Once we arrived in Agra, Jen and I said farewell to our kind English friends and went in search of our guides. Once we located them after many, many people tried to show us the way, we were off! They wanted to take us to a place to shower and freshen up, but Jen and I were embracing our dirty state and ready to see the city of Agra!
First stop, the Taj Mahal. Our guide, Ramesh, spent 2 hours walking us around the lovely grounds and into the Taj. It was fascinating to learn about this structure built for the third wife of the emperor who had 14 children and died while giving birth to her last child. She never saw the beautiful building and was entombed there. Such great love this man had for her, sparing no expense on the structure and importing precious gems from all over the world. It was amazing the detail and the great perfection this building was. It took 22 years to complete and about 20,000 workers from Turkey and Persia. He spent over $1 million USD back in the 1600s which is incredibly expensive. His family thought that he had gone mad and his son locked him up for the rest of his life. It is truly such a breathtaking structure, one that I will always remember.
We went to see Agra Fort, a gorgeous place that housed the "mad" king in his prison. We walked around for about 40 minutes with our guide who was FAST and efficient and then he told us that we had only seen about 20% of the fort and the other 80% was inhabited by the Indian army. The history in that structure is amazing and it was interesting to see how the different emperors and rulers added different parts onto it. I loved the different styles of architecture and the beautiful view of the river and Taj Mahal.
After some lunch, we saw the Baby Taj - a smaller version of the Taj Mahal that is a mausoleum for royalty. It is so interesting how different Agra is from even Varanasi, but also from the rest of India. It is true that each city has its own unique feel and personality.
We ended with a trip to the marble factory where we watched these men create beautiful marble pieces by hand with a sanding wheel. It was amazing. The salesman there was trying to sell me a cheese plate with beautiful elephants on it for $200 - I got him down to $150, but then I decided that I didn't have to have it. He was very disappointed and I had to leave quickly before he guilted me into it.
We drove back to New Delhi this evening - about a 4 hour drive. Our driver, Raj, is awesome! I could tell at one point that he just wanted to get there because our speed increased substantially and he began to do more weaving in and out of lanes. I don't understand why they even have lanes here - no one ever uses them and if they need another option, they just use the shoulder as another lane. We passed so many people on the road in teeny little rickshaws just PACKED with people. They normally seat 4 people in those tiny things, but they would have 12! Every car that we passed or truck just was overflowing with people. Such a different way of life. We did pass a sign tonight that read "Lane driving is safe driving" - how true that is!
First stop, the Taj Mahal. Our guide, Ramesh, spent 2 hours walking us around the lovely grounds and into the Taj. It was fascinating to learn about this structure built for the third wife of the emperor who had 14 children and died while giving birth to her last child. She never saw the beautiful building and was entombed there. Such great love this man had for her, sparing no expense on the structure and importing precious gems from all over the world. It was amazing the detail and the great perfection this building was. It took 22 years to complete and about 20,000 workers from Turkey and Persia. He spent over $1 million USD back in the 1600s which is incredibly expensive. His family thought that he had gone mad and his son locked him up for the rest of his life. It is truly such a breathtaking structure, one that I will always remember.
We went to see Agra Fort, a gorgeous place that housed the "mad" king in his prison. We walked around for about 40 minutes with our guide who was FAST and efficient and then he told us that we had only seen about 20% of the fort and the other 80% was inhabited by the Indian army. The history in that structure is amazing and it was interesting to see how the different emperors and rulers added different parts onto it. I loved the different styles of architecture and the beautiful view of the river and Taj Mahal.
After some lunch, we saw the Baby Taj - a smaller version of the Taj Mahal that is a mausoleum for royalty. It is so interesting how different Agra is from even Varanasi, but also from the rest of India. It is true that each city has its own unique feel and personality.
We ended with a trip to the marble factory where we watched these men create beautiful marble pieces by hand with a sanding wheel. It was amazing. The salesman there was trying to sell me a cheese plate with beautiful elephants on it for $200 - I got him down to $150, but then I decided that I didn't have to have it. He was very disappointed and I had to leave quickly before he guilted me into it.
We drove back to New Delhi this evening - about a 4 hour drive. Our driver, Raj, is awesome! I could tell at one point that he just wanted to get there because our speed increased substantially and he began to do more weaving in and out of lanes. I don't understand why they even have lanes here - no one ever uses them and if they need another option, they just use the shoulder as another lane. We passed so many people on the road in teeny little rickshaws just PACKED with people. They normally seat 4 people in those tiny things, but they would have 12! Every car that we passed or truck just was overflowing with people. Such a different way of life. We did pass a sign tonight that read "Lane driving is safe driving" - how true that is!
No comments:
Post a Comment