The Taj

1/17 We arrived in Agra in the morning and were given a nice Agra welcome of "hello money change, hello tuk tuk, hello internet, hello postcard, hello jewelry, hello breakfast, hello room etc. etc" And the touts would follow you for quite some time. And then there were the little kids "hello money, hello pen, hello chocolate, hello gum" hanging on to your arms as you walked. All this put the "one dolla" of cambodia to shame. It was so intense. So intense in fact that we didn't leave our room unless we had to. I would almost rather stay in my room an read then to venture out for food sometimes. Even when you went into a shop to buy water and some snacks, the guy would pester you to buy more! It almost made me want to say, sorry, and walk away, but of course you needed the water and snacks. Agra though has by far been the worst for this and likely this is b/c India's number 1 tourist attraction is there and a lot of the people coming in are rich europeans or americans on 2 week vacations that are easily scammed as they aren't used to the Indian travel life. Nonetheless, it was quite tiring and difficult to deal with. You really just had to walk with your head straight ahead and ignore everyone. But we soon got out of the tourist zone (Taj Ganj) and took a 12 km one way walk past the Agra fort and across a huge train bridge to get to the otherside of the river and then eventually to a park that had really nice views of the Taj. From here we had a beautiful sunset view as the sun fell behind the Taj. At the park, I noticed someone walking along the river with a gate I very much recognized. David Vanneste!! My trekking partner on the Annapurna Circuit! We had plans to meet up in Kashmir, but this was an unexpected surprise. After the sunset, we had hoped to catch a rickshaw back to Taj Ganj, but we couldn't find one. Funny how there are too many of them when you don't want one, but none when you need one. So we ended up walking all the way back. However, we still beat David and his friend who had come on a rickshaw and had it reserved for going back b/c they were unfortunately on one of those commission rickshaw rides where the driver takes you to some random jewelry store, hotel, or other such thing where he gets commission and you get pressured to buy something. The usual thing is when you arrive at a train or bus station and tell them you want to go to x hotel they will say no it is closed or full or double booked or some other thing and then just take you to a hotel where they get commission and thus you have to pay more. So what you should do instead is say you want to go to a landmark near where you want to stay or that you are meeting friends at a certain place and then they can't pull the hotel scam. That night I had a nice dinner with David and his friend from a rooftop restaurant.

1/18 Got up bright and early to be first in line to get into the Taj Mahal grounds. Witnessed a gorgeous sunrise lighting up the Taj. It is truly a spectacularly gorgeous building with its pearl white domes and perfect symmetry. The perfect reflection in the ponds in front of it add to the spectacle. The Taj really reminds me of the palace in Aladdin and the street scenes in the bazaars when Aladdin is a street urchin is quite similar to Agra as well even including monkeys like Abu running around the city. We had the first couple hours in relative peace before the tour bus crowds arrived as well as the train from Delhi. But it was one of those buildings after having walked all around it, that you could just sit and stare at for a while. It was built by a king when his 2nd wife died giving birth to their like 14th child. The king would later be overthrown by his son and imprisoned in Agra fort where he could look out at his masterpiece through a tiny window. After hanging out at the Taj until about noon, Esther, Jovan and I walked to the Agra fort to check it out. It's a huge red fort overlooking the river and the Taj and has some palaces and mosques inside as well. That evening we had Lassies from a rooftop restaurant with nice views of the Taj as the sun set.

1/19 I got up early to watch the sunrise over the Taj from a different vantage point along the river. After Esther an Jovan woke up (they liked to sleep in more so I would often go out myself and see some things until they woke up) we took the bus for an hour to the city of Fatephur Sikri. It had a cool bazaar and a ruined city that we toured around as well as some of Akbar's palaces from the time that this had been the capital for a short time. It also had a huge (2nd biggest in India I believe) outdoor mosque with a gorgeous gate. The ruined city was calm and peaceful which we enjoyed just as much as visiting the palaces and red ruined city.

1/20 Had my last breakfast with Jovan and Esther as they were headed to Delhi. I spent several hours doing internet job stuff, then got my last view of that gorgeous Taj before getting on an afternoon train (2nd class this time) to Amritsar in Punjab.