Agra

The second tour we went on was to go see the Taj Mahal in Agra. This time we got up early and joined a group of four foreigners on a minibus. The government has pumped money into the road from Delhi to Agra because of all of the tourism, and our van fell in line with hordes of trucks, buses and cars all headed in the same direction. The interstate roads are awesome in India. We passed through some villages where the people hanging out on the main road slowed us down some, but mostly the trip was a few hours of fields, gas stations and solitary houses on the side of the road. I couldn’t see any speed limit signs, but the traffic regulated the speed. The trucks all asked us to “blow horn”, “wait for signal” and “use dipper at night” in brightly-painted signs that covered their back end. So it wasn’t a quiet trip, and we didn’t stay in a single lane for more than two minutes. Like in Delhi, we stopped at sanctioned restaurant/hotel spots that seemed to be waiting for only us, and we were promised top-notch shopping as part of the day’s program.

We got to Agra after a few hours. We met up with our guide – a dynamic local man who spoke loudly and wanted to know all of our names. He repeated facts and dates a few times each time he explained something, and he ordered us to take pictures whether we wanted to or not. We left our minibus far away from the site and were ushered quickly onto a battery-powered bus… I was pretty impressed. Then the guide told us that Agra was a city based completely on tourism. There were no factories or production plants because of pollution control. There weren’t even a lot of cars in the city proper. So the lesson is: India cares about the environment when it means that it will bring in lots of foreign money. The town was crawling with hawkers (who we were once again warned against) and foreigners. We made it to the building. Kavi tried to pass off as a resident Indian, but they recognized her western clothes, accented Hindi and foreign entourage… so when they asked for Indian ID, she stammered for a minute and finally paid the charge that was more than ten times what an Indian resident has to pay.

But the $25 in admission fees for the day was worth it. The Taj Mahal really is beautiful. The courtyard, gates, mosque and guesthouse were all a deep red color with white trim and great detail in both red and white flower designs. There were gardens with flowers healthy-looking flowers despite the heat, and still-water pools that led to the Taj Mahal. We had to walk through the north tower to see the building, and it was like a giant, awesome surprise as we headed through the archway. Our guide – who ushered us along by yelling out random names and instructing “this way!” – forced us to take some group pictures, and we each got one of those depth-perception shots that makes it seem like we’re picking up the building. He told us the love story of a King who had many wives but really love only one – a wife who died young after producing a ridiculous number of children. He built (or forced 20,000 slaves to build) a magnanimous building as her tomb. The building was impressive from far away, but I was more interested in the detail. Its white marble is covered with inlaid patterns of gemstones. The exterior had carved flowers and small arches all over the walls. Everything was covered with intentional patterns.