Days 4: Agra! (of the Dehli, Agra, Jaipur Trip)

Well, I’m/we’re way behind on posts! Parag nicely has filled in some less time-anchored posts, which is nice. I think I left off at Day 3 of our Delhi-Agra-Jaipur trip, so here’s a post on Day 4, which was our time in Agra (

Maybe a map would help… . These three cities are known as the “Golden Triangle” – I think because a lot of tourist travel that route. Pune, where we are, is south of the triangle in Maharastra. You can see Mumbai on the map. We’re about 3 hours south and to the east.

Agra

Agra is home of the Taj Mahal. We got there in the later afternoon, having gone by train from Delhi to Agra, and were met by our Agra guide at the station. From our hotel, there was a distant view of the Taj Mahal from the roof, which also had a restaurant and pool, so that’s where we had a nice dinner and quick swim (for Cadi and me).

The next morning, the goal was sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Yes, it was a bit early!

Nicely Kate and Mel (our awesome traveling friends from the train the day before) joined us for that. We left the hotel at about 5:30 and walked down to the ticket area. We’d goofed on the food thing, so that required buying the girls Oreos at a snack shop (which was open!) at 5:45.

After that, for the next couple hours, we enjoyed the Taj, its gardens and water features, as well as the mosque that is just next to the Taj Mahal.

I’ll lead with one of the first pictures Cadi took on the way in – I was pretty sure this was the monkeys commuting to work.

The pictures will of course not do the sights justice, but it is also true that my prose will be even worse at capturing the moments, so I’ll mostly let the pictures speak for themselves (thanks to Cadi for these great pics!)

This is passages of the Quran written in jasper INLAYED into marble

The girls also had fun with some “artistic” shots.

In a random, but interesting tidbit, Parag asked our tour guide what was something he’d learned more recently about the Taj Mahal that was surprising to him. The guide replied that the British had actually sold the Taj Mahal to a British entrepreneur, who wanted to use it for marble! It turns out, it was a challenge to get/use the marble, so thankfully the Taj Mahal was not taken apart! The audacity of it all! Quite remarkable, even for the times….

After that, it was back to the hotel for a great breakfast, check out, and then back with our guide for a tour of Agra Fort.

Before Agra Fort though, we did a quick stop at a cottage industry place where we learned about the artisanship behind making all the beautiful designs on the Taj Mahal. They figure out their design — shaping tiny pieces of semi-precious stone like onyx, agate, jade, and then also coral – and then carve into the marble. They lay in the design, and go through many steps of smoothing it.

They do this of course in this public way for tourists.

I found this webpost that seems to explain a lot of it, and has great pictures, so if you’re interested, you can check this out. https://www.core77.com/posts/25995/Ancient-Crafts-The-Stone-Inlays-of-the-Taj-Mahal

Agra Fort was really interesting. It was where the Mughals set up their capital when they were ruling the area. That is, until 1638, when they moved the capital to Dehli.

We got to learn about some of the ruling kings, and experience being inside essentially a walled city. Again, I’ll let the place speak for itself. The level of detail in creating the structure is amazing.

It was getting a little hot by then… And it was Dussehra, which is a Hindu holiday, particularly in that region, and maybe even a little more north and east. That meant the Fort was extra crowded. Dussehra is similar to the Ganapati festival that we experienced when we first arrived (see early posts!), but in celebration of good over evil.

After, we headed, by car, to Jaipur. On the way, we saw several groups of people with their Dussehra processions. We also saw an amazing sunset.