Taj and, like the few other times I’ve actually purchased something, a very distinct LACK of pressure to buy.

So, naturally, we bought.

We did eventually get a T-shirt-like item in a small shop in the vicinity of the marble place that seemed just as interested in selling Indian style clothes to the two ladies in the group, taking things off shelves and putting it on the counter with amazing speed before we had a chance to turn away.

Fatehpur Sikri

Our guide left us afterward, wished us well, and told us that another guide he knew would do Fatehpur Sikri, one of the major sight-seeing destinations, for us. We checked out of the hotel and hopped in the car.

The highways heading toward Jaipur were decent, but nothing like that one from Delhi. We cruised on some back roads for a while until we finally came to a small town and climbed up the hill to the famous 1500s-era palace and mosque called Fatehpur Sikri. Our new guide met us right at the car, startling us a bit until he identified himself.

At first, we really liked our guide as he walked us around the various buildings in the complex, explaining their function, often in an entertaining way. A whole section of the palace was just for women, whether individual buildings for the wives or a larger building for the harem. But some of the buildings just served as living, dining, or meeting areas. The whole place was on top of a hill so offered a nice view of the surrounding area.

A pretty red flower kept distracting me.

Around sunset, the guide took us across the way to the mosque…

… which is where he became more annoying. He had earlier talked about some donation you can make to buy a length of cloth to lay on a shrine (or something) and I thought it was more in the nature of a story. But then the story came back. We were brought to stand in front of some dude who wanted us to make a donation for a dress for the women in the town or the poor women (or something). I’m a sucker, so I was ready to lay down 200-300 rupees for the cause. Then he asked for over 1,000.

Then I lost interest. All I could think was that our original guide must have told this guide just how much us foreign folk spent at the marble place in Agra. And so he went way big. But in doing so, failed.

It was a big mosque. Deserving of the name Jama Masjid, like the one in Delhi. It also boasted a great view of town. In front of one entrance were a few people who had wares laid out on blankets. It felt like we were the only western tourists.

In the end, this guide only got the amount the other guide told us to pay him for his services. I had actually earlier explained to him why what he was doing was annoying. He seemed to understand… but then overcharged us for the auto, then tried to take us to ANOTHER tourist shop on the way back to the taxi. Yeah, no.

The rest of our drive – with our wonderful driver – was under cover of darkness. We arrived in the hard-to-find but awesomely decorated “Nahargarh Haveli” (Heritage Hotel) in Jaipur, tired and hungry. Amazingly, they served us a delicious dinner despite the late hour, then we walked up to our rooms.