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Saturday, January 11th – New Delhi, return bus trip to Agra
The morning is fresh and I feel well rested. As I roll out of my cot bed to sit up, a rat scurries across the floor and wiggles his fat butt under the door to get outside. I think nothing of it. Rats are so common in India they are like pigeons without wings.
Frank is up and raring to go. He greets me enthusiastically, rubbing his hands to warm them up although it is not that chilly. Today is the day that we are going to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We make a breakfast of cooked porridge and bananas with toast and jam, using the toaster in the tourist camp kitchen. We seem to be the only ones up.
We pack sandwiches for lunch and head towards Connaught Circle to meet our bus which is leaving at 9 am.Our bus is questionable at best. It is dented, scraped and worn and its seats are threadbare. Frank and I exchange looks and shrug. Either we make it to Agra and back or we don't. One takes what one gets here.
The bus is two-thirds full, mostly older tourists. This my first trip on an Indian bus. There are no accommodations made for the foreign clientele. The driver is aggressive, driving rough shod over the speed bumps. Yes, there are speed bumps along the highway, especially where slower speeds are advisable. Driving safely is not common practice. There are also metre-high concrete dividers separating opposite sides of the road whenever there are blind curves to prevent trucks and buses from passing without concern for the on-coming traffic. Double-lines don't seem to work here. The bus's suspension isn't working well either. Not surprising given the constant rough treatment. Today, the adage, "It's the trip, not the destination, that matters," seems inappropriate.
Our first stop is the Red Fort in Agra. We are here for 90 minutes. The passengers are given a yellow slip of paper as we disembark to show the driver when we re-board. Frank and I are relieved to be on solid ground again. We pay our 20 rupee admission and enter the massive and decorative gate that must be 15 to 20 m high. Inside it is massive, with sprawling lawns and palaces. It is more a walled city
than just a fortress. It is impossible to see it all in the allotted time. The fort was a brick structure as early as 1080 AD, but it was added to through the centuries. The Mughals took possession of it in 1540 when it was in a ruined condition, and used more than 1,400,000 workers to rebuild it into its modern state.
It is magnificent. We could wander for days in here if we had the time. Of course we don't, but I like it much better than the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. It would be incredible to live here. From the top of its walls we could see across the sprawling mud flats of the Yamuna River to the Taj Mahal, 2.5 km south east of the Red Fort. The day is perfect and from the walls I believe it cannot get any better.
We find our bus amongst two dozen others in the parking lot, return our yellow slips and climb on board. Our impatient driver is kept to a crawl in Agra's traffic so it is a smoother ride to the Taj Mahal. The parking lot is more crowded than the Red Fort. I cringe at the idea of facing a sea of tourists, especially since the Taj is built on a much smaller site than the Red Fort, but the instant I see the famed mausoleum I am spellbound.
The Taj is considered the pinnacle of Muslim architecture. Anything that gets that much press is a set-up for disappointment, but the Taj breaks that rule. Like the pyramids in Egypt, which I visited seven years ago, the Taj is indescribable. Nothing really prepares you for it. It is elegant beyond description and more beautiful than any structure I have ever seen. My throat is drying out because my jaw is hanging open all the time. The fact that it was a
In spite of borrowing extensively from Persian, Arab and Hindu architectural styles, it feels fresh and original. Its tall, stately form and iconic dome and minarets, made of white marble instead of red stone and inset with hundreds of thousands of semi-precious gems, becomes more overwhelming the closer I come to it.
The attention to detail becomes obvious. There is calligraphy running up the sides of the main pishtaq (entry arch), supposedly poems and prayers. Inside, it is crawling with tour groups. A guide shows up how the agates and other semi-precious stone conduct light by lighting a match at one end and the other end begins to glow.
After half an hour inside, Frank and I walk around the grounds in front the Taj and take pictures of each other in front of the reflection pool that extends a long way and creates an amazing view line. There are gardens and a beautiful mosque on the grounds and we can gaze out over the river at the Red Fort to the north-west. What a beautiful sight!If there is anything else worth seeing in Agra, I am sure it would be dwarfed by the Taj and the Red Fort.
Anyway, there is no more time before catching our bus back to New Delhi. Frank and I go out to dinner to celebrate our wonderful day, and then retire to the tourist camp. This is our last night there. Tomorrow morning we will leave New Delhi to explore Rajasthan, en route to Mumbai.
PHOTO 1: the Red Fort in Agra
PHOTO 2: entrance gate of Red Fort
PHOTO 3: white marble rooms inside
PHOTO 4: view from the top
PHOTO 5: Frank and I at Red Fort looking towards Taj Mahal
PHOTO 6: me in front of the Taj Mahal
PHOTO 7: inscriptions written on exterior wall by entrance
PHOTO 8: inlaid semi-precious stone in the walls
PHOTO 9: screen inside the Taj
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