Christmas at the Taj Mahal

Trip Start Dec 05, 2004

Trip End Jan 17, 2005

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Flag of India Agra, India
Saturday, December 25, 2004

On Christmas Day, we got a jeep up the road to Fatehpur Sikri. Built in the late 16th century, predominantly in Red Sandstone this town was built by the Mughal Emperor, Akbar. He had planned this city as his capital but shortage of water compelled him to abandon the city. After this within 20 years, the capital of Mughals was shifted to Lahore. It's like a ghost town with amazing Mughal architecture blended with Hindu and Muslim design, including a school, theatre, harem quarters and bathing area. Braving the touts selling every conceivable item, we crossed over the road past a stinky rubbish dump (where goats were grazing) to one of the largest mosques in India with a massive courtyard. On the way down to the small town, where we had a great thali, I joked with a few of the children who were trying to get a "coin from your country" off us - I asked them to give me 500 rupees (about 6 pounds) in return - they gradually realised that the joke was on them and had a giggle! I've subsequently been using my reverse selling technique on every one that bothers me - it works a treat

Fatekpur Sikri

!

A short trip down the road and we reached noisy, polluted and crazy Agra, home to the world famous Taj Mahal. After settling into our hotel (which had a revolving roof restaurant - so everyone could see the Taj in the distance), we made our way down to the Taj Mahal in electric powered rickshaws as the authorities are trying to keep petrol vehicles away from the site. Being Christmas day the place was even more packed than usual, as many Indians had a day's holiday. There was a lot of anticipation on stepping through the arched gate to get our first view of such a familiar monument and it is quite breathtaking, especially from a distance. Made totally of marble, the cream/off-white domed building is surrounded by landscaped gardens, orange sandstone arched mosques on both sides and water channels running up to the Taj This was Shah Jahan's monument and Mausoleum for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. It took 22 years to complete in 1653 and 20,000 workers, costing 41 million rupees and using 500 kilos of gold. Walking around the vast marble surround in barefeet (hot in the sun and very cold underfoot in the shade), the calligraphic panels, marble screens, recessed arches and inlaid marble, were certainly breathtaking. I slipped in the back entrance and avoided queuing to see the false tomb flanked by jewel encrusted inlay designs

Goat in coat at Mosque

. Just watching the many thousands of Indians visiting their beloved Taj was fascinating, people of all religions wearing all sorts of different attire. The white of the Taj offset by the multitude of coloured saris and turbans. We watched a big group of monkeys jumping around the lawns (one was a bit randy!) at sunset. As we were getting ready to leave we bumped into an Irish guy we'd met the previous week in Jaislamer - small world! We invited him to come out for Xmas dinner with us (well a curry one anyway!).

The next day, we got cycle rickshaws down the hectic bumpy streets of Agra - a good 45 minutes ride. We visited the Baby Taj (I'timad-ud-Daulah), built before the Taj Mahal by the quieen of Jehangir for her parents. It was the first Mughal building to be faced with white marble and have precious stones inlaid into the marble. Our next stop was the Jami Masjid, the mosque built by Shah Jahan's daughter and finally we went to the Red Fort where three Mughal emperors (Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jahan) all added their own buildings. Shah Jahan (builder of Taj Mahal) was imprisoned here by his son who took over the throne, because he wanted to stop his father spending so much money on the mausoleums (Jahan had planned to build a black Taj Mahal on the opposite river bank to the white one). He died on the balcony overlooking his beloved wife's resting place (Taj).

Me and Michelle at Taj

I had some free time with my rickshaw but unfortunately my driver couldn't speak a word of English (not even understanding "Internet") so I went back to the hotel. On arriving back I found the others watching TV and they told me about the tragic news of the Tsunami. We watched horrified and at the same time Michelle and I were trying to work out what to do as the next day she was due to fly to Sri Lanka (which of course was impossible) and I was due to fly to Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Deciding to wait until the next day to see how things had developed, we made our way to the extremely busy train station and after a 2 hour delay (a mere nothing by Indian standards) we boarded the train to Dehli in A/C chair class - quite comfortable really - arriving at our hotel in the early hours of the morning. Michelle and I then spent a further hour watching the terrible developments of the earthquake unfolding on TV.