India: Part 7 – Agra/Taj Mahal. Goodbye India!

P1010378 Today was an early start. We had to meet the driver in the lobby at 4:30am. The drive out to Agra took about four hours. I have learned in our short time in India why New York cab drivers are from India and Pakistan. It’s because these guys can bloody well drive. They turn a two lane road into a four lane road. Because of this, they’re driving inches from each other at full speed. They’re dodging cowsP1010247 , monkeys, camels, pedestrians, motorcycles, and each other. To top it all off, they’re all ignoring the lights, and it works for them. I see accidents on the freeway to work at least once a week, and they’re driving pretty much in a straight line. In India, it’s a symphony of horns to let each other know where they’re at, and a ballet of weaving in an out of each other. The countryside was picturesque, until you realize that the haze is from the oil refineries and the factories. Other than that, it was a great view.

P1010287Speaking of great views, the Taj  Mahal was excellent. It was really interesting to hear the back story behind it. I’m not going to go into too much of the love story, but one item of note is that it’s all symmetrical. So to the left of the Taj Mahal is a mosque that is still in use today, and to the right of the Taj is another mosque that is a mirror image. They call it a dummy mosque because although it is a mosque, it isn’t facing the right way (because it’s a mirror image), P1010275so it cannot be used. When I was looking at the pictures to post for this section, I started with the ones that we’re all used to seeing (the ones on the post card), but we actually went in the Taj Mahal, and I’d thought I’d post the pics that were up close. Trust me, we took the all the angles that you’ve already seen before, so why not show some angles you might not have seen. One of the things that was most impressive to me is that everything is a mirror image on either side all the way down to the floor tiles and trim. P1010282One of the unfortunate things is that they don’t let you take pictures on the inside. As tempted as I was to sneak a picture here and there, I didn’t. Inside, the trim was even more detailed than the outside, with semi-precious stones inlaid with the marble.

P1010327 We also went to the Red Fort which used to be the King’s palace when the Taj Mahal was built. His palace was very huge and very cool. If you can imagine that the Taj Mahal was built for the guy’s dead wife, you can only imagine how big the place he lived was. There was a cool story about how the King’s plan was to P1010290 build a mirror image of the Taj Mahal across the river for his tomb. A His and Hers Taj Mahals. His son said, okay, enough is enough, overthrew him, and locked him in this palace where he lived the rest of his days. The “his” Taj Mahal was going to be identical but black marble instead of white. Overall I can say, and it sounds cliché, the pictures don’t do it justice. I hope that when I post some of the other P1010253pictures, it’ll give a sense for the epic scale of the buildings. All the pictures so far have been from Heather’s point and shoot camera, which has been a pretty damn good camera. We’ve been using it more and more because it’s easier than me pulling mine out the the backpack. And it’s easier getting through security with Heather’s. For instance, Heather took this pic of me from the other side of security when I got stopped with my camera bag. That’s our tour guide in yellow trying to convince the guard to let me through.

LET ME IN! I just want to take pictures, I swear I won’t blow anything up!!!!

I almost forgot to add… Since my back was killing me, and Heather was very ill, we caved in and went to a little pharmacy or “chemist” in Agra. Honestly we were a bit scared when we pulled up to it. The tour guide took us over an explained what we needed. I got some 400 mg Ibuprofen and Heather got some India only cold medicine. They did the trick. Heather says that the cold medicine works way better than anything she’s had so far.

That’s it for India. Heather is way excited for London and we’re not excited for the plane ride. I hope it goes better than the last one!

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 9, 2009 at 1:43 PM

    "...these guys can bloody well drive."

    Bloody? Really? You're going to come back with a phony British accent, aren't you?

    ReplyDelete
  2. EdOctober 9, 2009 at 8:44 PM

    I'm like Madonna that way.

    ReplyDelete

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