Agra

Ok this is the big one - the Taj Mahal! But I have to write in order of the things we did and we didn't see the Taj until day two of our stay in Agra.  Firstly our train was ment to arrive at 9pm, but it arrived at 10:30pm. By the time we got to our hotel and checked in it was 11pm.  Our hotel recommended getting up early and being at the Taj by 5:30am so we decided to postpone our visit until day two as it was already late at night.  

That meant our first visit was to Fatehpur Sikri - nicknamed the ghost city as nobody lives there anymore.  Emperor Akbar built the city on this site but only lived there for four years as it was not close to a water supply!  During those four years it was the capital of the Mughal empire.  After Fatehpur Sikri was abandoned the capital returned to Agra. The victory gate is 54m high and a very impressive sight.  The gate leads through to the mosque.

We then went and saw the Baby Taj (Itimad-ud-Daulah). It is an exquisitly detailed tomb built on the banks of the Yamuna river.  This was the first Mughal structure to be completely made of marble.

Our driver then took us to a work shop where they were creating marble inlay works.  Nath and I were really keen to buy a marble coffee table (well just the top) and spent the next day shopping around to find a good price and a design we liked.  However, sensibility prevailed and we did not buy ourselves a marble table. 

The 5am alarm was not a welcome wake up but it was for a good reason - we were finally going to see the Taj Mahal.  The previous day 80,000 people had visited so we had to get there early to avoid crowds.  It has been a long holiday weekend with Independence Day on Friday and Vishnu's birthday today (Hindu God) so many Indian tourists were in Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  We got to the entrance gate before it was even open so I could of spent an extra 10 minutes in bed! There were only 10 others in line so when the gates opened we were able to take photos with no people in the back ground.  The first sighting of the Taj is breath taking - it is beautiful and much bigger than I imagined.  We took loads of photos and also went inside to see the tomb of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan (who built the Taj as a memorial to Mumtaz and then was buried beside her when he died). After we sat in the grounds watching the sun shining off the precious stones laid into the marble and just taking the whole thing in. For India it was a very peaceful place to be.

We went back to our guest house for some more sleep and breakfast.  We then continued our search for marble goods before checking out our last fort in India.  The Agra Fort is made of sandstone and white marble.  While it probably was impressive we just scooted around it.  Mainly because it was hot, and we couldn't get audio guides and the written information points were fairly minimal. We have seen so many forts that I am quite over them.

 

Our hosts at our guest house cooked us a lovely vegetarian meal of vege biryani and vege kofta with a red sauce.  I loved the biryani so I will be sure to order it at restaunts.  We left Agra that night at 11:30 on a night train to Khajuraho, which was supposed to arrive at 6:30am but didn't get in until 7:30am. India efficiency is a beautiful thing.